Incredible Hulks #616; Ant-Man & the Wasp #1

[stolisomancer]

I have absolutely no idea what's going on with Tim Seeley's Hack/Slash anymore. First it went off on this really long, weird story about Golden Age superhero sidekicks which lasted for approximately fifty years without stopping, then the ongoing stopped coming out, then there were a bunch of limited series and one-shots, and now it's relaunching at Image. I don't get it. (This kind of thing is why I never got into Grendel.)

That aside, Seeley is apparently doing a bunch of work for Marvel now, some of which came out this week. He wrote a short in the back of this week's Incredible Hulks, and wrote and penciled the first issue of the Hank Pym & Eric O'Grady buddy comedy Ant-Man & The Wasp.


The first couple of pages from Ant-Man & Wasp entertain me on a sort of meta-level. Hank is filming a public service announcement.





"Hi, I'm Hank Pym. One time about thirty years ago, I was going insane and I slapped my wife. Since then, I've been through eighteen different superheroic identities, led two different teams of Avengers, saved the world six or eight times, died twice, came back to life twice, resurrected my wife, banged a robot, and prevented the alien takeover of Earth.

"Please, if you would be so kind, shut the fuck up about me hitting Jan."

---

Meanwhile, over in Incredible Hulks, Bruce and Jen have spotted a disturbance out in the middle of the desert. The Armadillo's in a fight with a bunch of dorks on ATVs, who're apparently some kind of thrill-seeking vigilantes. While Bruce fights the Armadillo, Jen goes off to figure out what's going on.

The pencils are by noted girlie pin-up artist Al Rio, who's really expanded his portfolio. He started off as sort of a J. Scott Campbell clone, but he's gotten some Bryan Hitch influences and the storytelling here is much cleaner than some of his other work I've seen. It's nice to see he's improving.

Comments

[icon_uk]

Hi, I'm Hank Pym, you may be distracted from whatever it is I'm saying for the next several panels by my absolutely enormous goggles.

Seriously, what was a I thinking, these things are frigging ENORMOUS, I could probably fit an entire hand inside each lens. Lady Gaga wouldn't wear these on a bet.

When I pull these down I must look like Azmuth from Ben 10.

Oh yeah, and something about the dead horse flogging which is the constant harping back to an isolated incident which was utterly reprehensible, but not the estabishing a pattern of domestic violence which many writers keen for some easy angst seem to think it was... But whatever it is I'm saying, believe it, would these goggles lie to you?"

[psychopathicus_rex]

Actually, big goggles would probably be more practical than smaller ones in his line of work, as they'd allow for a wider range of vision.

[icon_uk]

Not really, as his goggles have opaque sides and extend forward beyond the front of his face, they're not like aviator goggles.The ones here would actively serve as blinkers more than anything else,

[psychopathicus_rex]

In most of these panels, yes, but if you take a look at panel two, which is a side-view, you will observe that the frames of his goggles go further back, with the lenses being much more wrap-around. I imagine that this is how the goggles are SUPPOSED to be, with the others being an artistic error based on a cool look.

[icon_uk]

Yes, yes, grind the joke into the ground why don't you... I know what the goggles are supposed to look like, but in this page they just don't.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Uh... sorry? I didn't realize you were making a joke.

[grazzt]

Don't forget, he's an insect themed hero. The goggles need to be big so he can look bug eyed.

[icon_uk]

Oh indeed, I know the reason, it's just they're never usally shown being THAT big.

[thanekos]

" These googles might me blind/and sometimes I've lost my mind/but yes and no, would they lie to you?"

[jarodrussell]

...

Now I can't stop trying to imagine Hamk Pym/Azmuth slash where they alternate shrinking and growing each other for sex.

DAMMIT!

[icon_uk]

Oooo-kaaaayyy.. not quite what I had in mind... different from the usual Ben/Kevin/Albedo slash variations. Besides Azmuth only has eyes for Professor Paradox...

[dorksidefiker]

Besides Azmuth only has eyes for Professor Paradox...

As made incredibly apparent by Friday's episode.

[stolisomancer]

Remember, kids, sharing is not always caring.