Pages to Panels: A Bookish Guide to Getting Into Comics. SUPERHEROES (2)

Heyyyyyyy, it's time for round two of Pages to Panels!

I was going to make this instalment another "if you like this/read this" post but I know that one of the issues I first had to overcome as a comic reader was where the hell do you start? Series like Fables or Rat Queens are easy because even if they're 20 volumes in  there's a clear linear progression. It does get a little messy when they start working on side series and prequels, for instance Fables has Jack of Fables and Fairest - two series which occasionally dip back into the Fables narrative,  but for the most part these newer series are still not nearly as difficult to work out a reading order for.

But if you're interested in a traditional superhero series? Hell to the no. It's like wading into quicksand, just a quick scan at the hundreds of titles for a single hero will make you feel like you're well out of your depth. The first thing to keep in mind is that it is incredibly unlikely you'll ever be able to read an entire hero's back-catalogue. Not only are you potentially looking at 60 years of stories, but there are cross-over editions and specials and singular runs which add tonnes and tonnes of titles to an already heavy load. Not to mention, honestly, you probably don't want to read them all anyway. Characters evolve and the Batman you love from the Nolan trilogy is very different to the Batman of the 1950s. If you're attracted to the dark and brooding Dark Knight then you probably don't want to read any Batman pre-1980s. By all means get a taster for early Batman, but if you decide it isn't your jam then just mooove on. And that's okay. Life long comic book readers will occasionally try and shame you for not knowing what happened in issue 47 when Batman faced off against Freeze* but your time is precious. So screw those guys.

Batman is actually a fantastic starting point. He may have continuous runs dating back to the stone ages but his stand-alone arcs are brilliant and super easy to read in any order. One thing to keep in mind is that comics love to reboot and redux and re-imagine. What was the Joker's origin story in the 1970s is unlikely to be the same  in 2000. So while you may decide to start on an arc written in the 1990s, don't assume that what you know from the films or cartoons is any basis for what you're heading in to. My best advice is to just ignore anything that isn't in the comic in front of you. Don't worry about the Joker or Freeze or Robin. And if you come across a mention of a fight or a villain that doesn't seem to be mentioned previously in the comic, it was probably in a cross-over issue and just jump onto Google.

But back to Batman arcs.

If you come to me for recs I'm going to suggest Alan Moore's The Killing Joke, Jeff Loeb's The Long Halloween, and the epic Knightfall. They were the first three arcs I read (in that order as well) and I never felt like I was out of my depth. The beauty of Batman is that while some details might change (namely who is Robin and various villain's origins) the general gist of it remains the same. You have your wealthy man about town who is also their protector. And he dresses like a bat. A man-sized bat. And since he is stinking rich he always has excellent toys. The rest of the details come from the arc you read -how brooding he is, his relationships, age and mental state - that all depends on which storyline you decide to read.

The internet is a beautiful thing. While I am fairly well versed in the comics I've chosen to focus on, I'm still far from the person you necessarily want to go to for a thorough breakdown of superheroes. That's where that pretty, pretty internet comes in. The DC wiki is obviously a pretty decent starting point, especially if you want to jump in at a later arc and just read up on the general story progression up until that point. The same goes for Wikipedia. If you have a couple of titles that jump out at you but you want to know a little more about them, wikipedia is pretty thorough in this regard. But if you want a more in-depth suggestion on the critical arcs and where to then move on from there are some other sites that will serve you well.

A Comic Book Blog has a really fantastic run down of seminal Batman arcs. They introduce you to the narratives, why they're important and also offer the next read based on which choice you make.

The AV Club also has a decent run down which is especially helpful because it's aimed at film fans who may have no comic experience with the Dark Knight at all.

Comic Vine is a bit more a time line (and a little bit spoiler-y) than a really helpful guide, but they've steered me in the right direction for other heroes and are therefore a pretty handy reference to keep bookmarked.

But on the off chance you're not interested in Batman you can basically take all of that advice and change Batman for Superman or Captain America. Comic Vine and A Comic Book Blog look at a wide array of heroes, and Wikipedia will be your friend regardless of which side of the DC/Marvel battle you pick.

I know buddy, they're crazy

That said, I've found other superheroes harder to get into than our dear Dark Knight, mostly because a lot of them don't have the detective serial aspect of Batman arcs and some of them are just insanely convoluted. There are two main ways I've attempted to traverse new (to me) heroes. The first is the simplest and maybe best for newcomers, the current runs of DC and Marvel comics. If you're looking at DC that would be the New 52 (which kicked off in late 2011) or Marvel Now! for Marvel (2012- current). These are both made as easy entry points for new readers. There's been a mixed-response from older comics readers but I've found this to be a pretty great way to get into a few series that otherwise would have been too tricky. It's how I discovered Aquaman, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Captain Marvel. Once you've read up on this particular run, you can make the decision to travel back to earlier incarnations or to simply stay on the road they're paving. And either option is absolutely acceptable.

The other option is the movie route. After seeing X-Men: Days of Future Past I was interested in reading how the comic differed from the film. I had never actually read X-Men before and of all the superhero series this is probably the most mind-boggling one to try and get into. It's full of paradoxes and twins and Days of Our Lives level soapy drama. DoFP is a short run, about 5 issues, and by itself isn't too bad. It mostly involves characters you know from the films and unless you read up on it first you aren't likely to know how loopy the wider plot around it is. Similarly my first Captain America comic was the Winter Soldier double volume which I decided to pick up partly because I enjoyed the film and partly on the strength of writer Ed Brubaker. So this is definitely an entryway into the comics, but it's likely that most other films have taken a mid-point comic or even parts of several arcs to produce their films, so it's probably best as a taster. Ultimately you'll probably need to hunt around the web to work out where is best to start, which is where the websites above will come in handy. Or just Google "superhero" + where to start and work your way through the blogosphere.

Finally, if you mostly want to read some comics as a companion to the Marvel and DC films then there are some volumes that would be more helpful than others. Now that we have a basic idea of the story lines for the future Marvel films (and the rumoured DC arcs) there are some comics that will better help round out your understanding than others. Let's go!

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (written by Ed Brubaker, illustrated by Steve Epting) - While it's a bit darker than the film version, this comic is a really solid starting point if you're interested in starting either the modern Captain America and Winter Soldier arcs. It reflects back on his more idealistic early days as Cap, as well as reflecting on the difficulties that a man from the 1940s faces in the modern world. It's also a good primer for the Civil War story arc, which we now know is going to play a pretty major role in Marvel's phase 3. It's more a backgrounding that an explicit lead-in, but I think it does a good job of explaining the mentality of Cap as that storyline begins.

Aquaman: New 52 (written by Geoff Johns, illustrated by Ivan Reis and Joe Prado) - As I said in my mini-review, I never thought I'd read Aquaman but I found the New 52 not only gave me an introduction to the character while hinting at old storylines I'd eventually want to discover, but it made me feel awful for ever laughing and suggesting he was a "useless" hero. Aquaman has been announced in the next Batman V Superman movie as well as his own standalone (Hello Jason Mamoa!) and DC is rumoured to be mining heavily from the new 52 so if you start here you'll be sure to get the most accurate origin for the films.

Captain Marvel: In Pursuit of Flight (Written by Kelly Sue DeConnick, illustrated by Deter Soy, Emma Rios) - There have been seven Captain Marvels and Carol Danvers (former Ms Marvel) is the latest to take on the mantle. The main reason I recommend starting here is firstly because the movies will be taking on this particular character and (likely) story thread, but also because I found it a really helpful starting point for a bunch of other series. Danvers gained her particular powers from the original Captain Marvel (a Kree alien named Mar-Vell) so in this volume you actually get the best of both worlds, a look at both Earth bound and cosmic heroes. Even though some things may only be alluded to or mentioned in passing, I found the brief mentions of the inhumans,  Kree technology and Danver's past to be indelible when I went on to read Guardians of the Galaxy and Ms Marvel and Annihilation. 

Suicide Squad: New 52 (written by Adam Glass, illustrated by  Frederico Dallocchio) - While personally I'd recommend starting this series at the John Ostrander, since all of the news of the film has been centred around Harley Quinn if you're mostly interested in it to contextualise the film then this is the place to start. Unlike my other recs, these aren't heroes. They're well known DC villains who are forced into undertaking black ops missions for the US government. It has massive potential to be completely different from the superhero films currently on our screens and it's perhaps the announced film I'm most excited about (aside from Wonder Woman OBVS). Read here for a little bit more info on exactly what the series is about, and why it'd be a great film.

This is basically the way I've thrown myself into comics. Is it necessarily the smartest or simplest way? Eh, maybe not. But it's worked for me. The Mary Sue just published a really interesting piece about "what to know now that you know you want to read comics". It's got a bit more of a breakdown of exactly what comics are - single issues, trades etc and the best way to navigate that area. So I highly recommend giving that a read too.


*To any angry fanboys strolling through - that is a hypothetical issue 47, I know it isn't real. 

Book Review: Looking For Alaska by John Green

Looking for Alaska

Written by: John Green

Published: 2005

Synopsis: Before. Miles "Pudge" Halter's whole existence has been one big nonevent, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave the "Great Perhaps" (François Rabelais, poet) even more. He heads off to the sometimes crazy, possibly unstable, and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed-up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young, who is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart.

After. Nothing is ever the same.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“It always shocked me when I realized that I wasn’t the only person in the world who thought and felt such strange and awful things.”

When my Ninja swap package arrived I squealed and groaned when I unwrapped Looking for Alaska. I had put down YA as the genre I wanted to get a little more acquainted with, but after my rocky experience reading The Fault in Our Stars I wasn't really sure how I'd feel about another John Green novel. Would I find the characters as shallow? The narrative as manipulative? The whole thing so over-hyped that the enjoyment I did find within in the pages would be negated by my utter bafflement that people have lines from the book tattooed on their arm? But the whole point of the trick or treat swap is to push yourself out of your comfort zone and I hate writing off writers after a single book, so I decided to start the book that very day.

I liked this far, far more than TFioS. Some of my issues are still present (which I'll get to), but I felt that in spite of these issues it was far more ....honest, is what I'm thinking. More genuine perhaps? A quick Google lets me know that this is actually John Green's first novel, so maybe it was simply that he was putting a lot more of himself into the characters and mining his own life for anecdotes and settings. I don't know, but I definitely felt like this book had characters that lived, rather than simply moved through a series of events.

The book takes place at a co-ed boarding school in Alabama. Our protagonist "Pudge" is a collector of last words and a seeker of the "great perhaps". Back in his native home of Florida he is utterly friendless and while he loves his parents he's 16. Your parents being your only friends is not something any teen wants in their life. So off to his father's alma mater he trots, where he first meets his stocky map-nerd room-mate the Colonel and the smoking hot Alaska. Pudge and the Colonel click immediately, which sort of makes me wonder why he had zero friends back in Florida, but things are a little more rocky with Alaska. I mean she's hot, so that's a huge tick in the positive column, but she's moody and snooty and when he turns up at her room door that night wet from being dumped in the lake (a prank to get back at the Colonel - which actually freaked me the fuck out because he could have died*) she tells him to mooooove on stranger. Ugh, aren't girls the worst sometimes? 

Somehow though Pudge manages to wade through Alaska's comstant mood shifts and faux-existential garbage and spark up a friendship. So strong is this friendship that he passes on Thanksgiving with the folks and stays at the school with Alaska alone where they rifle through everyone's personal belongings watching their porn and stealing their booze. Okay, so obviously a few things in this book didn't exactly rock my world. But pushing past that for a minute the majority of the book is a lot of fun. Pudge is adopted into the Colonel's little group of friends, and along with Alaska, Lara and Takumi, the quintet drink and smoke and study and prank together. And as we all know, the group that drinks, smokes, studies, and pranks together, stays together. Except that these 5 don't. 

As you read the book you'll notice that the chapters aren't labelled Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter XXX, they're a countdown. One hundred and twenty-seven days before. Forty-three days before. And then the book breaks into the second half, the after. The cataclysmic event is significant. It's destructive and I can completely understand how it would completely turn a person's world upside down. But to me it was the biggest problem in the book. I'm about to throw out some heavy spoilers, so skip down to the River Song gif if you haven't read it and don't want to know. 

In a similar way that TFioS felt manipulative, the sudden death of Alaska in a drink driving accident felt manipulative. She's there having a great time and then a sudden phone call sends her into a spiral, rushing out of the school to her inevitable death. My biggest issue is not that she died. People die and I think it's important for books to look at issues like this so that young kids can know that all kinds of grieving is okay. You can cry. You can act out. You can go numb. Whatever your grieving process is, you're not alone. But half the book is dedicated to how her shocking death rocked the student population at this boarding school and the majority of it centres around Pudge, a guy who had known her for about 5 months and was obsessively in love with her, in spite of us not really seeing any true connection between them. Sure they had that Thanksgiving week alone, but most scenes showed them in a wider group setting getting along generally or else they were of Pudge sulking because she was in a relationship and seemed to genuinely care for the guy. If they book had broken into sections and looked at how each of the remaining 4 students survived then I would have felt a lot less skeeved out. Instead we got a lot of Pudge feeling sorry for himself and going full Romeo about how special their love was and then bizarrely the book basically rounds out with the other two guys announcing that they to had been in love with her. Ugh, come on. The take away to me felt less like "she was this enigmatic soul who commanded a room, even though she was a raging bitch half the time" and more "damn I wish she'd fucked me before she blew herself up in a fiery wreck". The mystery that the group embark on to find out where she was driving to and why she was upset (was it an accident or suicide?) could have been a fascinating look at how we deal with death, but in the end Alaska just felt like an object that they'd been unfairly robbed of, not a real person. 

Which leads me into my issue with the characters. Now that I've read two of John Green's books (which incidentally are the best possible depiction of his general arc as a writer) I think I can comfortably say that he doesn't write characters well. Which is fine! There are authors I read because of their ability to make me feel something, and others for their ability to paint an entire world and all its inhabitants through some incredibly creative metaphors and descriptors. Douglas Adams comes to mind, there is a brilliant post on Tumblr that collects a lot of his turns of phrase which manage to give weight to a person or a feeling by perfectly putting the right words together. But not every author can work that particular form of magic. Some write characters, some write events, some write emotions. They're all incredibly valid and I don't think you are an inherently bad writer if you can't write well in one of those areas. When I read a John Green book I feel like he has a story he wants to tell and then he finds the characters to tell it. And because of this we end up with very cookie-cutter "nerdy" or "cool" characters who fulfil a function but don't really live on their own. Pudge is fine, but I don't think I could really describe him to you. He's tall and lanky. He studies a lot. He prefers to read biographies to novels. But who is he? *shrugs* that I can't really say. Similarly, Alaska is just this massive mystery. She's manic and collects books and likes pranks. She's super hot and has green eyes. Sure we get a fairly weak insight into her towards the middle of the book, but it's never really built on either  so does it count? Compare this to say Rainbow Rowell. A lot of Rowell's books share similar parallels to John Green. They're (mostly) about teenagers and romance blossoming where you least expect it, and troubled homes and weird kids who don't fit in. But Rowell's characters live off the page. They might technically tick off the same checkpoints as John Green, "attractive but not in a traditional sense" "silly nickname" "obsesses over book/film/TV character or world" "has an odd hobby" but the plot in a Rowell book happens because of who the characters are, rather than the other way around. To me this leads to Green's characters feeling very manic pixie-ish, they're there to help the plot along and help other characters realise some deep truth about themselves, but they have no substance of their own. Except this is true for every character. It's like a game of Sims or something, the characters just walk headlong into walls repeatedly if they don't have an active role in a particular scene.

All of that said and done, I really did enjoy the book. I know the review might not actually depict that, but in spite of not liking the way John Green constructs his narratives I do like them. He writes with an earnestness which helps me move past the fact that apparently every book is contracted to have a character say something douche-y about cigarettes**. And while I might not connect with the characters and their particular journey, but I still find myself pulling in personal experiences which connect with aspects of the novel. Maybe that's the beauty of John Green, maybe he writes his characters like this so that we can populate his books with the men and women from our own lives and question how we'd react if our version of Pudge or the Colonel did X. Or maybe I'm just desperately grasping at straws to find out why I like a book that I struggled to review positively. Maybe life is just full of mysteries, man.

*They wrapped his body in duct tape so that he couldn't move. And when the Colonel later mentions something about how he could have died Pudge just basically shrugs it off. DUDE, NO.

*Says Alaska “Y'all smoke to enjoy it. I smoke to die.”. FARTING NOISE.

October in Review: Comics, Comics, Comics

Reading meet wall

BOOKS:

What I Read:

*Hellblazer: Original Sin (volume 1) by Jamie Delano, David Lloyd, John Ridgeway
*Hellblazer: The Devil You Know (volume 2) by Jamie Delano, David Lloyd
*Rat Queens: Sass and Sorcery (volume 1) by Kurtis J. Wiebe, Roc Upchurch
*Kill Shakespeare: The Mask of Night (volume 4) by Anthony Del Col, Conor McCreery, Andy Belanger
*Captan America: Winter Soldier (volume 2) by Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting, Mike Perkins


Book Stats:

100% male / 0% female (ooof magoof)
100% American / 0% International (although technically I think Conor McCreery is Canadian, but that's just splitting hairs at this stage)
100% ebook / 0% audiobook / 0% physical
100% fiction / 0% non-fiction
100% graphic novels / 0% novels

I'm at the pointy end of my PhD, so that means my reading time is effectively zero. When I do have a few spare minutes to sit down with a book I've been turning to comics (and TV) because, well, they're easier. I just haven't been able to motivate myself past reading a few pages at a time in the actual books I'm reading, but hopefully I'll get past this exhaustion and pick up my pace soon. I started The Girl With All the Gifts last month and while I raced through the first 50 pages or so I've found it hard to get back into it. It's fine, but I'm barely in and I just don't really see where it's going. Not in the ooooh-what's-around-the-corner kind of not knowing but the haven't-we-already-peaked-what-else-can-happen kind of not knowing. It's funny, I love zombie movies but I tend to find zombie books a bore. I was hoping this would change my mind, but I really don't know if it will. I'm hoping if I just push through the next few chapters it'll start to gel. Fingers crossed. I'm also slowly getting through a book of Robert Heinlein's science fiction short stories. It's really high concept and I'm enjoying it, but I don't really know if I'm getting it, y'know?

On a far more positive front, I started Chris Hadfield's An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth on audiobook and I looooove it. I really enjoyed watching his youtube videos last year when he was in space (last year? the year before? time man, it passes us by in such a blur) and Sarah's review convinced me it needed to be my next Audible purchase. He's just such a nice guy, like, really, really nice. He's so positive just listening to him talk about life and career and family kind of makes me feel invincible. I'm going to apologise in advance because I think my review is going to be a little over the top gushy. I also bought a copy of Amy Poehler's book on Audible. I hit a few walls with audiobooks before picking up Hadfield's novel and I think, at least for the time being, I'm going to leave it for my memoir//comedy books. Listening to Tina Fey and Chris Hadfield have definitely been audiobook highs, because they're telling their own stories and adding their own personality to the words. Maybe once I get more comfortable with the medium I'll step back into the fiction shelves, but for now I'm enjoying this plan of attack. I wonder if Lena Dunham will read her book?

In other bookish news, I got my first Ninja Bookswap gift! The wonderful Lauren sent me my "trick" package. I said I wanted to read more YA so along with  Helen Oyeyemi's Mr Fox from my wishlist, she bought me John Green's Looking for Alaska. I was a little underwhelmed with The Fault in Our Stars when I read it last year, but I wanted to try out another John Green book before I totally wrote him off. I started the book today and so far I have to say I'm enjoying it a lot more than TFioS, but that might have a lot to do with the absence of cancer-stricken teenagers. I also got a duo of adorable floral pens and a Maze Runner postcard. I have one more package heading my way, and I can't wait to see what's in store for me. Yay or bookish gifts from bookish folk!

Graphic Novel mini-reviews #26

Guardians of the Galaxy: War of Kings Book 2 (Volume 3)

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

Published: 2010

My Thoughts: At first I wasn't completely sold on this volume of GotG. The elements I love were all there, the group dynamic, the cosmic messiness and the writing but the initial premise didn't excite me. The Shi'Ar and Kree have declared war on each other and this war threatens to destroy the very weakened universe. As the Guardians are lacking the scope of the two armies they decide to try and appeal to each side's reason - if you continue with this war, the universe will cease to exist. Both sides are so blinded by their anger and warmongering etc etc that they can't or won't see the bigger picture. I don't know if it's just that this basic storyline has been done before or if it's because it seems so unrealistic but I groaned every time Starlord tried to reason with the Inhumans who are leading the Kree. I liked witnessing the haphazard team trying to hold things together, I just wish the reason for the war/why they won't step back was better set up. Once that initial hurdle is passed I felt like the volume hit the heights I expect from it. There's time travel and shifts between realities and countless battles and some devastating events that round it out to be a really hefty volume of comics. So a little meh to start but a winner by the end.

Hellblazer: Original Sins (Volume 1)


Written by: Jame Delano; Illustrated by: Rick Veitch, John Ridgeway, Alfred Alcala, Tom Mandrake

Published: 1988

My Thoughts: Hellblazer is one of Tom's top comics and even though I know I started this last year, it was only at his instance after watching the Constantine pilot that I decided to pick it up again. Constantine is a brash London magician who refuses to pick a side between heaven and hell. It's dark and dank and surprisingly political but since it's both written and set in the late 1980s there are also some awkward moments, specifically ones involving a gay character, which depict some incredibly outdated views. But since Constantine is meant to be morally-ambiguous at best, I don't feel like it detracts from the overall comic - squicky as it might be. There are more than a few similarities between Hellblazer and TV's Supernatural, which is to be expected since Supernatural wouldn't exist without Constantine taking those first sarcasm-laden, demon-hunting, sex-having steps. But Constantine isn't just a pulpy monster-of-the-week comic. The first 6 issues have an almost short-story feel to them, separately setting up the character while also leading us towards the narrative that'll finish of this volume and lead into the next. To jump back to the Supernatural comparison, Constantine is the man I'd expect if you smooshed Dean, Sam and Castiel into the one body, made him bisexual, English and post-punk who reminds me of a celebrity I can't quite place - am I thinking Billy Idol? David Bowie? Someone else entirely?

Wonder Woman: War (Volume 4)

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

Published: 2014

My Thoughts: This volumes ends the first arc of New 52 Wonder Woman and I really, really enjoyed it. I loved the warring gods angle, I love WW's determination to protect her half-brother, I love how smart and compassionate and killer WW is. But most of all, I love the ensemble nature of this run. WW started her life as an Amazon, and while she wasn't entirely accepted by her sisters that overarching group dynamic led her life. When she left the Island she wanted to work alone, partly because her family was gone and partly because she'd never been able to have any real independence before. But as with the best of friends, characters like Hermes and Zola and Strife and Lennox pushed their way through her barriers and now stand firmly by her side. It's their interactions and role in the ongoing narrative that helps me push through the occasional plot failing or pacing issue. I have a lot of comics on the go that I read issue-by-issue but Wonder Woman isn't one of them. So for now I have to hold out and wait for the next volume of issues to be released, which hopefully won't take too long.

Bringing the Soapbox Out of Retirement: Reviews, Reviewers and Ethics

What the actual fuck is going on with the internet these days? On one side we have rabid crybaby gamers doxxing women and forcing them to abandon their homes in terror and on the other we have an author who overreacts to such an extreme that she stalks a blogger.

And apparently* at the heart of both of these issues is ethics and reviews.

In one case a blogger "reviewed" (which from some reports isn't actually correct. Apparently it was a series of Goodreads status update) a book harshly, accusing the author of promoting bigotry and rape and using offensive language. Something which she is free to do, even if the author doesn't believe those issues are part of her novel. In the other a demand for stricter ethics in game journalism is being used as a façade to level hate at women and minorities who dare enter the precious world of the "average" gamer. If you want to know more about either of these issues I'll link up some articles at the bottom of the post

And here's the thing both parties need to understand. Reviews can not be objective. It's impossible and, let's face it, it'd be boring as hell. By their very definition reviews involve someone giving their opinion on a product. Even if all they were going to do was rate the gameplay or grammar out of 10, how can you possibly do that completely objectively? Who is to say that my 10 is the same as yours? And as a casual gamer I may rate something an 8 where my heavy gamer boyfriend with a background in developing would think it was a garbage-y 4. Or if I mostly read classics pre-dating 1700 how do I rate a graphic novel? If it's a game or a book aimed at children do we allow for weaker game play and simpler graphics, bright pictures and small words? If they do well within those parameters, do they still deserve a 10? Does this call for pigeon-holing reviewers into very specific roles that they can never branch out of in fear of delivering an "unethical review"?

This is why reviews are rarely, if ever, a numbers game. I once gave an author a 3 out of 5 on Goodreads which I thought reflected my general enjoyment of the book, while also letting people know it was unlikely to be reread. The author thought my review spoke more to a 4 and asked me to change my Goodreads rating accordingly. To me a 3 isn't a failure, it's a strong book that I am unlikely to revisit. To him it meant I had found major issues with his work. It's why we usually add a large bunch of text before our numbers, because if you just went of the star ratings it might be hard to truly gage how someone felt about the thing they were reviewing.

Purely technical reviews don't serve either authors/game designers or readers/gamers. The way we read and watch movies and play games it intrinsically tied to our emotions. We get invested and addicted and obsess over the art in our lives. But it's more than that, you can't divorce art from the real world.  It is impossible to expect one person to react to something the same way as another person would. The author of that horrific Save The Pearls/Revealing Eden book might not have realised that she was invoking complicated racial and class issues in her narrative, but the majority of the audience did and they found it offensive. A technical review may include valid and helpful information, but it's only part of the picture. Art is subjective because we bring our own history into it. When you review Breaking Bad you may remark on the beautiful cinematography, or the starkness of the setting and the emotive dialogue, but you also look at it in terms of the greater picture. The narrative of Breaking Bad does not exist outside of a discussion on American healthcare, or teacher's pay or the drug industry that operates between the American and Mexican border. You could write an entire thesis on Skyler White and the changing role of women within the American family, or Jesse Pinkman and the nature vs nurture argument. You can do this because it is art. Vince Gilligan has often come out and exclaimed how shocked he was to see everyone react so negatively to Skyler when her husband is not only lying to her, but cooking meth and killing people! But that's the way it goes with art, the creator and the public may not always agree, but amazing discussions can come out of it.

Addressing issues that you think are prevalent in a game or book in your review does not make you unethical. Whether you are a blogger or an professional reviewer you are well within your rights to let your audience know what you've found. And if you disagree with that interpretation then you are entirely within your rights. That's how opinions work. If you think, for example, that Polygon was completely off base with their review about Bayonetta 2 and sexuality then great! Go to a different website, because I can guarantee you'll find another mass-media review that either doesn't acknowledge that angle at all or looks at it as a positive rather than a negative.

Definitely no reason to bring up sexuality though, noooope.

If your opposition to an opinion is so great that you need to create an entire movement to "take down games journalism" or that you travel to another country to smack a blogger over the head with a bottle of wine,** then you need to step back and think about where your life is headed. Before you hire a PI to get the address of that super mean blogger or illegally obtain and share the details of a person who opposes you, STOP. Whether you're a creator or a consumer, this behaviour is absolutely abhorrent. Let's start being honest with ourselves. Gamergate has nothing to do with ethics. If it did it would have been the male reviewer who was criticised, not the female developer. And Kathleen Hale has a history of outrageous behaviour that isn't simply kooky or offbeat, it's horrific and not to be lauded as "what we all wish we could do". 

I love having a blog and reviewing books. I might not be a professional writer but I deserve to be able to express an opinion without fearing that an author is going to set her fans on me (*cough* Anne Rice *cough*) or travel to my home and call me at work. I should be able to write positive reviews and negative reviews without fearing that blogging under my real name is a mistake. I should be able to post an article to facebook without someone talking down to me and telling me that I'm "supporting the true evil" by standing up for women who are being attacked. I should be able to talk about any aspect of a book or game or movie in my review, regardless of whether other people agree. 

The beauty of the internet is that you can find absolutely everything. You can find positive reviews of your book, or review sites that deal entirely in technical or genre based reviews. There are so many websites that it's almost impossible to find one that doesn't have a niche. Want feminist nerd culture news? Go to The Mary Sue. Want intelligent, inclusive and hilarious content? Go to The Toast. If you are anti-feminist or simply don't give a shit about those sorts of issues then maybe skirt past those URLs. I applaud anyone who is willing to challenge their own position by reading reviews that focus on issues that impact a different section of the community. That's how you grow as a person and it's especially how you grow as a writer or reviewer. But I completely understand if you want to stay within your own specific parameters of interest. As long as you aren't hurting anyone, we can absolutely still be friends. But when you start using violence and aggression and insults to silence people who think differently to you? That's when our friendship ends and you need to take a good hard look at why you're really so angry.

If you want to read up further on the wider issues involved in both cases, here are a few accounts. I highly recommend looking wider though.

Gamergate 
~Jesse Singal wrote a fantastic article  for NY Mag about Gamergate and the many problems emblematic of their cause.
~Badass Digest wrote up an article article on why the "ethics" aspect of Gamergate doesn't hold water.
~Polygon addressed their position on Gamergate, and the charges levelled against them regarding their Bayonetta review.
~Fellicia Day was doxxed within an hour of writing about Gamergate, The Mary Sue covered it.

Kathleen Hale
~Hale's controversial article that started the whole thing.
~Dear Author addressed a lot of the charges Hale levelled in her article and also talks about the importance of pseudonyms.

*I say apparently because it's pretty clear that neither issue is about a review, but rather about personal issues, prejudices and broader problems.

**A different case of an author behaving badly.

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.