Review: Pretty Deadly, Vol. 1: The Shrike

Pretty Deadly, Vol. 1: The Shrike by Kelly Sue DeConnick
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Oh man. Pretty Deadly and Monstress were easily my top comic reads this year. I was expecting that from Monstress but I hadn't heard about Pretty Deadly so it took me by surprise. I'm not a huge fan of Westerns - or, I thought I wasn't, but Pretty Deadly and Westworld may have convinced me otherwise this year - and the setting turned me off for a while. Oh, how glad I am that I read it anyway.

It's been too long for me to remember the details of the story so my review will be broad-strokes and brief. The plot manages feel mythological without sacrificing investment in the characters and their stories. It reminds me of Sandman, where Dream and his siblings are universal forces of nature that should be so generic they're meaningless, but are instead uniquely alive. The art - the art! Emma Rios is fantastic. Her color palettes are full of greens and pinks and oranges, colors that shouldn't look pretty but do. It matches well with the story, a dark story with bits of hope and love and fun.

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Review: Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening

Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening by Marjorie M. Liu
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Disclosure: I received a free e-galley copy of this book (as separate issues) from NetGalley.

Monstress is my favorite currently-running comic. Hands down. The artwork is gorgeously lush and elegantly stylized. The story features kickass action sequences *and* quiet character moments. The pacing is perfect - you get exactly enough information early on to pique your interest and it keeps giving you bits and pieces of backstory at just the right pace to keep you eagerly waiting for more.

I can't wait for this series to be over. Is that weird? It's probably weird - usually you want your favorite series to last forever. But I want to skip to the end because this series has the deep, intricate mythology of a 500-page fantasy novel and I suspect it will best be served as one indulgently delicious dish. And once it's over, I'm pretty sure this will go down as one of the classics of comic canon.

The story has a steampunk vibe and follows a young girl, Maika, who harbors the spirit of a violent being. She, like many in her world, is half human and half *something else.* Her people are being "studied" (read: experimented on) by a group of magical human women, women who control human politics. We see Maika grapple with the monster inside her while she becomes more involved in the war between her people and the human scientist-witches. The book balances her personal journey - vengeance against those who killed her mother and learning to control herself - with the larger story that mixes science, magic, and gods. Think Bioshock meets anime tropes. There are also talking cats.

I can't do this its proper justice. Please, please go read Monstress. It's fantastic.

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Review of ODY-CY, Vol. 2 for Bounding Into Comics

Check out my review of ODY-C, Volume 2: Sons of the Wolf by Matt Fraction and Christian Ward for Bounding Into Comics! I loved the book and highly recommend it!

Satellite Falling #01 Review for Bounding Into Comics

Check out my review of Satellite Falling #01 from IDW, written by Steve Horton, drawn by Stephen Thompson, and colored by Lisa Jackson.

Reviewing for "Bounding Into Comics"

This week, I started reviewing comics for Bounding Into Comics. Check out my review of Descender, Vol. 2, and keep an eye on my page for more reviews!

Plutona #1, by Jeff Lemire and Emi Lenox

Plutona #1, by Jeff Lemire and Emi Lenox

Publisher: Image Comics
Art: Emi Lenox
Story: Jefff Lemire and Emi Lenox
Colors: Jordie Bellaire
Rating: 2/5

I think that Plutona is directed to a much younger age group than the one that I belong to, and most of my criticisms can be reduced to that. It's a simple story, with young characters who are broadly and sparsely sketched in this first issue. It's also a sweet story, though, with a cute premise and a diverse cast that will probably appeal much more to kids.

In Plutona, five kids - snarky and self-centered Mie and her younger brother Mike, quiet superhero-watching Teddy, unhappy, cigarette smoking Ray, and Mie's downtrodden friend Diane - find the body of a superhero named Plutona in the woods. That's essentially all that happens in the first issue, after the introduction of our cast.

The dialogue can get pretty cloying and too on the nose, in the way that writing for kids gets sometimes. Hopefully the characters will be more than just the fairly wooden stereotypes from the first issue.

The art is beautiful, with pastel watercolors on the cover and a kind of saturated-pastel color palette inside. I particularly liked the switch to Plutona's POV, which featured an emphasis on traditional comic elements and stylization.

This isn't for me, but I'd definitely recommend it to a younger child (partly just to see whether they actually like or not - I'm worried that it might be a little too twee, too written-down).

Limbo #1, by Dan Watters, Caspar Wijngaard, and Jim Campbell

Limbo #1

Publisher: Image Comics
Art and colors: Caspar Wijngaard
Story: Dan Watters
Letters: Jim Campbell
Rating: 4/5

Another first-issue review! I have a lot of great things to say about Limbo. The comic takes place in what I imagine is a southern US town - lots of Spanish names and signs, but I also got a New Orleans feel from the city. Clay, our main character, is a detective straight of a noir film. He's got his own mystery to solve, though, because nine months ago, he woke up with no memories. A lounge singer named Brigitte asks for his help dealing with a crime lord (The Thumb) who she witnessed some freaky shit involving a sacrificial goat and a staticky TV set.

I'll say right off the bat that the one reason this isn't a 5-star comic for me is that it's just not my thing. Everything about it is quality and I liked it quite a lot, but it didn't hit that right combination of buttons for me to love it. The art is awesome, it's just not my favorite style, etc. I suspect that will change as the story grows in scope (and grows on me), but I've never been a huge fan of noir - it's just not my cup of tea.

That said, the art in this is awesome. The city is full of neon lights and Wijngaard conveys that by using cool neon blues, pinks, purples, and greens against sharp black backgrounds. It's a neat effect and gives the story great visual and stylistic coherence.

I'm also impressed with how well-paced this is. In just one issue, Clay takes on and (perhaps) completes a case, so we have a sense of continuity and closure, but that case also introduces us to the major players in the city. Best of all, it's clearly tied into some crazy otherworldly magic that's affecting the city as a whole, so we get a glimpse of the overall plot.

I'll definitely be picking up future issues of this, so stay tuned for more reviews!

From Under Mountains #1, by Sloane Leong, Claire Gibson, Marian Churchland, and Ariana Maher

From Under Mountains #1

Publisher: Image Comics
Art and colors: Sloane Leong
Story: Claire Gibson and Marian Churchland
Letters: Ariana Maher
Rating: 3/5 stars, with potential

So this is a new thing I'm trying: quick reviews of single-issue comics. I've picked up a bunch of first issues lately and I'm slogging through them, and I think doing a 100-200 word review for each one will 1) keep me motivated and 2) help me keep track of how I felt about all of these once I'm done, and see which ones I want to keep an eye on or add to my pull list.

I picked up From Under Mountains #1 because I like Image comics, the art looked vibrant, and I liked the setting. Once I opened it, I noticed the all-female creative team, which I like, a lot. It's hard to find a comic with even one woman involved so this is a grand slam.

Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot here to keep me interested. The art was bright and bold and I love the use of colors and layout in the first third of the book, but after the first spirit-summoning sequence, all of the backgrounds were flat and monochrome, which left me visually bored. The body and face proportions seemed off in some of the panels, too - little details not quite in the right place.

There is some potential in the story and characters, but there's an awful lot of info-dump-y dialogue paired with those flat-background panels. Looking at it now, the art and story are at their best when they rely mostly on visual action and less on dialogue. It's hard to tell what the main plot is going to be, but there's a pair of noble siblings (the brother gets to have adventures while his sister stays at home),  some women summoning lethal spirits, a drunk would-be assassin, and a scruffy hero. Some of the scene changes (and plot-line introductions) feel a little disjointed, and I had a hard time keeping track of what was happening and who was who. It feels like there's a rich mythology behind this, but that it didn't quite get conveyed in the telling.

Still, I'm intrigued enough that I might pick up the second issue to see if it improves. When the art is good, it's lovely and uses some great bright jewel tones (which are my favorite), and I suspect in the future the dialogue will flow a little better.

Review: ODY-C, Vol. 1: Off to Far Ithicaa

ODY-C, Vol. 1: Off to Far Ithicaa by Matt Fraction
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've talked a lot recently in other reviews about the kinds of things I particularly enjoy in comics - weird narrative structure, experimental page layouts, abstract and non-representational art with bright colors - and "ODY-C" hits all those marks and more! I was hooked the moment I read the description: it's a re-telling of the Odyssey, in space, and all the characters are women. And it's such a blast!

I'm going to start with the artwork, because I've already mentioned it and because it's the most immediately striking thing about this story. The colors are incredibly vibrant and alive, and they melt into each other or clash forcefully against each other as the story demands it. Christian Ward has done an amazing job creating art that stands beautifully and powerfully on its own but also serves and uplifts the story. There is often little dialogue on a page, and the art alone tells large parts of the story. Character design (and world design) is fabulous. Most of the characters are women, but their physicality and gender presentation vary wildly (and gloriously). Hera has a beard. Zeus is large, insisting on taking up as much space as the head of the gods deserves. The characters (usually) are clear and distinct (with some exceptions, see below). Some of the character designs remind me of Moebius, which is high praise coming from me. There are almost no traditional comic panels in the story. Ward does some amazing things with concentric circle layouts that are simply stunning. The flexible and non-linear layouts add to how weird and trippy this whole story feels.

I'm enjoying the story quite a bit, too. I'll admit that it's sometimes difficult to get through, because while the overall story mirrors the Odyssey, that provides more of a general structure and many of the specifics are original (or very loose interpretations of the original story). So often, my rusty knowledge of the Odyssey is more of a hindrance than a help, because those expectations are subverted or diverted to a different direction. Other reviewers have mentioned difficulty with the language, as well, and there are times when it is hard to understand what's happening. Generally, I followed the story pretty well. There were some scenes I puzzled over, moved on, and understood in retrospect. There are others where I think I know what happened, but am genuinely not sure (though a re-read or going back to the scene would have helped). Most of the confusion stems from the combination of abstract, poetic Homeric language with sci-fi plotlines, but some also comes from the difficulty keeping track of some of the characters. Their names are often substantially changed from their original Greek, and in at least one instance I confused two of the non-Zeus gods and am still unsure who is who. The confusion and difficulty are what knocked this down from a home-run five-star story to four stars, but I suspect as the story continues (as I get used to the prose, as characters get more established, and I get myself the cliff notes for the Odyssey) this will get easier.

The characters themselves are, as in the Odyssey, not necessarily the kind of characters you warm up to, find compelling, and eagerly await their whole life story. The gods get some personality, and Fraction has given Odyssia more grounding, more personal and emotional depth than Homer ever bothered with Odysseus. Otherwise, it's a grand narrative with larger-than-life events, and with more narration than dialogue, so it's not particularly character-driven. But that's okay; that works here, because it's like the Odyssey in that regard and the story choices complement that decision.

And often, it's the small choices here that make the story great. Hera's beard - I love it. Odyssia captains her ship through literal willpower and mental synchrony with her subordinates; if anyone is not in general coordination with the rest of the crew, the ships can be thrown dangerously off course, and only Odyssia has the force of will to command the ship. Fraction mirrors the Odyssey by frequently using wolf metaphors to refer to Odyssia. Circe is a space pirate. The jealousy and pettiness of the gods (though certainly not unique to this telling) was delightful. There's a lot to love in the small moments, and it shows that Fraction and Ward know how to tell a good story.

The concept itself is pretty great, and Fraction has woven a neat little SF premise into the story beyond the whole 'set in space' conceit. Zeus has cursed humans and made it so no male creature can exist. Humans are trying to get around this in various ways - gender-neutral people, and one old man creepily tries to father sons on young woman after young woman - and it appears that Odyssia's child, as in the Odyssey, is a young man. I'm excited to see where that plotline will go, because it's such a clear departure from the original text. I'm excited to read more of this in general, and I definitely recommend it if you want an SF comic that's both a challenge and a delight.

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Review: Invisible Republic, Vol. 1

Invisible Republic, Vol. 1 by Gabriel Hardman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"Invisible Republic" isn't my typical choice for SF graphic novels or comics. I like flashy, bright, colorful art and tend toward stories that play around with narrative structure. "Invisible Republic" is darker, grittier, and has a straightforward story - but both the art and the story have such a tight focus that it's a gripping read. The 'what if...' at the core of this SF story isn't particularly wild: what if the disenfranchised people of a colonized moon took power, and then potentially damning information about their leader threatens to leak after he is deposed? The story follows two threads, one in the 'present' and one, told through the journal of his young cousin, about the rise of a populist dictator.

I'm not sure what the stakes are in the present-day part of this story line, as the dictator - Arthur McBride - has already either died or been deposed, marking the end of the Malory Regime, and the economic/political scene is already in chaos. A journalist has discovered a journal written by McBride's cousin, Maia Reveron, that begins with McBride's murder of two soldiers, kicking off the story of his rise to power. I'm a little muddy on the exact politics in either of the story arcs. I think that at the beginning of the earlier story, they live on a moon that was settled prior to FTL travel and so was fairly rural and poor, but now that FTL exists and there are new, higher-tech powers settling the moon, there is conflict between the original and new settlers. I think. Either way, there's a dearth of clear sci-fi elements in the story which was kind of disappointing for me as an SF fan. I suspect we'll see more of those, though, as the story continues. Still, the story is the most compelling aspect of this volume, and I'm eager for more.

Although the characters are the vehicle for the story here, and in fact the story is essentially the story of two people and the journalist covering them, the characters really take a backseat to the politics, and aren't particularly memorable. Maia is a promising lead, and I enjoyed her sojourn into beekeeping, but I have no idea what makes her Maia - I don't know her desires, what she enjoys, any character ticks or traits. Same goes for pretty much all the rest of the characters (with the partial exception of McBride, because we know he wants power and we're also supposed to be unsure of his motivations).


I mentioned before that the art is not my typical style. I like abstract art, things that aren't super representational. In that respect, "Invisible Republic" strikes an okay balance for me, because the art style is pretty loose and sketchy. The rough edges and unfinished quality fit the feel of the story, which is nice. I liked the visual distinctions between the storylines - mostly in terms of color, with brighter colors for the past - but I'm not sure they were entirely intentional, since much of the earlier storyline takes place in rural places while the later one is entirely in the urban centers.

Overall, I enjoyed this and I will probably pick up another volume if I stumble across it, but I'm not sure how good a grip I'll have on the plot, politics, and characters at that point, because even now it's hazy and muddy for me.

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Review: Star Wars: Darth Vader, Vol. 1: Vader

Star Wars: Darth Vader, Vol. 1: Vader by Kieron Gillen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I loved the Star Wars EU, so I was pretty sad when they de-canonized them (for months, I teared up every time I saw a bunch of them on a shelf at the library or bookstore). But I was also cautiously hopeful - maybe we'd get new stories that were more inclusive, or maybe as fun as the old ones with a more professional shine to them! Then we'd have two great universes to read in! But honestly, the tone of the EU that I loved, the craziness and campiness and never-ending space opera, was the result of individuals who loved Star Wars. There were some real out-there stories, some terribly bad stories, but they were usually bad because people took risks and they failed. It was fans who made the old EU happen, because they loved it, and the EU grew from the bottom up. And the new novels are entirely the result of top-down story direction, with Disney deciding what plots and character types to include so they can market the books to as wide an audience as possible, and "obsessive, life-long, passionate Star Wars fans who loved the EU" is a very niche audience. You can see it in the recurring bland character types they use for every truly new character. They won't have any Starcaves or MindHarps or Sun Crushers (oh wait...), but I think it will take a while for the books to get back to the beloved, well-worn feel of the old EU, if they ever do. I think it would require Star Wars falling out of the public consciousness for a long time, and there's no way Disney's going to let that happen if it can still make them money.

(Above taken from a comment I made on reddit.com/r/StarWars to provide some context for my feelings).

So, obviously, I've been disappointed by so much of the new EU. But this first volume of the Star Wars: Darth Vader comic has finally given me a new hope for the future of the new canon! For the first time, we get some crazy, strange ideas that aren't slick, consumer-tested plots and characters guaranteed to offend no one, or re-packaged ideas from the original trilogy. And, like in the old EU, I'm not sure these ideas do work - but I'm so excited to see how they work out! There's a woman who's draws heavily on Indiana Jones, an archaeologist-turned-thief who gets recruited to work for Vader himself. And on top of all of that, they're mucking about in the plotlines directly relevant to the original trilogy! Palpatine has a secret group of apprentices(? maybe?), beings trained and scientifically augmented to be weapons that don't necessarily draw on the force. There are psychopathic twins, a person who controls a swarm of flying robots - this is weird shit, folks, and it's all happening during the original trilogy. It's glorious. I want all Star Wars to be like this again.

The story also continues the new EU theme of Vader's ambivalence toward his role as Palpatine's apprentice, and his constant memories of the life he lived before. I don't know yet how I feel about this. In some ways, it makes his conversion in Return of the Jedi make a little more sense, and it provides some character continuity; Anakin doesn't immediately become the monster Vader and change personalities. In others, though, it kind of cheapens the work Luke does throughout the original trilogy. If Vader is doubtful, if Vader has always questioned his choice to embrace the dark side, then Luke's job wasn't actually difficult at all (or at least not as hard as it was made out to be). It definitely works better than in Lords of the Sith, because at this point, Vader's old life has been forcibly re-awakened by Luke's entrance into his life.

I'm not a huge fan of the artwork, though. It stays in incredibly safe, well-trodden territory. I like my art weird and symbolic and colorful and abstract, and Star Wars comic art has generally always been fairly iconic and strictly representative (though I like the strange color palettes for some of the pre-Republic tales in the old EU).

I will gladly keep reading this series, because it's kickass. I want to see more of Indiana Jones-lady. I want to see more of Palpatine's insane kill squad. I want more risky, strange, fun stories in the Star Wars universe.

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Review: Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm fairly disappointed in "Understanding Comics." In the best lit course I ever took, we read the second chapter, "The Vocabulary of Comics," and it was a mind-blowing read that has shaped the way I read comics since. Unfortunately, it's easily the best chapter in the book and only two or three other chapters are anywhere near as fascinating. The meat of the book is in a few central chapters, and the rest is insubstantial fluff about how amazing comics are - or could be, if the medium were taken seriously. It's also clearly dated. While comics are still looked down upon and not generally treated as equal to written literature, the genre has gained a significant amount of prestige in the past twenty years, so McCloud's frequent protestations against how maligned comics are and his insistence that comics are worth respect are now unnecessary.

Several chapters are certainly worth reading. The aforementioned "Vocabulary of Comics" introduces the basic elements of comics writing and the idea of symbols, signs, and icons. McCloud goes into serious depth about how variation in style can be used to deliberately evoke either distance or empathy with characters, to 'other' or include the reader. The section on panels and the spaces between them is another highlight. Essentially, any time he digs into the structure of comics, how that structure can be used, and how that structure is different from literature and useful in ways that written literature can't match, I'm sold on comics as a medium all over again. When he's waxing eloquent about how amazing comics are, he loses me, because I don't need to be told: I want to be shown. The book starts out strong in this regard while the last several chapters are a bear to get through.

I like his frequent references to important comic artists, stories and styles (and his reproductions), because as someone with little knowledge of the history of comics, those moments do a great job of illustrating his point while simultaneously broadening my knowledge. He disclaims at the beginning that this isn't a history of comics, but I could have used a bit more history nonetheless. Still, he cites some great sources that I immediately read and were great resources in themselves for understanding comics, art, and history.

I also love his efforts to tie comics back to visual sequential art throughout history; it's one of those things you don't think about until it's pointed out to you, and then it makes a world of sense. The book is full of such things and I don't ever tire of them.

Overall, I recommend at least the first half of the book. If you have a bit more patience or indulgence for dated ideology than I do, then the whole thing might be a home run for you.

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Review: Planetes Omnibus, Volume 1

Planetes Omnibus, Volume 1 by Makoto Yukimura
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Disclosure: I received a free e-galley copy of this book from Edelweiss.

I'd heard about "Planetes" when I received my e-galley copy, but I hadn't heard much. I had no idea what this book was about, no expectations, and I was honestly pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed everything about it. From the opening scenes the characters, the world, and the style pulled me in. All of the SF anime and manga I've consumed has either been near-future, Earth-based, and often dystopian or cyberpunk (Neon Genesis Evangelion, Ghost in the Shell, Akira), or set in the far future when humanity is already living comfortably in space (Knights of Sidonia) - but above all, thematically concerned with human and other, instantiated as humans and the super-human (either superpowered humans or something more alien and more powerful). "Planetes" is unique (to me) in that it's a near-ish future concerned with expansion into space and humans living their lives. There are no giant aliens, no cyborgs, no superhumans, just humanity.

This focus on human life is clear from the opening scenes: a man and his wife are flying in a low-orbit ship across the planet. The wife is nervous, as she always is. The husband moves to the back of the ship to get some coffee, and the entire front end of the ship is destroyed. A few years later, he is part of the three-person crew that are the core characters of the story. Their ship is a garbage collector; they spend their days literally cleaning up after humanity, collecting space debris. This is an important job, though, because the thoughtless, random detritus of human expansion can be deadly, from the largest chunk of space station to the smallest screw. There's Yuri, who is looking for his late wife's compass, Hachimaki, who wants nothing more than to be chosen for the longest space trip ever, a trip to Jupiter, and Fee, who wants nothing more than a good place for a smoke.

Most of the story arcs can stand alone, and many are slice-of-life pieces, but together they build a story that spans several years and chronicles the lives of a crew that grow together and come to depend on each other. I love the character dynamics, especially as the series continues and minor characters blossom. I also very much enjoy the world Yukimura has built (as a side note, I'm impressed that he's both the writer and illustrator for the whole thing). It's a world with moving parts and importance, and a message that comes through pervasively but not overwhelmingly. The art was a slow burn. I didn't love it at first, because I do have a strong preference for color over black and white, but there are some absolutely gorgeous scenes where the blackness of space feels as vast and drowning as it is in reality.

Overall, strongly recommend this collection, and I'll be on the lookout for the second one soon!

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Review: Rat Queens - Deluxe - Volume One

Rat Queens - Deluxe - Volume One by Kurtis J. Wiebe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Disclosure: I received a free e-galley copy of this book from Image Comics.

Why did I wait so long to read Rat Queens?? This ARC has been on my computer for at least a month, probably more. I'd heard about the series last fall, and the local comic store clerk recommended it to me after finding out I liked Image and played D&D. Seriously, though: it's a hilarious, well-drawn, action-packed AND character-driven story about an all-female adventuring party (with some queer action thrown in)! It's everything I've ever dreamed of!

The story opens with the town of Palisade deciding what to do about the rowdy parties of adventurers that, while ostensibly protecting the town, tend to cause a lot of commotion (and property damage). Enter the Rat Queens (through the wall of the building): a beardless dwarf named Violet, a drug-and-women-loving smidgen named Betty, a necromancing elf named Hannah, and a human(?) paladin named Dee who no longer follows her god. The Rat Queens and the rest of the adventurers are sentenced to some boring, run-of-the-mill quests to get them out of jail (and keep out of future trouble), but the missions are quickly revealed to be traps intended to kill them all.

From this fairly standard RPG beginning, it's easy to assume that the story would be cookie-cutter the rest of the way, too - lots of fighting, straightforward quests, lots of dungeons and/or dragons, and not much in terms of character development or world building. Thankfully, this story upends that expectation right away. There's a large, self-contained story in this volume and while the action is certainly thrilling and frequent, it serves mainly as part of a larger story about the relationships between these characters and this town. We get mid-battle flashbacks (due to magical effects) for some origin stories, we get complicated sexual and romantic relationships, we get a sense that this team loves each other deeply and *that* drives the action and the story.

The art is pretty fantastic - a perfect choice for this kind of story. Bold, strong lines, bright colors, and the right kind of detail that reflects and adds to the personality of each character. The artists changed a bit of the way through the series, but I wasn't looking for it, and couldn't tell.

The one drawback to the series is that several times, either due to scene changes or maybe just being slightly dense, I couldn't figure out what the dialogue was referring to. Sometimes flipping back helped, sometimes I was left puzzling and moved on. (For others who have read it, here's one of the points I could still use some clarification on: When Betty tells Hannah she's scared of her black eyes, what is she referring to? I flipped back to the previous scene but I didn't see any obvious eye changes.)

This edition was also lovely, with some extras in the back that riff on the characters and show us some cute extra artwork.

Would highly recommend to anyone who likes D&D, epic fantasy, great stories, and a fun, compelling read!

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Review: Junction True

Junction True by Ray Fawkes
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: I received a free e-galley of this book from Netgalley.

I had no expectations going into "Junction True." I knew it was a comic, and I assumed it was sci-fi since I'd requested the galley, but it had been so long since I'd read the description that I no longer remembered anything about it.

So at least I wasn't disappointed. This is a fairly solid, middle-of-the-pack story about body modification and power. The main character, a woman named Teralyn, is telling the first several issues of the story to what appears to be her lover. She's telling the story of her largest, most significant body modification.

In this world, mods are common (in certain circles, called Neumods) but fairly dangerous. They're also generally not mechanical; they're organic, like aphid tears you can install in your tear ducts to cry psychedelic tears, or tapeworms you can eat to make yourself skinny, or small creatures you can put under your skin to make colorful patterns. Of course, being insects and parasites and bacteria and viruses, these things can do a lot of damage. Teralyn meets Dirk at a club and he instantly falls in love with her. She instantly sees how she can use him; she tells him she only wants a puppet, and he agrees to be that puppet. Together, they decide to undertake a dangerous, horrifying mod, one that has been done on few people because it's illegal: they will essentially install junctions into their bodies that will make Dirk's digestion dependent on Teralyn. He can't process nutrients except as she feeds them through their junction. If she takes drugs and connects to him, he will get high whether he wants to or not.

Dirk's journalist friend Naoko doesn't think this is a good idea. (Neither do I.) She documents the stories of people whose Neumods have gone horribly wrong, and we see those interviews throughout the story. Some believe the mods ruined their lives, others think that their deformities are just one of many possible outcomes of Neumods - they made an informed decision going in, and they'd make it again. But Dirk agrees to this true junction (so named because the junctions are true to one another; no other link can be formed with them) after knowing Teralyn only a little more than a week, and Naoko is concerned.

She's right to be. Teralyn has never exactly hidden her crazy from Dirk, but she insists that they only refer to themselves as "I" or "we," never "you," and only "Teralyn," not Dirk. Only Teralyn exists. It may not even be a week before she runs off, leaving him to starve.

At this point, Teralyn stops narrating her story, saying she doesn't know or care what happened to him. She assumes he's dead. But then, he and Naoko enter. Dirk is hooked up to a machine, his junction torn out, and asks to speak to Teralyn alone while a video records them. He tells her he only wants to be a part of her again, and then kills himself. His friends are not so kind - they forcibly remove her junction and connect her to Dirk's machine.

We see that the true narrator is Naoko; this is perhaps a book, or video-chronicle, of the story she is compiling. She feels guilt for what she did to Teralyn and spends the rest of her life caring for the now-invalid woman.

The story is haunting and dark. The dynamic between Teralyn and Dirk falls just short of disturbing because Dirk, to me, doesn't feel hopelessly in love, or like he wants to be controlled, or like he actually knows what he wants at all; he feels stupid. We don't get much depth from him and could do with more. I'm not a fan of 'love at first sight' or Romeo & Juliet stories, both of which this story works with, because they feel shallow. That's a good word to describe my general feelings toward the book: shallow. It wants to say a lot about power, sex, relationships, autonomy, but it doesn't have much to say about them, and it lays it all out on the page. The characters aren't substantial enough to make up for the the brief plot, either, so it's left feeling lacking.

The art is, at times, beautiful. It reminds me of certain issues of The Sandman, with its angular faces, blue-washed watercolors and populated backgrounds. But it's also visually dark, and while there's a good amount of detail, it gets lost in the darkness. There's a grimy feel to it, which is certainly intentional since this is a cyberpunk-y world, but it doesn't appeal to me very much.

A quick, solid read that certainly wasn't bad, but wasn't excellent.

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Review: Descender, Vol. 1: Tin Stars

Descender, Vol. 1: Tin Stars by Jeff Lemire
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: I received a free e-galley copy of this book from NetGalley.

When I initially saw "Descender" I was excited, but a little bit nervous. I read Lemire's "Trillium" over the summer, and while it was strikingly illustrated, I thought the story was incredibly lacking. My fears are alleviated, though! This comic seems much more plot-heavy, and the plot is more compelling.

Tim-21 is a robot. A very advanced robot that looks like a human boy, and is made to be a companion to human children as they grow. Tim-21 was created by Dr. Quon, the leading scientist in robotics. Almost as soon as the Tim series was created, though, giant robots larger than planets themselves appear next to each of the nine settled planets and begin to wreak havoc. Just as suddenly they disappeared. Ten years later, the UGC (the central governing body of the settled planets) tracks down Dr. Quon, because they think that the Tim series is somehow related to the appearance of the giant destructors.

Tim-21 wakes up after what he thinks is one night of 'sleep', only to find it's been ten years. After he was shut down for the night, a terrible virus killed all the human inhabitants of the mining colony where his 'family' lived. He and his dog-like pet robot are the only active beings on the moon - but not for long! The UGC is beaten there by a bunch of scrappers, who realize Tim-21's value and try to capture him, almost destroying him in the process. Tim-21 is saved by a driller robot (who yells "DRILLER IS KILLER. DRILL IS REAL KILLER" as he kills the scrappers) just in time for the UGC to come down and take them all off-planet.

And they're almost immediately captured by anti-UGC people and taken to a planet with a strong pro-robot faction. Dr. Quon is tortured and reveals that he didn't develop the technology behind Tim-21 on his own: his teacher found a super-advanced robot in an archaeological dig and Quon stole the credit, developing all his robots based on technology they don't even know the source of. So the theory that the Tim-series is somehow connected to the giant, planet-destroying robots is starting to look pretty good.

The story here feels like a wonderful space opera - lots of exciting reveals, strange worlds and weird aliens, mysterious technology. It's always about what's happening next, so at some points the story feels superficial, but there are also moments where it rises above, where it delves deeper and we see not just the comic's story but Tim-21's story. Either way, I'm always along for the ride.

Easily the best part of the comic is the artwork. It's full of beautifully vivid watercolor illustrations. The artist knows exactly when to use broad, saturated strokes, and when to focus on delicate detail. I was blown away by how stunning the art was, how easily I was taken into the world and how beautiful that world was.

Very much looking forward to the next volume of Descender!

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Review: Low, Vol. 2: Before the Dawn Burns Us

Low, Vol. 2: Before the Dawn Burns Us by Rick Remender
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: I received a free e-galley copy of this book from Image Comics.

I have gushed about Low, Volume 1 previously, and here I am to gush about Volume 2. If the artwork was stunning last time, it's decadently astonishing this time. The colors (which tend toward blue/orange, like Volume 1, but add in some lovely red/green/yellow and purple/green locales as well) are rich and layered. The oppositional color schemes work without looking cheesy because while the blues and oranges are rich and deep and pure, they're also nuanced; the blue has streaks of green, the orange streaks of red, both have streaks of yellow intermixed. I also still love the connection between color and location. In such a visually busy comic (that, as I mentioned last time, tends to skimp on backgrounds), the colors are a clear and beautiful way to establish location, so that detailed backgrounds for each panel aren't necessary.

One of the many things I love about the world created here - a world where everyone is forced underwater due to the toxic radiation of the sun, where humans have lived under the ocean for centuries - is that it echoes a lot of concerns in the solarpunk movement. Solarpunk is generally about fiction that has an optimistic view of the world (like the one Remender tries to convey here) and focuses on ecologically and socially sustainable futures. In terms of the literal world here, where most of the underwater colonies are in disrepair and societal collapse, it's not quite solarpunk, but the importance of sustainability is definitely a strong theme here, and I like that a lot.

My problem with Volume 1 re: the nakedness of all the ladies and the not-nakedness of all the men is somewhat rectified here. There are fewer ladies and fewer men, so fewer chances for disparity. Though it still succeeds in showing us the boobs of almost every female character to grace its pages.

I wish the story had flowed a little bit better here. Coming from the first volume, everything is mostly fine (except for the first sequence with Della, where it's initially unclear who the characters are or where it's taking place), but the switch from Della's story to her mother's and back across three issues makes this volume on its own feel choppy or uneven, as if it's not sure what story to tell at first. By the end, though, things feel fine; the focus is unequivocally back on mom and her journey to the surface.

Della's story arc also seemed brief - I wanted to savor her anger, her conflict in this society, but it resolves so quickly that I'm not even sure where she is (though this might be because it's been a while since I read Volume 1). I could read a whole volume, at least, about her life in this place, maybe about her youth. That goes for all the characters and all the locales, too. I just want so much more about this world, because it's so rich and invites so many story opportunities. Leaving a reader wanting more is definitely not a bad thing, though. Just a thought if this story wraps up soon - we're all eager to read more stories in this world!

There are still some trite-ness issues in the writing for the optimistic characters. Even when Stel becomes briefly disillusioned with her optimism, she seems one-dimensional - just in the opposite direction than usual. It makes the characters seem immature, like they can only hold one very literal interpretation of the world in their heads at once. And again, I have problems with the idea that their thoughts can literally change the world around them, because it's a strange belief for a person to hold. And it's executed pretty poorly. The characters say superficial things, they aren't allowed nuance in their understanding. It's single-mindedness, and it's frustrating.

Still - this is a beautifully illustrated comic, an intriguing and expansive world, and an interesting story to follow. I would definitely recommend this to anyone trying to get into comics who isn't into superheroes or is into beauty. Review was initially 3 stars, and then I realized that despite the technical issues I simply love this story so much I had to bump it to 4.

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Review: Tank Girl, Vol. 1

Tank Girl, Vol. 1 by Jamie Hewlett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Tank Girl should have been in my life probably from birth, but somehow I didn't see the movie until about a year ago, and just got around to making my way through the comics. It's a post-apocalypse tale in the style of Mad Max: lots of loosely-connected tales with an 80s punk aesthetic about zooming around the Australian wilderness in a trademark vehicle with few connections to others, giving zero fucks. They could even be in the same universe. Tank Girl, though, is spastic, spontaneous, and thoughtless where Max is deliberate and methodical, always with one eye toward the future. Tank Girl is also much more lighthearted; whether it's a warehouse full of beer, Tank Girl's life, or the whole world at stake, you know that somehow she'll pull through. It makes both the movie and the comics incredibly fun to experience.

Tank Girl, Volume 1 is a collection of the first several runs of Tank Girl, accompanied by commentary from the authors that frame Tank Girl's origins and development. I'm probably in the minority on this, but sometimes I wish all books came with a retrospective letter from the author (or an informed editor) that give some context or history for the work. In this case, the foreward gave me notice of the various inspirations for Tank Girl, told me how the character developed to the point where she got her own story, and discussed the styles of each of the creators, which allowed me to trace various artists' and writers' contributions.

For the most part in Volume 1, each issue was its own, self-contained story. Tank Girl fucks up a rare mission from what I presume is the post-apocalyptic Australian government in the first story, liberates a warehouse where some cronies are stockpiling her favorite brand of beer in another, and (possibly my favorite) teams up with her best friends Jet Girl and Sub Girl for a birthday bash in yet another. We see a lot of Booga, her on-and-off fuckbuddy/boyfriend. One of the most striking stories is one that has little Tank Girl in it at all; she appears at the end, as a mythic figure of liberation. And another (again, maybe my favorite) where her teddy bear is ruined and they have to retrieve another from the store.

The artwork develops throughout, since these are the first several issues, but from start to finish it's a blast. There isn't an inch of wasted space on the page, everything is full of in-your-face bold colors or fantastic world-building detail. I'm a sucker for comics that flesh out their world by paying close attention to their scenery and details - adding in tiny elements that don't just add visual interest but convey something about the world, about the characters. And that's something the artists do here wonderfully.

I also just love Tank Girl. I love her kickass style. I love her foul language. I love the design of Tank Girl, unabashedly female and not here for the male gaze; there were very few moments where I was uncomfortable with the physical portrayal of the female body, which is rare for comics of any era. She's sexual, voraciously and scarily. I love that in some scenes her face reminds me so strikingly of my sister that I do a double-take. I love her combat boots and her stupidly awesome hair.

The world-building and storytelling here is interesting to me, as someone who came from the movie first. In the film, it's clearly a post-apocalyptic scenario. Here, amidst all the chaos of Tank Girl's life, it's hard to tell exactly what is happening. A gang can control the production and release of a brand of beer, but Tank Girl clearly gets orders from someone military. There's still media and government. But I love that things are left unclear; the patchwork nature of the story here, where you get bits and pieces of sometimes clearly contradictory information as-needed for whatever story is happening, is something quintessentially Tank Girl. It's as if we're seeing the world through Tank Girl's eyes, regardless of how the world actually is, she only pays attention to what is relevant at that moment.

I'm eager to read the rest in this set - hopefully, they're all as rewarding and entertaining a read as this.

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Review: Barbarella

Barbarella by Jean-Claude Forest
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Barbarella is one of my favorite movies. After reading the comic, I realize it's pretty similar in tone and aesthetic to its source material, and lifts heavily from this volume to create its plot. The comic stands well on its own, too. The book takes the form of four or five chapters, each detailing a series of somewhat connected events and generally telling a self-contained story. Its lovely artwork - lots of stylized shots of the alien world, and each chapter using only black and one jewel-tone color - pops right off the page. Jane Fonda is the spitting image of the illustrated Barbarella, which is neat. Like the movie, there's lots of sex, and the abruptness with which it starts and ends is played for laughs (a feeling I get at the beginning and end of each chapter, too). The comic shows us a little more of the world, but the movie definitely uses the most compelling parts of the comic. All in all, it's a pretty, fun classic, and while the characters and stories are rather bare-bones, the artwork and humor make up for it.

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Review: Y: The Last Man - The Deluxe Edition Book One

Y: The Last Man - The Deluxe Edition Book One by Brian K. Vaughan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Brian K. Vaughan is incredibly prolific right now. With Saga being one of the most talked-about comics running, the special edition of Private Eye releasing, a new online-only comic dropping with Marcos Martin, and Y: The Last Man getting a TV adaptation, he's certainly got some buzz. (And that's only the stuff *I'm* familiar with, and I'm only just dipping my toes into the comic world waters.)

So, I read this because Saga was great and because it's a dystopian world where all the men are dead and it's getting an adaptation. Those aren't all necessarily great reasons to read a comic - I prefer to be drawn in by the art, the world-building, the writing - but Vaughan is clearly talented and I like gender-focused dystopias. I wasn't disappointed at all. The characters are well-rounded, the story is complex but clear and easy to follow, and the art is pretty good (though not particularly interesting or compelling). There are moments where the story evokes real emotion, but it often feels kind of flat. I think it's because the story favors action over emotion in general, and that's not necessarily a problem. I do want to continue the series, but it's to see how the various story threads play out, not because I'm invested in the characters.

The first issue begins with all the men on Earth dying, then immediately jumps back in time to maybe an hour before to give us some background on our main story threads. We have Yorick (the soon-to-be titular Last Man) and his monkey, conversing with his girlfriend in Australia. We see Yorick's mom, a Congresswoman, talking to a rather rude and sexist Senator. We see an Israeli soldier, a woman, dealing with some street crime. We see a scientist giving birth to a clone. We see a US secret agent trying (and failing) to protect a woman who has an amulet that cannot be taken from her country or, according to legend, something drastically bad will happen. The amulet is immediately taken from the country by the agent (Agent 355) and all the men die. It's not clear if this is a causal relationship, at least not at this point.

Yorick sets off to find his girlfriend (maybe fiancee? he asked her to marry him but we didn't quite get the answer) and stops by D.C. to see his mom. The White House is under attack by the widows of conservative congressmen who believe they should be allowed to take over their husbands' seats. Agent 355 shows up with the new President (the former Secretary of Agriculture, I think?) who was the first woman in the chain of succession who is still alive. Yorick's mom sends him off with Agent 355 to find the scientist who specializes in cloning, though he still just wants to find his fiancee. The pair is pursued by Amazonians, women who believe that the death of men was a liberation for women, and who want to ensure that this Last Man, their last oppressor, is killed. They're led by an insidious, abusive woman who fits the 'cult leader' stereotype pretty well, and the one tasked with finding Yorick (though she doesn't know it's him 'til later) happens to be his sister, Hero.

Yorick and 355 join up with the scientist (Allison Mann) and her lab is promptly destroyed by the Israeli soldier. Dr. Mann, whose clone-baby died (it was going to be her nephew) and who believes that the death of all men was because of her experiment. They have to travel to California, where Dr. Mann's backup samples are. On the way there, they find a town that is still somehow functioning, while everyone else is still struggling to get electricity and plumbing working. Yorick starts to crush on a young woman in the town - and then she tells him that they're all from the women's prison down the road, and they're so successful because they're used to existing without men. The Amazons show up and Hero kills Yorick's lady, and Yorick nearly kills Hero in return. The Amazons are then taken into custody by the former prisoners, but Hero escapes - and that's where the story leaves off.

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