The comic: Injustice: Gods Among Us is bad. I mean really, really bad. Mediocre art, bad story, incoherent science and characters who make decisions based off the plot needs rather than the actual character. If the same people who came up with this story are scripting the video game, then I’m not sure I’m interested in that. The only good piece so far is the Green Arrow/Harley Quinn scenes, but since that is so far away from the main plot so far, it’s not something that you can really hope extends to the rest of the series. Let’s see what happens (SPOILERS AHEAD):
Category Archives: Comics
Invincible: The Ultimate Collection Volume 1 by Robert Kirkman
With the runaway success of The Walking Dead TV show and comic, it’s not surprising that many people don’t know that Robert Kirkman has another ongoing comic which has been around almost as long as The Walking Dead. Invincible is the comic about a young superhero who learns to use his powers and has his entire world turned upside down. The first collection, Invincible: The Ultimate Collection, Vol. 1, covers the start of the series and the first major changes in his life. Let’s see what happens.
The Escapists by Brian K Vaughn and a host of artists
One of my favorite books of all time is Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. The book is not has suburb writing, it is also set around some of my favorite times (the early years of the US comic book industry). After the book came out (and subsequently won the Pulitzer Prize), Chabon sensibly decided to extend the reach of the book by having various authors and writiers contribute short comic stories to an anthology Michael Chabon Presents. . .The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist. This anthology showed various stories featuring the fictional comic book characters from within the book. In addition, there was a comic mini-series (written by Brian K Vaughn with art by Steve Rolston and Philip Bond (live action scenes) and son Shawn Alexander and Eduardo Barreto (comic book scenes)) that is set in the Kavalier and Clay universe. The story is set in a universe where there where Escapist comic books and introduces a new trio who find reason to bring back the Escapist comic book to interesting ends. Let’s see what happened.
Misc Reviews
I’ve read a few things that don’t really call out for their own full reviews. So I’ll just touch on them here. Not that I didn’t like them (although I wasn’t fond of 2 of the books), but it’s just easier than creating a new blog post to say 2-3 sentences about it. Here we go.
Wayne of Gotham by Tracy Hickman
There have been several good novels featuring Superman, but Batman seems to be a much harder nut to crack when you take him out of the visual environment. The latest effort, Wayne of Gotham, tries to expand the Batman mythos by digging into the Wayne/Gotham backstory. But Tracy Hickman falls flat in his attempt to add depth to Bruce Wayne. The story is a rehash of previous Batman stories(most notably the The First Batman – which has Thomas Wayne dressed up in a proto Batman costume and being forced to help out gangster Lew Moxon) with not much interesting added. Let’s take a look at where this went wrong.
Locke and Key Volume 1 by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez
I’ve been sitting on this post for about a week now. I liked the comic Locke and Key, but wasn’t thrilled with it. I keep trying to figure out how to say I liked it, but am not that interested without making it sound like the book is bad. So I figured directly is really my only option.
I liked the book, but will probably not continue reading it. It wasn’t that it was bad. It just didn’t grab me. I didn’t feel engaged with any of the characters and the first 2-3 issues left me confused. The last few issues were better, but by that time I had pretty much checked out. If you like horror comics, give this series a try.
Batman: Death by Design by Chip Kidd and Dave Taylor
One of the seminal book on art deco is The Metropolis of Tomorrow by Hugh Ferriss. Ferriss took the skyscraper and made it an art form as well as inspiring a legion of designers and architects. One of those inspired by the book was designer/writer Chip Kidd. He took Ferriss’ ideas, threw in a dash of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and created (along with artist Dave Taylor) a Batman story set in this art decoish universe, Batman: Death by Design. The art and the look of the story are amazing, the concept is brilliant and the execution misses the mark. Not in the art, but in the mediocre story. But it is a gorgeous book to look at. Let’s see what went wrong.
Fray by Joss Whedon, Karl Moline and Andy Owens
Long, long time ago, back in the last decade of the twentieth century, current hot writer/director Joss Whedon had a movie about a young girl who has the power (and responsibility) to kill vampires and protect the world. The movie wasn’t that good, but somehow mutated into a cult show that survived for 7 seasons (and had a spinoff that lasted another 5 seasons). As the shows were wrapping up, Whedon had an idea (a wonderful, *awful* idea) to throw his beloved idea into the far future. So, he dipped his toe into the comic book world and came up with Fray. The basic idea is a slayer in the far future. So, let’s check out what happened.
Who Killed Retro Girl by Brian Micheal Bendis and Michael Oeming
I can’t believe that I’ve never reviewed any of the Powers comcis by Brian Micheal Bendis and Michael Oeming. The series is set in a super hero city where the main characters are non-super hero police officers who are involved with investigating super hero related homicides. The basic concept (cops in a super hero universe) sounds similar to Alan Moore and Gene Ha’s Top Ten, but in execution it’s much different. The first storyline, which introduces the series, is the amazing Who Killed Retro Girl? Bendis was mainly known for his gritty urban crime series prior to Powers, and he transitioned that style into a super hero story without losing a beat. So, let’s see what happens.
Costume Not Included by Matthew Hughes
After finishing the first book in the To Hell and Back series, Damned Busters (review), I eagerly ran out to get the sequel, Costume Not Included. Where the first book dealt with some philosophical issues in addition to some crime fighting, this book does a lot more on the philosophical/religious side with only minor crime fighting. But it handles it in such a fun way that I’m more eager then ever for the grand finale. Let’s see what happened.