Thursday, July 09, 2015

This Week's Reviews Part One

Just four reviews for tonight, more to follow.

Gotham Academy 8
Olive's mother is dead, but the mystery of her life deepens. This is such a fun, quirky, creepy, entertaining book, I think I've run out of things to say about it, but as always, I highly recommend it.

Starfire 2
I still am not sure what to make of this. It's fun! It's fluff! The art is pretty! And not much really happens. I love Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner as storytellers, and their writing on this is fine, but so far, Kori has played too naive for my taste and it's hard to believe, even discounting the pre-nu52 Kori, that so many people have no clue who or what she is. Anyway, there's a hurricane and she saves some people, including her sheriff friend's brother.

Red Hood Arsenal 2
Aside from needing a better title, this is also an iffy book. When Lobdell started Red Hood and the Outlaws, it was smart, sexy, and full of character development to go with the action. Then Tynion -- yeah, I know, a lot of people didn't like his story arc -- deepened the angst and the character bits, while removing fun from the proceedings. Roy was still snarky, but he had depth for more than a panel at a time. Things returned to something lighter after Tynion left and with the new book, Lobdell's back and I can't shake the feeling that the characters are treading water. Roy is acting more immature than usual, no doubt in denial over his feelings about Kori leaving. There is one nice scene on a plane, where he sits with a couple of drinks and explains to Jason how he tests his sobriety. The rest of the story has the duo cracking wise and trying to earn money by being guns for hire. Or something of that ilk. And it alternates from feeling like it's trying to hard or not trying hard enough. I'll keep reading for now, but I'm so ambivalent about it. If Roy wasn't in it, I would be dropping it.

Which brings me to....

Saga 30
The end of the latest story arc is full of angst, pain, joy, emotional punches to the gut, often all at the same time. Hazel is gone -- taken! -- while Alana and Marko are reunited. The Will is saved! But The Will is furious when he learns his sister died. The hiatus until the next story arc starts will feel very long, indeed.

1 comment:

  1. Gotham Academy is good, Saga is fabulous, and I do have to admit that Red Hood Arsenal is a strange name. Is there a warehouse somewhere stuffed with crimson hoodies? Riveting!

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