#especially one as goofy as tales of arise

[konfizry]

Murus Flegit Porridge

or, as the game likes to shorten it when you first learn the recipe, 

or おかゆ・ムルス・フレジト in Japanese, is the recipe you obtain once Shionne has learned to use the Tales of secret ingredient: Love.

This enhanced rice porridge is also a nod to the very first --criminally bland-- dish she prepared for Alphen, as they were still reluctant companions kept firmly apart by an invisible, but nevertheless high and prickly, wall.

And Murus Flegit sounds *quite* Latin right? As do several pieces of equipment (and probably other things I’m forgetting) in the game. Murus simply means ‘wall’, but “flegit” doesn’t yield any results as far as I’m aware. Now fregit, however, is the third-person singular perfect active indicative form of frangō, (thanks, wikipedia) which means ‘to break’.  

So if you change the romanization to Murus Fregit, you get something which seems directly translatable from Latin.  The wall has shattered. 

[sonicasura]

The most chaotic and funniest thought just hit me.

Mario and Tales of Arcadia could exist in the same universe.

Let me explain. The Super Mario franchise had their own cartoon in the 90s called the Super Mario Brothers Super Show. In it, the brothers can travel between Brooklyn and the Mushroom Kingdom via a green warp pipe located somewhere in the sewer systems.

Basically no one else knew about this pipe nor the hidden universe(I'll call the Mario World we know as the Hidden World from this point afterwards) except the Mario Brothers. Then you also consider there is more than one warp pipe. And thus this glorious idea.

For setup, the Hidden World could be considered the Promised Land to all Trollkind. A realm where sunlight nor lack of being near a Heartstone DOESN'T turn them to stone and bears many treasures of peculiar power but also a potential second home should their realm fall apart i.e what will become the Darklands.

Some trolls left to seek out the Hidden World but never came back. There had been only one account of someone finding the mythical 'Green Channel' that leads there. However the troll discoverer in question was branded as a liar and label an outcast. This explorer writes a journal of his experiences before eventually disappearing. 'Beginner's Guide To The Hidden World' was the only thing left as no one knew the writer's fate.

A book of a madman's ramblings and gone unfound inside Arcadia's Trollmarket until the first human Trollhunter been made. You don't expect Jim or Toby to not look through the books in Blinky's library especially if a problem arises. It bonks the poor Trollhunter on the head and our favorite book troll practically flips out once he sees the guide.

Whether the major plot point is such as Battle of Two Bridges, find Gunmar's weakness or handle Angor Rot, it doesn't take much convincing to look into this Hidden World. Now since sewers weren't prevalent in the middle ages, no Troll thought the 'Green Channel' could be a giant sewer pipe. Modern human thinking leads to Team Trollhunters rediscovering the Hidden World and it's unique flavor of insanity.

(Jim seriously needs a huge break from being the universe's drama dump. Why not throw a very long overdue albeit super goofy bone? Plus I know some of you guys want to see Draal put on a Cat Bell, Jim in a Tanuki Suit and Toby in a Penguin Suit.)

Now for some worldbuilding!

Trolls born in the Hidden World have natural immunity to sunlight. An occurrence that is half adaptation and half magic revelant. They can also survive without the presence of a Heartstone but are unable to use powers up unless they return or have a special item.

It takes four hits to make a Hidden World troll lose their active power up, two for Changelings and three for a normal troll. Although those who possess the Amulet of Daylight, like Jim, can take four hits no matter the species. They have a major kingdom located somewhere near the Seaside Kingdom known as Stoneheart and are neutral territory. Koopa Troopas are considered rivals specifically the royal ones like Bowser.

Trolls came up with 'Action Filming', a maybe Mario canon(my memory is rusty) where the games/series is a play while the characters are actors and friends offscreen. You know they would make a concept like that as they're still a warrior based race.

Quite friendly to outsiders and visitors, a good chunk of Hidden World trolls are travelling freelancers in their own expertise. The most common are traders, bodyguards, to of course any occupation that revolves around geology or architecture. Gunmar is considered the Hidden World Trolls' Boogeyman, a story to teach young whelps to behave.

If proven real then Jim definitely has an army willing to help him out as major threats are taken quite seriously in the Hidden World. I can say that Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga, Partners in Time, and Bowser's Inside Story are the only games mostly based on true events. You can't expect three major incidents that affected three different kingdoms, ESPECIALLY their royalty, weren't taken seriously nor have a huge impact on everyone else.

Hidden World Trolls rarely eat cats or any other pet considered animals. I think the reason why they limit themselves in canon is because a missing cat ain't gonna draw major attention unlike cattle and other farm animals. Although I bet a grocery store that accepts or can keep trolls' existence a secret would be a godsend. But yeah, their food options aren't limited in the Hidden World.

Finally for the last bit, there have been some unique adaptations that tend to crop up with Hidden World Trolls. These can range power up based ones such as species with Penguin Suit or Fire Flower traits, environmental like those raised in Lake Lapcat have feline characteristics, to seemingly random ones like shapeshifting. Yep. A natural born Changeling who doesn't need a familiar to transform is a possibility.

That's it for now! Until next time folks, I'll see you at the warp pipe between Arcadia and the Mushroom Kingdom!

[megareviews]

Spring 2019 First Impressions

The Spring list is late as usual (is it usual if it’s only the second instance?), but at least I’m closer to the beginning than last year. I’ve reached 50% completion on the doing this for an entire year consistently, so nice.

Aikatsu Friends!: Kagayaki no Jewel (Aikatsu Friends!: Jewel of Radiance): Aikatsu is relatively low on my priority list of magical girl megaseries.

Bakugan Battle Planet: This show actually premiered last semester, but in English, and this season is when the Japanese dub started. Either way it’s somewhere deep in the Bakugan series, which is based off of what are probably my least played children’s toys.

BAKUMATSU Crisis: Second season of an otome game adaption that looked okay when I started it, but I still haven’t watched past the first episode.

Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai (Bokuben / We Never Learn): The main show that I know the source material of, and it is just about meeting my expectations. An average guy who has to study rigorously to maintain his average grades is put in charge of tutoring the two smartest people in his school. This might not make sense until it’s explained that he has to tutor them in their worst subjects, because those subjects are the ones they want to major in for college. It’s a nice theme of working hard for what you enjoy situated in a rom-com with some haremy aspects and an unusually high density of goofy faces, so watch it if you like those aspects.

Bungou Stray Dogs 3: I still need to see what they did with HP Lovecraft in season 2

Carole & Tuesday: What happens when a runaway rich girl and a poor orphan girl meet up on Mars? They form a band of course. A tale of two lonely souls finding each other and become a little less lonely in a big world, making music together. It looks great and it sounds amazing, so this is definitely a priority watch.

Chou Kadou Girl 1/6 (Amazing Stranger): Imagine Buzz Lightyear from the original Toy Story except in a 20 -something guy’s house and then failing the don’t move when humans are around rule almost immediately. That’s what this show is.

Cinderella Girls Gekijou CLIMAX SEASON (Cinderella Girls Theater CLIMAX SEASON): For somebody who doesn’t watch idol shows, the theater shorts are pretty fun, though I’m not nearly caught up in this one to say how this season is going.

Diamond no Ace Act II: Oh boy there’s so much baseball this season and a lot of it is sequels.

Fairy Gone: There’s a lot of things going on in this show but I think I can simplify it to military use of fairies to give soldiers super powers. The protagonist has been taking jobs as a mercenary to find her sister who was split from her after their village was burnt down. Then at an auction that she works as a guard, things start going wrong and the thief who appears is none other than that sister. The first episode ends with the end of a three way fight between security and the girls, so I’m not sure where the show’s going at all. Maybe if the show didn’t flash back to the protagonist’s village burning down three times, there would be a little more time to give direction.

Fruits Basket (2019): I never know how to deal with reboots for shows that I can remember, but haven’t seen the original. I know there’s people who turn into animals and a “do the carpets match the drapes” joke, and that’s about it from the 2001 anime.

Gunjou no Magmel (Magmel of the Blue Sea): After a new continent appears in the world, explorers flock to it, not always as prepared as they should be for venturing into the unknown. The main character works at a company to rescue explorers from mishaps along with a few others. The worldbuilding is interesting and the main character’s black lightning is pretty cool looking, but his attitude and decision making abilities kinda put me off for now. That and the comprehensibility of the subtitles I was watching fell off a cliff halfway through the episode.

Hachigatsu no Cinderella Nine (Cinderella Nine in August): So far it looks like a pretty standard club building show based around women’s baseball. It looks nice and we have 4 club members as of the first episode, so they should make it to at least full team of nine pretty quickly. It looks nice outside of an odd montage near the end of the episode when the club plays a game with some local kids, and the character designs are a bit more memorable than the usual baseball cast. I appreciate the fact that they’re playing hardball, but I’m not the type of person to watch anything sports ever.

Hangyaku-sei Million Arthur 2 (Operation Han-Gyaku-Sei Million Arthur): All I know about this show is that there’s a bunch of characters named Arthur and that it’s a sequel.

Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu (Hitori Bocchi's ○○ Lifestyle): When one of the most socially anxious kids in elementary school gets separated by her only friend when they go to different middle schools, her friend gives her a quest: to become friends with everybody in her new class. She’s got a real go-getter attitude, but from feeling physical pain from trying to talk to a stranger to fainting when somebody actually responds to her, she’s got a rough path ahead of her. It’s a really fun show that gets you rooting for the main character in her attempts of communicating with others in a normal manner.

Isekai Quartet: Four of the biggest isekai series in one short mash-up is a recipe for confusion. Especially since they’re all put together in a school setting where no fighting is allowed, even if there are holy gods and undead abominations in the same class. Anything can happen with all these people taken from their original normal lives, tossed into various fantasy worlds, and then slam dunked back into a relatively normal setting.

Jimoto ga Japan (I’m From Japan): I cannot find a trace of the anime anywhere online and I am glad of this having read the manga. It is just a really dumb comedy about Japanese prefectures that I struggled to read a few chapters of before giving up.

Joushikausei: A silent anime, as in there’s no spoken words, about a few high school girls. It’s an interesting concept, but I found it a bit uncomfortable to watch, mostly due to the whimpering and other nonverbal noises the girls were making.

Kedama no Gonjirou (Gonjiro the Yarn Ball): A children’s show that hasn’t been licensed and no group is fansubbing it, how unusual… It actually looks interesting though so I might search for the raws to check it out.

Kenja no Mago (The Magi’s Grandson): A child raised by a powerful wizard in the country reaches an age where he can move out to the city and attend a magical high school. Unfortunately for him, his parental figures only taught him combat and magic, so he doesn’t really know how to sustain himself in the reals world. It is a decent concept but there’s a 50/50 chance of any scene looking nice or looking awful, and the scene transitions all look like they were made in Powerpoint.

Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slaying Blade): A happy family of coal sellers is destroyed in a night when a demon strikes. The eldest son was out due to a combination of work and a blizzard, and when he returns he finds all but one of his family members completely cold and covered in blood. This last member is rushed down the mountainside for medical aid, only to turn into a demon on the way down. A meeting with a demon slayer turns tricky as he tries to protect his demonized sister who’s fighting between killing instincts and her love of her brother. The opening promises some beautiful animations and the overall show isn’t slacking either, so overall it’s a very promising show.

KING OF PRISM -Shiny Seven Stars-: It’s the TV version of a boy band movie tetralogy which is also a sequel I think?

Kiratto Pri☆chan Season 2: A sequel to a idol anime that I reviewed last year. I think this is one of the first times a sequel has shown up that I also reviewed the first season of, though unfortunately it was for  a show that I didn’t watch fully.

Kono Oto Tomare! (Stop this Sound!): One more club building show for this season, this one about a Japanese instrument called a koto. After all the upperclassmen of the club graduated in the previous year, only the main character is left in the club, and needs more members before the club gets closed, the usual. The first new member is a seemingly delinquent 1st year who is surprisingly diligent. There wasn’t too much interesting or unique other than the topic of the club, so music fans might find this more watchable than I.

Kono Yo no Hate de Koi wo Utau Shoujo YU-NO (YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World): The first episode for this kind of front-loaded introducing characters and pulled out its premise of parallel dimensions and a device to navigate them towards the end, which means I’d probably have to watch another episode to figure out how I feel about it. It’s nice to not have a giant exposition dump take up the first episode of a show, especially since it will have two cours to tell a story, but I didn’t feel any particular gravitation towards the characters by this point, so I won’t be prioritizing any follow-up on it.

Mayonaka no Occult Koumuin (Midnight Occult Civil Servants): With a job at a place called the Nocturnal Community Relations Division, the first thought of the type of people dealt with is most likely not going to be fairies. Our main character is taken from a world of the ordinary to being able to see and talk to the supernatural creatures that live locally, called Anothers. His co-workers are equipped with magically enchanted police tape and other trinkets to help solve issues that occasionally arise between Anothers. I like the modern fantasy setting, and the fairly low level fights with the supernatural so far, so there’s promise in where the show goes.

Midara na Ao-chan wa Benkyou ga Dekinai (Ao Can’t Study): While the name Ao is usually blue, or sometimes even moth, in this case, it stands for Adult Only, the 18+ rating in Japan. This is due to her father’s profession, an erotic writer, and surprisingly, the main character hates her father for naming her that and spends her entire life studying to get into a college far enough away from him. This is thwarted by a guy confessing to her and filling her mind with romance and lewder thoughts, with the help of her father. I hate this as a concept and don’t watch this.

Mix: A semi-sequel baseball anime. I say semi, because from what I’ve gathered it is recommended but not necessary to watch the original first.

Nande Koko ni Sensei ga!? (Why is my Teacher Here!?): It’s about a male student and his teacher, ending up in awkward situations together, like being trapped together in a men’s bathroom stall. A show of pure fanservice through and through, so there’s not much else to say.

Namu Amida Butsu!: Rendai Utena: What started out as an action about cleansing impurities from the world gives us a quick bait ‘n switch to a slice of life about gods bumbling about in the human world attempting to be competent humans. I found it irritating to watch, and it was very clearly based off of a gacha game, which do not have a good track record of making good shows.

Nobunaga-sensei no Osanazuma (Nobunaga’s Young Bride): A modern age middle school teacher way down the ancestral tree of Oda Nobunaga meets the bride of the man himself, who traveled to the present from the day of the original Nobunaga’s death. She’s no older than when she left her original time, which leaves her at 14 years old, with no knowledge of modern day Japan so she’s stuck with the main character’s family and decides to be the new Nobunaga’s bride anyways, which… is weird.

One Punch Man 2: A big sequel of the season, and one where people have been waiting with wary anticipation due to the change in animation studio and director. It definitely looks a lot stiffer than the first season, for action and non-fight scenes, but the story is a bit more interesting in my opinion, as the show starts working on fleshing out other heroes and why they fight.

RobiHachi: the first episode of this really is a springboard for setting up what the plot and cast will be, just about starting right at the very end.  We’ve got an ultra gullible man in debt, a genius teen with no sense of purpose, a robot rabbit helper, and their spaceship that blares its own theme song when it transforms into a mech. They set off to find a legendary planet that grants happiness after a couple of hijinks on their starting planet. It’s a very busy show, both visually and plot wise, but still an enjoyable experience if you can keep up.

Sarazanmai: 50% connecting with other people through oversharing with them, 50% kappas stealing souls from other people’s butts. It’s hard to describe the show but I’m having a good time, and the art is gorgeous, and special care is taken with little details in the show. I’d say watch the first episode definitely, and then decide whether or not to follow up on the rest of the show.

Senryuu Shoujo (Senryuu Girl): The focus of the show is on the Japanese poetry type of Senryuu, mostly because the main character can only communicate with others through writing these poems. Thankfully, she’s got some good friends and is in her school’s Literature Club, so she has plenty of practice and is around people who appreciate her work.

Sewayaki Kitsune no Senko-san (Meddlesome Fox Senko): The fox gods of the world have a duty to protect humans, and are becoming more proactive in seeking out humans with negative emotions before those emotions go out of control. In comes the male lead of the show, an overworked businessman who has basically just been going through the motions of life by this point. One of the fox gods appears in his house, doing the cooking, cleaning, and other tasks to help relieve the main guy’s stress. It’s comfy and there’s some funny moments, but I feel like the show would be better off as a more episodic show featuring various humans rather than just the one that it looks like the show will focus on. I’m also worried about the romance genre tag that the show has.

Shingeki no Kyojin 3 Part 2 (Attack on Titan 3 Part 2): I’m still on episode 5 of the original series, with no particular motivation to make it any further. More people die in bloody explosions probably.

Shoumetsu Toshi (Lost City): As the title of the show would imply there is a city that has been lost to humanity, as in, it just disappeared one day. The main female character is the only one who survived the city disappearing, and is targeted by a mysterious group due to that, and she tries to return to where the lost city used to be due to a message by her father who went missing with the city. In addition there was a monk with super powers who was standing on a motorcycle’s handlebars facing off against the main girl who could summon her Lost bodyguard with a bunch of guns but that was kinda just thrown in at the end.

Strike Witches 501 Butai Hasshin Shimasu! (Strike Witches 501st Join Fighter Wing Takes Off!): Oh god it’s been so long since I’ve consumed Strike Witches content. This is a slice of life spin off of the original series, so the context is recommended, but not necessary. The animation is also very much on the rough side for a ten minute long short. 

Yatogame-chan Kansatsu Nikki (Yatogame’s Observation Diary): After briefly being disappointed in the lack of heavy Nagoya dialects encountered in Nagoya, the main character runs into a classmate who happens to have one. In addition, all of her favorite foods and animals are popular or famous in Nagoya, so he sticks around with her for meeting his ideals of what a Nagoyan should be. They then travel the city as part of the photography club to see all the sights of the city.

Youkai Watch!: Despite what it looks like from the title, this is pretty deep in a line of sequels of Youkai Watch.

[inhumansforever]

Ms. Marvel #31 Review

spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers

It the fiftieth issue of Ms. Marvel (50th when you combine the two series together) and what better way to celebrate such an achievement than to have a good old fashioned slumber party!  If only the various duties and demands of being a superhero could allow for a such a thing.  A bunch of impromptu adventures and ordeals notwithstanding, Kamala and her buddies end up having a pretty great night.  All from the creative team of… deep breath… G. Willow Wilson, Nico Leon, Ian Herring, Saladin Ahmed,  Gustavo Durate, Rainbow Rowell, Bob Quinn, Hasan Minhaj, Elmo Bondoc, Valero Schiti, Rachelle Rosenberg and Stephanie Hans.  Recap and review following the jump.

Kamala has been campaigning her mother for weeks to allow her to have her friends over for a slumber party.  The whole idea of a sleep-over is rather perplexing to Mrs. Khan, but she has finally agreed and Kamal could not be more excited.  Everything is ready.  There’s popcorn, chips, chi, the idea game system is ready to go and pizza is on the way… Kamala has even set her room up with strings of Christmas tree lights to set the perfect mood.  

Her friends, Nakia, Mike and Zoe arrive and they jump right into the gossip and giggling.  Along with having fun, Kamala is also hoping her pals can help her work her confused and anxious feelings over having kissed Kareem and her possibly still having feelings for Bruno.  

Mike is surprisingly chill with the fact that Kamala may have a crush on her former boyfriend, Bruno.  Nakia is concerned that Kamala has done something so brash as to kiss a boy.  Oh yeah, and Zoe recently went out on a date (most likely with Alana, Neftali’s sister introduced int he previous issue).  Yet before they can get into any of this important stuff the conversation is interrupted by a strange barking from outside.  

Well, Kamala knows exactly what sort of creature makes that distinctive bark and she furtively sneaks into her Ms. Marvel guise to see what sort of mischief Lockjaw has gotten himself into.  

Here Willow and Leon hand the story-telling duties over to Ahmed and Durate for a fun jaunt in which Ms, M and Lockjaw try to rescue a kitten who has teleporting powers of his own.  Chasing this cat takes the trio all over the galaxy, even to an alien planet... yet it isn’t long before Ms. Marvel realizes that Lockjaw and the kitten are just having fun chasing each other.  She has no time for such games, she has a slumber party to get back to.  

Ms. Marvel leaves Lockjaw and teleporting kitty to their fun and returns home to find her mom making samosas for her guests.  Mmmm samosa.  Yet before Kamala can join in the doorbell rings, the pizzas have arrived.   Here the story is taken over by Rowell and Quinn.  The young woman delivering the pizzas is a rather irascible sort who becomes aggressively resentful when she finds that she is delivering pies to a slumber party.  Oh, and she smells terrible… like supernaturally bad.  

Once again donning her Ms. Marvel duds, Kamala chases down the pizza delivery girl to investigate.  It turns out that her name is Samantha.  Like Ms. Marvel, she is an Inhuman who was transformed by way of exposure to the Terrigen Cloud.  Rather than receiving neat super abilities, however, Samantha was bestowed with ‘skunk-like’ powers.  Her hair took on a distinctive white streak and she can emit a terrible, noxious odor whenever she feels anxious, threatened or even irritated.  

It’s all just about ruined poor Samantha’s life.  No one wants to hang out with someone so stinky.  She’s a young adult, still learning how to handle her feelings and mood and hence barely able to control these smelly powers.  And finding that she was delivering pizzas to a slumber party just filled her with jealous rage.   

Rather than fighting, the two talk it out.  Terrigenesis is a lot like adolescence… it is sort of like a lottery and is by no means fair.  Some are endowed with cool, useful transformations, other are saddled with unfortunate, almost debilitating transformations.   

It’s not all that different the kind of changes that adolescents have to contend with as they go through maturation.  And it is also rather random and never fair.  Some become tall, slender or have flawless skin, whilst others have to deal with acne, super awkward growth spurts, or just smell terrible.  

Neither Kamala nor Samantha the Skunk Girl can go back to the lives they had prior to Terrigenesis, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t carve out new lives, make their own paths.  Samantha has no interest in being a super hero or anything like that, but that doesn’t mean that she cannot get help from people such as the Avengers or Inhumans of New Attilan.  With time and training she can learn to control her odor-based powers, keep them suppressed and even use them to her advantage if the need were to ever arise.   Having solved that problem, Kamala returns to her party.  Yet it is not long before yet another crisis arrives.  She receives an emergency text from her Champion team-mate, Spider-Man/Miles Morales.  Well, it turns out that the villainous Arnim Zola has plans to poison the water supply of Manhattan and Miles needs Kamala’s shrinking abilities to help him break into the city’s central pumping station and reroute the poison.  

This tale is told by the team of Minhaj and Bondoc.  There are some hiccups, but Miles and Kamala are ultimately able to foil Zola’s diabolic plans.  And yet there’s something sort of off about Miles.  He reveals that he may have come into possession of an Infinity Stone, the mood stone to be precise.   wait, the mood stone???  

Pretty certain this isn’t an Infinity Stone Miles has gotten ahold of… maybe it’s the mood-affecting ring The Mandarin used to wield.  Whatever the case, it seems to have an effect on Miles, causing him to be more forward and open with his thoughts and feelings.  It leads him to blurting out the fact that he thinks Ms. Marvel is terrific, and pretty, and, well it’s all quite embarrassing for him.  Although, Miles does admit that being so frank and open does feel rather liberating.  And this helps Kamala realize that maybe it’s time for her to lighten her load as well.  

Kamala finally makes it home where Nakia, Zoe and Mike have been patiently waiting for her.  Kamala decided to come clean nd rather than concocting some lie to explain where she has been she tells them that she is Ms. Marvel.  

And they’re all like, ‘yeah, no duh.’  

They all knew, have known for quite a while.  Kamala hasn’t exactly been proficient in hiding her secret identity and it was pretty easy for her close friends to put two and two together.  Heck, even Gabe, Kamala’s step-brother, has figured the matter out.    None of them have said anything about in that they figured it was her business and she’d tell them when she was ready.   It’s a nice, cathartic relief for Kamala to share this secret and she is wonderfully surprised to find her friends so supportive of it all.  They all hug and it’s really quite a sweet moment.  And it is here that this fun, goofy romp of an issue comes to an end.  

What a blast.  The whole issue acts as sort of a patchwork anthology.  And each side-story works as a sort of encapsulation of the distinct qualities that makes Ms. Marvel such a wonderful comic...

The Lockjaw story by Ahmed and Durate highlights to wacky silliness that so often finds its way into the tales, the moments of screwball levity that balances out the heavier, more poignant themes.  

The Skunk Girl encounter by Rowell and Quinn addresses the comic’s powerful knack to create moving parallels to real life matters, especially in terms of the trials and tribulations of growing up.  

Minhaj and Bondoc’s Spider-Man team-up adventure showcases the comic’s ability for good old fashioned comic book action and intrigue, where the adventures are always peppered by a progressive development and cultivation of both the main and supporting characters.

And the over arching frame of the slumber party, by Wilson and Leon, shows off the heart of the series: Kamala herself: a dynamic, fully fleshed out and multifaceted character who is just absolutely lovable, relatable and endlessly fun to read about.  

It’s a pretty neat idea that the issue kind of dissects the individual components that makes Ms. Marvel such a great book and offer up each component in vignette spot-light form.  It makes for a very fun read as well as a good book for those out there looking bettie understand the craft of good storytelling.  It’s all kind of like a baking recipe done up in a comic book formate.  

Before wrapping, up I feel a special shout out is deserving to Ian Herring, who provides the coloring for the entire issues.  The various illustrators depicting the different side stories all have rather distinctive styles… yet Herring is able to color them all with a unifying pallet that provides a terrific sense of continuity wherein the shifts are not jarring in the least.  This is something Herring has excelled at throughout all fifty issues of Ms. Marvel.  Whether the issues have been illustrated by Adrian Alphona, Takeshi Miyazawa, Mirka Andolfo, Jacob Wyatt, Nico Leon or anyone else, Herring has been able to utilize his coloring to maintain a sense of constancy… a visual flavor that is distinctive and unique to Ms. Marvel.  It’s really quite impressive.  

Highest possible recommendation.  Five out of five Lockjaws!