Graphic Novel mini-reviews #27

Captain America: Winter Soldier (Volume 2)

Written by: Ed Brubaker; Illustrated by: Steve Epting

Published: 2005

My Thoughts: I probably enjoyed the first volume of Winter Solider a bit better than the second. The first was very introspective, something I always dig in my superheroes. This volume is far more action-heavy - whether in the present day assault from the Winter Soldier (and those he works for) or in the WWII flashbacks that feature heavily in this volume. All that being said though, it isn't like this volume completely discounts on character development in favour of action set-pieces. There are some brilliant moments where Cap wrestles with whether the Winter Solider is actually Bucky anymore and if there is even a fraction of Bucky still alive - should Cap do everything in his power to save him?

Kill Shakespeare: Mask of Night (Volume 4)

Written by: Anthony Del Col, Colin McCreery; Illustrated by: Andy Belanger

Published: 2014

My Thoughts: I wasn't sure if I wanted to read any more of Kill Shakespeare after the third volume. It wasn't bad, but I did feel like perhaps the gimmick had played out. But when I saw this was only a four issue volume I figured I'd give it a shot and see if they managed to introduce anything new to the story. The story takes place directly after the third volume, with Shakespeare, Juliet, Hamlet and Othello angry and still slightly mad from Prospero's Island. While they escaped Titus's navy they find themselves in the hands on Cesario and Viola, two dastardly pirates (and lovers) who intend to turn them in to the highest bidder. And yes, you read that correctly - Cesario and Viola are two separate people in this story AND they're together. It actually took a moment to remember that Cesario is Viola's alter-ego in Twelfth Night but I kind of dug that depending on your Shakespeare knowledge their relationship took on very different connotations. And it's moments like that which make these comics interesting. Not the slightly shoe-horned in lines like "parting is such sweet sorrow" when two characters separate, but the much less overt character traits that demonstrate that this team not only know Shakespeare, but know him well enough to experiment based on thematic elements of his plays. If you've enjoyed the other three volumes then you'll probably still enjoy this one - but I definitely feel as though it's weakened a bit with each volume.

Rat Queens: Sass and Sorcery (Volume 1)

Written by: Kurtis J. Wiebe; illustrated by: Roc Upchurch

Published: 2014

My Thoughts: I've been wanting to read this for soooo long but I wanted to wait until a trade volume was released and luck would have it that Comixology had it on sale. Score! This comic is everything. I can't even tell you how much I adore it. It's a D&D player's dream. There are four gorgeous, sassy, kickass female protagonists - Hannah the Elven Mage (with an excellent rockabilly vibe), Violet the Dwarven warrior, Dee the human cleric and Betty the Goblin (Smidgen) thief. They're all heavily, heavily flawed but loveable characters with a penchant for quests, bar fights and sex. Betty considers candy and drugs a perfect meal, Dee is overcome with social anxiety, Hannah is reckless and Violet was beardless before it was cool. They're joined by a motley crew of enemies, frenemies and lovers, of which Orc Dave is my absolute favourite. He's a cleric who has magical bluebirds settle in his beard after healing. BIRDS IN HIS BEARD, SO FREAKING CUTE. The art style is cute and colourful, the writing is fun and (at times) vulgar. It's basically like being back in one of my D&D campaigns which is the most wonderful thing ever because I miss D&D like crazy. So this is helping fill that gaping, ridiculous hole.

Graphic Novel mini-reviews #25 - Heroes of the Past, Heroes of the Future

Guardians of the Galaxy: Realm of Kings (Volume 4)

Written by:  Dan Abnett; Illustrated by: Andy Lanning, Brad Walker

Published: 2010

My Thoughts: And so ends the original run of the Guardians of the Galaxy, not with a bang but an even BIGGER bang. Everything that's been building up in the previous volumes, the wars and the tender, fragile universe, the threats coming from every possible antagonist, explodes in a messy pile of bodies and gunk. There is a bit of a flip flop that I wish they hadn't gone with, it leads them down an interesting path but it does feel a bit like hand-wringing and not wanting to make any serious permanent commitments. It's like modern (like the last 2/3 seasons) Doctor Who, they do something devastating and then wave their wibbley wobbley timey wimey magic wand and make everything go back to normal. It's not a huge flaw in the narrative, more a disappointment*. I saw a comic comparing the Guardians with the team of Firefly and that's such a true comparison. They are these brilliant, absurd characters who care about each other and mean well but they are constantly making everything worse. They are ruled by emotion and stubbornness and they want to do the right thing and they usually do, but sometimes an old enemy or a powerful love throws a wrench in the plan. It's a pleasure to finish out the run of comics, now onto The Thanos Imperative, the Annihilation comics and the latest run of GotG!

1602

Written by: Neil Gaiman; Illustrated by: Andy Kubert

Published: 2003

My Thoughts: 1602 re-imagines the Marvel universe as though it existed in 1602. It basically takes the fear and confusion of this particular era and replaces well known events or historical characters with Marvel characters. So we have Doctor Strange as the physician to the ailing Queen Elizabeth while Nicholas (Nick) Fury is the Queen's enforcer/head of intelligence. There's a sub-plot about the troubled Roanoke colony in the 'new world', and the Spanish Inquisition is hunting witchbreeds (X-Men). The facet of the inquisition that we witness is led by a rather well known character who I won't name for fear of spoilers (although I picked it straight away). There's Doom and the Fantastic Four and Captain America and while some are very clearly identifiable (Peter Parquagh for instance), others are much harder to pick and are mostly identifiable through certain skills, clothing choices and the groups they travel with. The actual plot is quite meta, but I'll hold back to leave you something to discover for yourself. Broad picture though, there are a series of storms and weird occurrences which are plaguing London and the rest of Europe and which Strange believes are signs that the world is ending. The key to saving the world apparently lies with a weapon that is being delivered to London by one of the few remaining Knights Templar - but getting it across Europe will require the help of a certain redheaded feller. The story itself is a lot of fun, part action and part mystery, although it does seem to get needlessly complicated from time to time. But truly, the real fun is in working out which characters are which and seeing the inventive careers some of them are given.

Captain America: Winter Soldier (Volume 1)

Written by: Ed Brubaker; Illustrated by: Steve Epting

Published: 2005

My Thoughts: While I quite like the Captain America films I've never really had much desire to delve into the comics. Since Cap is one of the earlier incarnations of superheroes it's a pretty tough choice to work out where to even start. But Winter Soldier came up in a related search and since I have an affinity for Ed Brubaker's darker take on realism I figured I'd give it a shot. This Captain America is far, far darker than the one you see in the Marvel movies. Since waking up after half a century frozen in ice the world the Cap knew has changed into something unrecognisable and he finds himself doing the same. He's disillusioned and unsure and as a result he's getting angrier and tougher and more violent. It's bound to cause irreparable damage somewhere down the line, something Agent 13 (Sharon Carter) is more than a little aware on. Throw in Red Skull, a power cube and the haunting re-emergence of some old memories and you've got a rollicking good comic. On to part 2!


*sorry for the vagueness, I don't want to out and out spoil anything from this or the previous volume.

September in Review Or, the month I DNF every book in existence and dressed up as Wonder Woman

September was not my month guys. Between travelling for my best friend's wedding, my birthday and the ever present life-destroyer that is a PhD I barely read anything. I mean I tried, but god damn if I didn't pick a bunch of crappy books. So since my list of read books is going to be like 2 items long and I haven't really got any films or tv shows to discuss, I thought I'd introduce a new little section called "Books I DNF and why they suck". My time is precious, so, so precious.

Take us away Paul

Books I DNF and why they suck

Wild by Cheryl Strayed (60% completed)

While I wasn't particularly enjoying this book the main reason I decided to DNF this biatch was the awful quality of the digital copy I downloaded onto my phone. I nixxed the kindle option after a sample because it was an "Oprah Book Club" pick which basically means anything even vaguely inspiration was underlined. And I do not need that shit. I enjoy marginalia when I borrow a friend's book but seriously, it was absurd how by the book the underlining was. PASS. So I downloaded one of the Android reader app and it was even worse. It was obviously made an e-book without a proper editing sweep as every comma was removed and the space between the word before and after the comma (or where it would have been) was stuck together. So it made reading a very inorganic experience. Not to mention I did not think her story was inspirational nor did I enjoy her writing. But the editing (or lack of it) definitely didn't help the matter.

GIF rating*:

Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper -- Case Closed by Patricia Cornwell (71% completed)

This might actually be the worst book I've ever read. After the case was apparently solved a month ago (again) I decided to finally grab this book off my shelf and give it a read. If you've ever wanted to read a perfect example for how not to conduct research, write a book or structure an argument then this is the book for you. Cornwell is convinced she knows who the killer is and so that none of her readers gives any other theory weight she discredits them all as flimsy and weak and unlikely while then going on to set her scenes by saying things like "while there's no proof he was in London at this time, there also isn't proof he wasn't" and started every sentence with "I imagine" "It could be presumed" "it may have happened like". Because her argument is literally "this guy did it because I find his paintings squicky" there are huge chunks of the book that have nothing to do with the case. Either she's discussing the state of  medicine and police strategy at the time (which was actually quite interesting) or she's randomly waffling on about the autopsy procedures in modern day USA. Yes, that happens. I was going to try and finish this so I could write a detailed review about all the inaccuracies, biases and padding but once I put it down I could not motivate myself to pick it back up. I shifted from laughing hysterically to actually clenching my fists in rage. This book is awful, absolutely the worst.

GIF rating:

BOOKS:

What I Read:

*Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory McGuire
*Wonder Woman: Iron by Brian Azzarello, Cliff Chiang (my review)
*Wonder Woman: War by Brian Azzarello, Cliff Chiang
*The Maze Runner by James Dashner (my review)
*1602 by Neil Gaiman, Andy Kubert
*Guardians of the Galaxy: Angela by Brian Michael Bendis, Sarah Pichelli, Francesco Francavilla (my review)
*Captain America: Winter Soldier by Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting

Book Stats:

100% male / 0% female (ooof)
100% American / 0% International
86% ebook / 0% audiobook / 14% physical
100% fiction / 0% non-fiction
72% graphic novels / 28% novels

Well this was a bit of a rubbish month for books wasn't it! But while I haven't finished much (other than lots and lots of graphic novels) I have started a whole lot of other books. I am currently juggling Haruki Murakami's new book Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage with Gregory Maguire's Wicked. I'm also still slowly slogging away with Cheryl Strayed's Wild. Note to anyone interested in reading it, do not download either the Kindle or Google play editions. The Kindle version is an Oprah edition which basically means every second line is underlined because it's supposedly inspirational (ugh) and the Google play book has removed every comma as well as the space between the words that bracketed the comma. Shame on the editors or whatever the digital equivalent is, it's ridiculous and makes a book that I'm not particularly enjoying even harder to read.

PERSONAL:

Like I said above, this month was pretty busy. I had my best friend's wedding (which was beautiful), my birthday (which was relaxing), my birthday dinner (which was delicious) and my birthday party (which rocked). And snice my friend's wedding was back home in Cairns on a Friday and since my birthday was on the following Monday Tom and I decided to spend a week in Cairns enjoying the beautiful weather and pretty outdoors. We spent a lot of time next to water, without actually ever going swimming. So yeah. Busy. I figured I might share a couple of photos from the month for those of you who don't follow me on Instagram or aren't friends with me on facebook. I wish I'd gotten a proper picture of my costume for my birthday party (I was punk/rocker Wonder Woman) but alas all I have to share are 3am battle photos between me and sell-out Superman.

Morning of the big day. How is that for a wedding location!

Bridesmaids

Taking in the sights

Port Douglas - How's the serenity?

Wonder Woman V Superman: Late night brawls 

Kicking ass and taking names

* Stealing this from you Alley! SORRY NOT SORRY