Tag: comics

Stacking the Shelves

Posted December 13, 2014 by in General / 12 Comments

It’s been a quiet week, despite the great temptation caused by people’s end of year lists. Like Tor’s Reviewer’s Choice, oh man. I gave myself a limit, though, and I stuck to it.

Ebooks

Cover of Daughter of Mystery by Heather Rose Jones Cover of Legion: Skin Deep by Brandon Sanderson Cover of The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Daughter of Mystery and The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet were from best-of lists — possibly even the Tor one I linked. Legion: Skin Deep, I actually picked up two or three weeks ago but forgot to include back then. Mea culpa.

For review

Cover of Nunslinger by Stark Holborn

A somewhat random choice from Bookbridgr!

Library

Cover of Crow Country by Mark Cocker Cover of Fatale by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips

Someone in my book group said they wouldn’t rest until I read more of Brubaker’s work, so, tahdah. I thought I’d make sure they could rest. Crow Country was a somewhat random choice between that, Badgerlands and Otter Country; I feel in the mood at the moment to read about Britain’s indigenous species.

Anyway, that’s it for me. Anyone else been getting anything exciting? Or are you saving all the excitement for Christmas?

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Stacking the Shelves

Posted December 6, 2014 by in General / 29 Comments

I’m doing really well and not buying books at the moment! But that doesn’t stop me going to the library (dun dun dunnn) or picking up comics. Though honestly, I picked these issues up a couple of weeks ago and forgot to include them then, so I thought I’d drop them into this post.

Review copies

Cover of The Very Best of Kate Elliott Cover of H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

I haven’t actually read anything by Kate Elliott yet, so this seems like a good place to start! As for H is for Hawk, I keep getting curious about it, but not curious enough to buy it… and then lo and behold, I get it on Netgalley. I’m quite interested to get round to reading it ASAP.

Library fiction

Cover of The Spirit Thief by Rachel Aaron Cover of The Spirit Rebellion by Rachel Aaron Cover of The Spirit Eater by Rachel Aaron

Cover of 7 Wonders by Adam Christopher Cover of The Iron King by Maurice Druon Cover of Starfish by Peter Watts

Cover of Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery Cover of Still Life by Louise Penny

Rachel Aaron and Adam Christopher have actually been on my TBR for ages, but that’s in ebook form, and sometimes I’m not in the mood for that. So I thought maybe getting from the library would kickstart me. As for the others, they come recommended by various people, and Emily of New Moon by my love of Anne of Green Gables, though I gather Emily’s a bit more saccharine than Anne.

Library non-fiction

Cover of Ladies of the Grand Tour by Brian Dolan Cover of The Galapagos by Henry Nicholls

I think a friend read Ladies of the Grand Tour recently, and The Galápagos has an obvious draw for me…

Comics (single issues)

DIG029097_2 DIG031290_3

Jessica Drew is awesome.

That’s it for me, and you may well add that that’s plenty for one person. What’s anyone else been getting their hands on?

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Review – The Wicked + The Divine

Posted November 29, 2014 by in Reviews / 6 Comments

Cover of The Wicked + The Divine by Jamie McKelvie and Kieron GillenThe Wicked + The Divine, Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie, Matt Wilson

The Wicked + The Divine is really gorgeously illustrated and coloured. I want to give it a million stars just because it looks so consistently good. Everything is clear, clean, sharp: it’s very characteristically McKelvie’s work (as the script is pretty characteristic of Kieron Gillen, I think) and that’s definitely a good thing. I think I got sucked into this via the art, first and foremost.

In terms of plotting and characters, there’s interesting stuff going on, but there are tons of unanswered questions. Unlike some other reviewers, I don’t expect to get all the answers in the first five issue TPB; we wouldn’t get that in a novel, so why here? There is a lot I want to know, about the whys and wherefores of the gods’ reincarnations, what their aims are, why they love attention… I’m half-expecting something American Gods-y, in that sense, where the worship and adulation they get as pop idols fuels them in some way. I don’t know, though; I’m looking forward to finding out.

The relationship between Laura and Luci is central to the story, and it mostly works for me. I think the intensity of the bond doesn’t entirely feel natural there… but there are explanations: Laura’s hunger to be close to the gods, rebellion against her parents, hero worship and I-want-to-be-you.

I’m looking forward to seeing where this is going, anyway; it looks like it’s going to be a fun ride.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – The Invincible Iron Man: Demon

Posted November 23, 2014 by in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Invincible Iron Man: Demon  by Matt FractionThe Invincible Iron Man: Demon, Matt Fraction, Salvador Laracca

This, for me, was one of those volumes which proves you don’t always have to keep up with every bit of every storyline to still enjoy parts of the larger arc. It was also the first time I really got enthused about Matt Fraction’s storytelling: I need to reread the Hawkeye books now that I’m more invested in the character, since it was sort of inevitable that I didn’t get on too well with his work on Thor — I’m not that big a fan of Thor (sorry honey). But when he’s working on Iron Man, well, Tony Stark’s got himself attached to my heartstrings somehow, and goodness does Fraction know how to work that.

Most of the book revolves around fallout from the Fear Itself event, which I only know a little about. I don’t know exactly what happened when Tony fell off the wagon, or why Pepper’s in disgrace over Rescue and something to do with her crying. I only know a little bit about Cabe and the various villains up against Tony. What I know about the main players is mostly based on the cinematic universe.

And yet. I still care passionately about Tony and his struggle with alcoholism, about his battle of wits with the Mandarin, about what’s happening with him and Rhodey and the struggle with the government to control Iron Man. (I was surprised there weren’t more laughs milked out of it when Tony ended up naked in battle.)

One or two things drove me a little nuts, like why would Tony voluntarily install the limiter? Without dismantling it first and checking if it is everything they say? If he did, how did they take him by surprise and make it hard for him to remove? Why didn’t he see that coming? Or was everything that happened in that battle planned?

I think it’ll take the next TPB or so to find out the answers to all my questions, but in a way, this was satisfying on its own in the sense that I jumped in, got captured by the story, had my heartstrings yanked, and enjoyed the experience without needing to know all the context.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – The Mighty Thor: The Galactus Seed

Posted November 17, 2014 by in Reviews / 2 Comments

Cover of The Mighty Thor by Matt FractionThe Mighty Thor: The Galactus Seed, Matt Fraction, Olivier Coipel

I’ve never been quite as fond of Fraction’s work as others seem to be, but given his reputation I’m willing to keep trying. The Mighty Thor is okay; there are some fun moments, and it does feature kid!Loki, who is probably the most interesting character in the comic. That whole refresh of Loki’s character remains interesting to me because it plays with all sorts of stuff, bringing back the ambiguity of his character from the original legends rather than any straightforward comicbook villain stuff. (Some people don’t like that because it seems to be part of the woobification of Loki prompted by Hiddleston fans, but I see it there in the source material.)

Otherwise, the Galactus/Silver Surfer stuff seemed fairly routine — I knew how it’d go from playing Lego Marvel Superheroes, y’know? It’s not like there’s any real danger of Galactus being allowed to eat Earth.

Rating: 2/5

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Review – Ms Marvel: No Normal

Posted November 10, 2014 by in Reviews / 2 Comments

Cover of Ms Marvel: No Normal by Adrian AlphonaMs Marvel: No Normal, G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona

I’m going to pretend I haven’t seen/read the comments and reviews that basically boil down to “a Muslim American can’t be a superhero, and because this story is about a Muslim American teen, it’s not really a superhero book”. Despite the fact that in many ways, this is Spider-man: family issues, school issues, identity issues, except it happens to be a female character who also happens to be a person of colour and a Muslim. There is nothing in the set of issues here that wouldn’t be right at home wearing a different mask in Spider-man. He spends just as much time building up to getting the costume, just as much time or more actually becoming a superhero.

I did find that this TPB stopped just where I wanted things to really begin for Kamala. It’s a little too short, not giving me enough to really hold onto. I like Kamala, I like her family, I like the quirks of the art and what we’ve seen so far — I just haven’t seen enough yet to know how much I’m going to like it. This TPB is really just an origin story, and we have yet to see Kamala meet the wider world.

It’s great as an origin story, but I’m not hooked yet.

And before you ask, Spidey took me a while too.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Red She-Hulk: Hell Hath No Fury

Posted November 7, 2014 by in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Red She-Hulk: Hell Hath No FuryRed She-Hulk: Hell Hath No Fury, Jeff Parker, Carlo Pagulayan, Wellington Alves

Hell Hath No Fury is a pretty fun story. I haven’t read anything that actually used Betty Ross before now, except I think she was in a Hulk comic I read for a few pages. This gives her a story of her own, one that doesn’t revolve around Bruce Banner, and though I’m not fond of the way this plot talks about Bruce/Hulk (as becoming nothing more than a monster), her issues and her mission are pretty interesting. I don’t think I’ve read anything using Aaron Stack/the android X-51 before, and he’s pretty interesting too: an android more advanced than Ultron and the Vision.

Despite the fact that this is issues #58-62 of Red She-Hulk, it’s easy enough to follow what’s happening. There’s a quick summary of who Betty is and how she Hulked out at the beginning, and the other mysteries explain themselves as you go along. Aaron is pretty self-explanatory, too. I think this works without reference to any other arcs and storylines, beyond the background knowledge about Betty Ross’ relationship to Bruce Banner.

The Avengers also have their moment here; it’s a little funny how Red She-Hulk can so easily defeat them; it’s like Marvel making Betty more powerful than all of them combined, which I’m not entirely sure she’s meant to be. Mind you, she’s got the body of a Hulk and the mind of Betty Ross, so she’s subtler than the original Hulk, more able to strategise. Anyway, the Avengers’ appearance and banter is fun, and I like seeing Cap making the tough decisions with the data he has — it’s the wrong decision, but he can’t know that. He just does the best he can.

Rating: 3/5

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What are you reading Wednesday

Posted November 5, 2014 by in General / 2 Comments

What have you recently finished reading?
Fangirl, by Rainbow Rowell, which I mostly enjoyed with some mixed feelings, and The Sleeper and the Spindle, by Neil Gaiman, which has really beautiful art. Reviews of both will, of course, be forthcoming.

What are you currently reading?
The Just City, by Jo Walton. I’m about a third of the way into it now, and very engrossed, although it is driving me to want to find my old copy of The Republic and read up on what it says about art, given the art-focus of several characters. (I mean, I distinctly recall it being rather dismissive of any mimetic art, and sculpture and painting of the human form are definitely that?) Also, I keep peeking at the back for the list of who the characters were as historical figures, and poking through their Wikipedia pages. I feel rather history-deficient about some of them, and I studied Classics and Philosophy!

What are you going to read next?
I should get on with Mary Stewart’s Merlin books, so that’s The Hollow Hills. I’ve also got endless amounts of ARCs to catch up with, of course, so there should be something from that list — Alan Bradley, perhaps.

Comics-wise, I still have Ms Marvel: No Normal and Captain Marvel: Higher, Faster, Further, More to read, so I’m sure they’re coming up soon. And the Black Widow comic, and the Kate Bishop as Hawkeye comic, and… yeah.

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Review – She-Hulk: Law and Disorder

Posted November 5, 2014 by in Reviews / 2 Comments

Cover of She-Hulk: Law and DisorderShe-Hulk: Law and Disorder, Charles Soule, Javier Pullido, Ron Wemberly

I’ve been meaning to try some She-Hulk comics for a while, so Charles Soule’s Law and Disorder seemed like a good place to start. And it was: it’s not part of some big overarching plot, although Jen remains part of the superhero world, with super clients, a formerly super-landlady, and apparently a super paralegal as well. Several heroes (and villains) make their appearance, including Daredevil, Tigra, Hellcat and Dr Doom.

It’s a fun book, altogether, introducing what is obviously a story arc for Jen in the form of a mysterious file connected to reality-warping magic (can I just briefly hope that Dr Strange can’t help and instead Jen needs to speak to Billy Kaplan?) as well as the self-contained story of trying to get Dr Doom’s son political asylum. There’s plenty of female characters as well as Jen, and she is in doubt about her worth as a person, an attorney and a superhero. It’s pretty great, reading a book with such a confident female character.

I’m not an enormous fan of the art in this book; Pulido’s work is okay, but not really to my taste, and Wemberly’s art just looks dreadful to me. You get used to it, but it’s still a style I really don’t enjoy.

Overall, though, it’s a fun book, and I’ll be picking up more She-Hulk.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Pretty Deadly

Posted November 4, 2014 by in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Pretty Deadly by Kelly Sue DeConnickPretty Deadly, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Emma Rios

I’m having a bit of a hard time with this book. I didn’t find it as confusing as many other people seemed to, but I do feel that there wasn’t much to grab hold of. It felt like set-up, something that might’ve been better as a flashback in an established comic, because you get the feeling that the important stuff is yet to come. And worse, you don’t get much of a grasp on character — it’s like a myth in that sense, but there’s also the Wild West vibe and other stuff going on that makes me feel like it should be more than something pretty and mythic. I mean, we know what Deathface Ginny is by the end of this, but we have no freaking idea who she is. Allegiances and relationships and characters are all unclear.

Visually, it’s a stunning comic. I’m not a great fan of Emma Rios, usually; I really didn’t like the work she did on Captain Marvel. This worked better for me, though, and there’s some amazing pages here. They can be a bit crowded, though — full of panels, and very little script and explanation.

Overall I think it’s a cool idea and a cool team — I am a fan of Kelly Sue, and Rios’ style does look good here! — but I think it needed to be tightened up, pruned, written differently. I don’t know if I’ll read more of Pretty Deadly; I think I might look for like-minded reviews and see what they’re saying when there’s another TPB out. Deathface Ginny could be really, really cool, but there’s so little of substance here.

Rating: 3/5

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