Graphic Novels mini-reviews #31

Saga (Volume 3)

Written by: Brian K. Vaughan; Illustrated by: Fiona Staples

Published: 2014

My Thoughts: What a sad, sad volume. A large portion of this volume is about grieving for people and past relationships and learning to live again. After two volumes of our delightful little family being on the run and hunted it was nice to see them settle down and enjoy actually being a family. Not only is Heist's home a sanctuary away from the chaos of the warring worlds but it's a respite where Marko and Klara can attempt to deal with their loss and, as we see, heal and begin to create a new future for themselves. This is all true for the enemies as well. Gwendolyn and the Will and Slave Girl/Sophie get a glimpse at a new future, one that doesn't involve murder and revenge. But what makes this volume sad is how quickly these possibilities are wrenched away. Their little moment of freedom or happiness or love is just that, a little moment, and I'm left sitting here feeling very, very sad.



Deadpool Killustrated

Written by: Cullen Bunn; Illustrated by:  Matteo Lolli

Published: 2013


My Thoughts: The second I saw the cover of this comic, with Deadpool riding Ishmail's dreaded white whale and holding a bomb I knew I had to read it. Then two years passed. But now, now I have read it and I can say I was completely justified in thinking this looked like a terrific romp. The basic premise is that after the events of Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe Deadpool decides to get to the source of the problem and eliminate the seeds of famous character archetypes. What happens is a brilliantly meta and intertextual look at the history of storytelling and character archetypes through an absurdly bloody and camp Deadpool story. When Deadpool kills an "original" like Dracula, he also kills all the characters that Dracula has inspired. That includes the obvious vampire characters from Anne Rice and Twilight, but also characters who may not be vampires but clearly drew inspiration from the King of Vampires. As he kills the original, they flit between this first form and the characters that developed from it and a great deal of my love for this comic comes from me trying to work out exactly who all the comic or literary characters are. Very League of Extraordinary Gentleman-y in this way, although without any of the subtly!

Deadly Class (volume one)

Written by: Rick Remender; Illustrated by: Wesley Craig, Lee Loughridge

Published: 2014

My Thoughts: High school is hell for a lot of people. There are hormones flying through the air, people are struggling to find an identity and there is far too much homework. High school is a whole different hell when the students have to deal with all of that AND train to become assassins. Add in a bunch of family/gang feuds and you have a high school where watching your back is even more crucial. Deadly Class takes a lot of the problems we all experienced in high school (being new, being different), adds assassins in training and transports it back into the 1980s. It's like Harry Potter, if there was no magic or fun in HP and it all took place in the Forbidden Forest. It's a mash of musical, literature and film references, managing to make me feel nostalgic for a high school experience nothing like mine, in a decade also not mine. The art was really interesting, it's very minimalistic and colour plays an extraordinarily important role - which you can get an idea of from the cover. I'm very interested to see where this series heads.

Graphic Novel mini-reviews #24

Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe 

Written by: Cullen Bunn; Illustrated by:  Dalibor Talajić

Published: 2011

My Thoughts: If you are after a solid read then Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe probably isn't for you. It's a very silly, very light comic that basically takes the question "what if Deadpool snapped and killed everyone?" and runs with it. There are a few interesting glimpses where Deadpool reasons that his wall-breaking and realisation that he is a fictional hero is why he needs to kill everyone because he's the only one who accepts and understands the hopelessness of their existence, which lead me to think that if they were really keen they could have made a very heady and meta comic. But that wasn't really the aim here. It's violent and bloody and punny and Cullen certainly isn't pretending that it is anything more substantial than that. So if you want to witness Deadpool decimate every popular superhero and villain in the Marvel universe then this will fill an afternoon for you, but if you're after a more compelling look at the Deadpool character and his wall-breaking antics you'd be best to look elsewhere.

Guardians of the Galaxy: War of Kings (Volume 2)

Written by: Dan Abnett; Illustrated by: Paul Pelletier

Published: 2009

My Thoughts: GotG continues to be one of my favourite runs of a team-based comic. This volume carries on from the fallout at the end of volume one, namely that Starlord got everyone to join up by having Mantis use her psychic doodadery to get them to agree. After walking out they informally end up in three groups, each coming up against enemy threats as they work through their anger. We get to see prison 42 in the negative zone, spend time in a limbo-like zone with a dragon (and get some existential discussion on the universe from Drax) and meet a new and invisible enemy (the Badoon) who will apparently be the cause of the end of the universe 1000 years into the future. It's a little disjointed shifting from group to group, but as this is part one of the War of Kings I'm guessing the team will reform in the very near future to meet this threat head on.

Wonder Woman: Iron (Volume 3)

Written by: Brian Azzarello; Illustrated by: Cliff Chiang (Illustrations), Tony Akins, Dan Green, Goran Sudžuka, Amilcar Pinna, Rick Burchett

Published: 2013

My Thoughts: As if her newly discovered family wasn't trouble enough, Wonder Woman now has to deal with an even greater threat, the nameless first son of Zeus and Hera. To combat this epic force, Wonder Woman needs the help of the rest of Zeus's illegitimate children which sends her on a pilgrimage across the world to find them all. We also get a glimpse at a relationship we didn't know existed before, one that throws some new perspectives on WW's current situation and threatens (promises?) to add some complications down the line. I'm almost at the end of Azzarello's arc and while I really enjoy his writing and plotting I'm interested in seeing what direction the books take once he hands the mantel on. But until then, I think I can rest assured that there's going to be a lot of badass butt-kicking in the meantime.

Graphic novel mini-reviews #23: Fight Like A Girl

Black Widow: The Finely Woven Thread (Volume 1)

Written by: Nathan Edmondson; Illustrated by: Phil Noto 

Published: 2014

My Thoughts: Black Widow gets the cold shoulder a bit by people who have watched the Avengers film, mostly because she lacks the magical powers or indestructible suit of the others but also because, let's be honest, she's a lady. This new run of Black Widow is fantastic for a number of reasons. First, it's freaking gorgeous. The art is beautiful, like pin it to your wall and gaze at it all day beautiful. Second, like the Hawkeye comics, it takes place away from the Avengers - removing the possibility for people to judge how useful she'd be to the team. Instead it focuses on her spy work for S.H.I.E.L.D and her freelance work, where she works as a mercenary/spy to raise enough money to pay off the sins of her past. There's a lot of emotional depth in this comic. Natasha/Black Widow has been many things in her life, and she regrets a lot of it. She works hard to try and make up for past mistakes and choices but she's still unsettled, adrift and unable to really find a centre to hold on to. This volume falls into the espionage/action genre and I really love the unfolding mystery that we're treated to. I've just bought the next two issues that have been released, so I'm eagerly waiting to read them and see if I can piece together who is behind the chaos raining down.

Wonder Woman: Guts (Volume 2)

Written by: Brian Azzarello; Illustrated by: Cliff Chiang, Tony Akins, Dan Green

Published: 2013

My Thoughts: I'm a little biased in that I'm basically predisposed to like Wonder Woman and Greek myths and this particular book is chock full of both. I know some reviews have been a little wary of the new origin story for Wonder Woman (which doesn't discount her earlier creation, just reveals it to be a lie her mum told to keep her safe) and the heavy inclusion of the Greek gods but I'm still loving it. It sort of makes Wonder Woman the modern equivalent of Thor, which as far as I'm concerned means they should just make it a film already. This volume introduces us to a little more of Wonder Woman's newly discovered mythic family and a more competitive, conniving family I don't think is possible. They might be related but they're all hungry for the top spot on Olympus and are all more than willing to use and abuse anyone who gets in their way. It's amping up to be a pretty hectic battle pitting family against family, and I'd hate to be on the side opposite WW.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Angela (Volume 2)

Written by: Brian Michael Bendis; Illustrated by:  Sara Pichelli, Francesco Francavilla, Olivier Coipel, Valerio Schiti, Kevin Maguire.

Published: 2014

My thoughts: Is it okay to include GotG into a mini-review series centred around butt-kicking women? Sure half the team is men, but this particular volume centres heavily around two ladies - Gamora and mysterious newcomer, Angela. Angela comes from another dimension/universe/timey-wimey place called Heven, which has these mystical stories about a place called Earth. So does this mean heaven is real? Are our religious stories based around interactions with this Heven? You won't find out any answers just yet, but you will get to watch Gamora and Angela go from kicking each other from here to Tuesday to begrudging team-mates to something a little closer to friends. And the rest of the team is there too, full of wise-cracks and double entendres and I-Am-Groots. This volume intersects with a couple of other comic series which does make for some headscratching moments (a threat in one issue is over and done with in the next) but that's the life of a comic reader right.