Astro City 33
Chapter 2 of the current story, which is almost a noir, especially with the lovely cover art. SteelJack and Cutlass close in on who framed her for resuming her criminal activity when SteelJack discovers she's not the only one this happened to. The human side of heroes and villains makes me love this comic so much.
Black Canary 9
A fill-in issue, as it turns out, and written by a former employee of my LCS, about an early gig on Black Canary's first tour a concert for a mob-connected little girl's birthday party. Decent enough, but I want to get back to the current storyline.
Captain Marvel 3
Carol's apparently not herself and there's something really wrong with the alien ship. Enjoyable, but I miss DeConnick's take on Carol.
Poison Ivy 3 (of 6)
Another death at the botanical research facility makes Pamela's lab off limits as a crime scene. But she needs to get her research! And who is killing off the researchers? The plot thickens! The art is lovely.
Star-Lord 5
Peter does some growing up in this Year One tale. An entertaining reworking of Peter Quill's life.
Titans Hunt 6
I've been really enjoying this because it's bringing back versions of these characters I love and miss, but it was feeling a bit too stretched out, like there was 6-8 issues of story they decided to put into a 12-part mini. But the cover numbering hasn't reflected mini-series status and with Rebirth coming, I'm wondering how many issues we'll get for this story to play out. For now, things are being complicated by Mal already doing Twister's bidding and a hit being put on the remaining Titans, while Lilith catches them up on what's going on. I don't know how this will end or what Rebirth will bring, but for now, I'm really enjoying this.
Graphic Novel Review Time
I've been working my way through the stacks of the graphic novels I've been accumulating, and haven't reviewed them all, but I must comment on the one I read last night.
The Wake by Scott Snyder, with amazing art by Sean Murphy, won the Eisner for Best Limited Series in 2014. It's a wonderful mix of science fiction and horror, covering two time periods, something around the present and 200 years later, after the sea levels rose, flooding coastal areas. It would be easy to say this is about global warming/climate change, but it's not. It's about creatures that live in the depths of the oceans that rise up to challenge humanity. Book 1 (the first 5 issues) reads almost like a classic horror story, with Book 2 (the second 5 issues) reading more like a dystopian science fiction tale, but they work well as a whole, with a strong female protagonist for each. The philosophy/science/whatever behind it all is a bit wishy washy for me, but the way mythology and fables are woven into the narrative works really well and the tension, especially in Book 1, is palpable. If this is your sort of reading thing and you haven't read it, give it a try. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
Your impression of Tiran's Hunt strikes something of a chord with me. Way too many books seem to be stretched into more issues than are actually needed to tell the story. But hey, you have to be able to resell it as a trade, so those six or seven issues do become twelve.
ReplyDeleteI am feeling old because I can remember when three or four issues devoted to the same story was considered epic.
There are a lot of characters, though, so extra issues do give them time for character development, which I do like. Overall, the pacing seems okay.
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