I'm not the type to just smack down somebody's best efforts, but I've been buying Ms. Marvel for damn close to a year, waiting patiently for something to happen in the comic. I suppose that at some point in the last few months, my sense of futility finally came to the fore. Ms. Marvel is lost in the dark, and there's no light at the end of the tunnel.

How is it possible to screw up with such a strong premise? The character is a busty blond superhuman who was placed in probably the best sweet spot in the history of Marvel comics at the close of "House of M". She knows that she has the ability to be the premiere superhero on Earth, if she can just get out of her own way. Yet the comic is a stagnant piece of shit. Seriously: here's an interesting character who the fan boys love, with a great set-up, and yet a year in the writer, Brian Reed, has yet to advance the storyline in any substantive way. He's done two tedious parallel universe story arcs and a tired alien invasion story.

Marvel should can this guy and find somebody who can write a storyline without having the outline handed to him by Brian Bendis.
 

I stopped reading Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon about 18 months ago for a few reasons:

• The storyline had become so convoluted that even Larsen's efforts to simplify it made no sense.
• Dragon's wife Jennifer Murphy lost her super-powers and went from being pretty much the strongest person in the world to a WiR.
• Larsen contracted a bad case of BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome) and for about a year turned the storyline over to incoherent paranoid ranting about Diebold voting machines.

Basically, it started to suck really bad. But I picked up the most recent, #131, because the issue is chock full of sexy amazons.

The blue bad girl on the cover is Battleaxe, but the good girls include She-Dragon and Alex Wilde (using the strength-amplifying power gloves), and in this issue it's revealed that Jennifer's daughter Angel has inherited her powers and now has serious super-strength. Battleaxe and She-Dragon are both drawn with muscular builds.
 

I made a new list of comics featuring strong women. You can check it out at the Amaz0ns store.
 

Following up on Wednesday's post on DC Comics' Manhunter #26, I went over and looked at the Art Adams gallery at the {mosbookmarks:bm=185}. I'm a long time fan of Adams - the X-Men and New Mutants annuals that he did back in the mid-80s were revelations to me about what was possible with comic art. Also, his handling of She-Hulk in his Longshot series may have been the first time She-Hulk was portrayed as genuinely sexy, as opposed to scary-sexy. Some of my favorites include:

• The cover of Action Comics #817, which is thumbnailed at right.
• This Monkeyman & O'Brien drawing as well as this character detail.
• A cover from Worldstorm #1.
• The cover of Wildguard: Casting Call.
• Various parallel universe iterations of Tesla Strong.
• This alternate cover of an old Wildcats issue.

The problem with Art Adams is that he's slow - he puts so much detail into his work that it takes forever for him to complete it. However, his fondness for buff chicks, transformation, Japanese monster movies and monkeys makes him a natural favorite for Amaz0ns readers.

Also, while you're at {mosbookmarks:bm=185}, make sure to check out the auctions section. Spend some money there and make the site operator happy. If you use a newsreader, you might also be interested in the new images feed from the site, as well - very cool stuff.
 

I wrote about this comic two months back - Manhunter #26 is now available at your local comics specialty retailer. It features, as indicated by the image at right, both Wonder Woman and Manhunter. Adding to the spice, the cover is drawn by the wonderful Art Adams and features Wonder Woman in particular looking quite stunning. The title is in trouble and so it would be really nice if Amaz0ns readers could go out, buy a copy, and then remark within hearing of the store owner about how tremendously they're looking forward to reading it.

Also out this week is Supergirl #12, which is cute and has some genuinely classic comic art within. (Pencils by Amanda Conner.)
 

I'm really looking forward to the cover of Birds of Prey #103, due out in February. It was drawn and colored by Stéphane Roux of {mosbookmarks:bm=246}, and depicts the recently-introduced teenaged Batgirl character apparently provoking Big Barda. A worried-looking Huntress attempts to separate the two.