![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakLots of little reviews here. It's a busy weekend:
Mad Woman in the Attic is not as good as Lidster's contribution last season, Mark of the Berserker, or his Torchwood episode, A Day in the Death, and suffers from the problem that the central premise is something more likely to have happened last year, when Rani was still new to the gang, but it offered several things I enjoyed very much - the Clyde and Sarah Jane interaction continues to be amusing and endearing, Luke, bless him, corrects the wrong use of "Frankenstein" that is one of my pet irritations - i.e. Frankenstein is the name of the creator, not of the creature, the alien of the weak isfrom Krypton actually friendly, just not able to control her powers yet, and a refuge from the Time War fallout to boot, and we get a montage designed to make this fan go week in the knees. Awwww, baby Sarah Jane and Three. Awwww, Sarah Jane and Four. Yayyyyyy, Sarah Jane and Ten next week. (Also I feel childishly happy Three 'n Sarah got two scenes and Four and Sarah one in the montage. The Four scene was still very touching, I freely admit.) I'll probably go and rewatch School Reunion now, as Sarah Jane is my one exception to my "I don't ship Companions with the Doctor romantically" rule - but only once she's not travelling with him anymore. In the Three and Four days there would have been a power imbalance that's not there (for me, at any rate) anymore now that she's queen of her own domain. Also Lis Sladen has great chemistry with David Tennant and he radiates adoration whenever they let him near her.
Meanwhile, in the Marvelverse: the World's Most Wanted storyline draws to a close, and Norman Osborn gets beautifully pwned several times. I loved this issue in every detail, including Rosencranz & Guildenstern, the former SHIELD guys who were shown to have scruples last issue; one of them, Walsh, here valiantly misleads Osborn for a while. Victoria Hand, Norman's sidekick, starts to gain a personality and with it the awareness she's working for an instable killer, though whether this will make any difference to her miniondom remains to be seen. The three women - Pepper, Maria Hill and Natasha Romanova - rock in their prickly interaction, and I love, love, love, that Maria Hill is able to get through to the ex-SHIELD guys with a line the delicious irony of which one can only appreciate when following the Marvelverse for the last three years: "Whose side are you on?" J.A.R.V.I.S., shamelessly imported by Fraction from the movieverse, gets to rock as well with his use of the media. And Norman, you've been a supervillain long enough to know that yelling STAAAAAAARK never gets anyone anywhere.
Obviously Tony's memories are on the drive - I figured out that one long ago - but what really surprised me and made me squee once I had googled the name to confirm my dim memory of that bit of Marvelverse lore was "Dr. Donald Blake". Looks like we'll finally get that Thor/Iron Man reconciliation next issue (at the very least they'll talk), and Tony having appointed him as the guy who gets to decide whether or not to pull the plug is a gesture either self destructive or shamelessly manipulative or both; I totally didn't see it coming, and yet it completely fits.
I had intended to wait with reading more of Warren Ellis' AXM run until there are enough issues for a trade collection because one part of my problem with Ghost Box was that the individual issues didn't give me enough. But then I was told my beloved Agent Brand shows up again, so I gave in to temptation. The start of Ellis' next arc is basically one long and very entertaining action sequence in which Brand, after barely escaping with her life from a mission, is rescued by the X-Men from her burning escape pod. (Well, they owe her!) Along the way we learn that Hank has a Skywalker Ranch tea mug (bless! of course he does), that Scott still insists on calling him "Henry" although he doesn't do that in any other Marvel title, and that Emma sees another dead student of hers walking around (remember the last time this happened?). Also the art is better than for Ghost Box, and Emma has warmed up enough to Brand to call her "Abigail" though Brand still calls her "Frost". Basically this is an enjoyable enough beginning, and both Brand making sure everyone of her SWORD team escapes before her and Hank later racing to her rescue while downplaying his concern verbally were lovely to read, but I remain cautious; the first issue of Ghost Box was good on its own, too, but later ones, well.
Mad Woman in the Attic is not as good as Lidster's contribution last season, Mark of the Berserker, or his Torchwood episode, A Day in the Death, and suffers from the problem that the central premise is something more likely to have happened last year, when Rani was still new to the gang, but it offered several things I enjoyed very much - the Clyde and Sarah Jane interaction continues to be amusing and endearing, Luke, bless him, corrects the wrong use of "Frankenstein" that is one of my pet irritations - i.e. Frankenstein is the name of the creator, not of the creature, the alien of the weak is
Meanwhile, in the Marvelverse: the World's Most Wanted storyline draws to a close, and Norman Osborn gets beautifully pwned several times. I loved this issue in every detail, including Rosencranz & Guildenstern, the former SHIELD guys who were shown to have scruples last issue; one of them, Walsh, here valiantly misleads Osborn for a while. Victoria Hand, Norman's sidekick, starts to gain a personality and with it the awareness she's working for an instable killer, though whether this will make any difference to her miniondom remains to be seen. The three women - Pepper, Maria Hill and Natasha Romanova - rock in their prickly interaction, and I love, love, love, that Maria Hill is able to get through to the ex-SHIELD guys with a line the delicious irony of which one can only appreciate when following the Marvelverse for the last three years: "Whose side are you on?" J.A.R.V.I.S., shamelessly imported by Fraction from the movieverse, gets to rock as well with his use of the media. And Norman, you've been a supervillain long enough to know that yelling STAAAAAAARK never gets anyone anywhere.
Obviously Tony's memories are on the drive - I figured out that one long ago - but what really surprised me and made me squee once I had googled the name to confirm my dim memory of that bit of Marvelverse lore was "Dr. Donald Blake". Looks like we'll finally get that Thor/Iron Man reconciliation next issue (at the very least they'll talk), and Tony having appointed him as the guy who gets to decide whether or not to pull the plug is a gesture either self destructive or shamelessly manipulative or both; I totally didn't see it coming, and yet it completely fits.
I had intended to wait with reading more of Warren Ellis' AXM run until there are enough issues for a trade collection because one part of my problem with Ghost Box was that the individual issues didn't give me enough. But then I was told my beloved Agent Brand shows up again, so I gave in to temptation. The start of Ellis' next arc is basically one long and very entertaining action sequence in which Brand, after barely escaping with her life from a mission, is rescued by the X-Men from her burning escape pod. (Well, they owe her!) Along the way we learn that Hank has a Skywalker Ranch tea mug (bless! of course he does), that Scott still insists on calling him "Henry" although he doesn't do that in any other Marvel title, and that Emma sees another dead student of hers walking around (remember the last time this happened?). Also the art is better than for Ghost Box, and Emma has warmed up enough to Brand to call her "Abigail" though Brand still calls her "Frost". Basically this is an enjoyable enough beginning, and both Brand making sure everyone of her SWORD team escapes before her and Hank later racing to her rescue while downplaying his concern verbally were lovely to read, but I remain cautious; the first issue of Ghost Box was good on its own, too, but later ones, well.
