Book
of the Week
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| Alex + Ada #6 |
Still groundbreaking and sensational, Alex + Ada bursts with new and interesting ideas on every page. The book successfully looks at humanity through the lens of science fiction.
Rating:
***** out of 5 stars
 |
| Madame Frankenstein #1 |
Rating: *** stars out of 5
 |
| Original Sin #1 |
Original
Sin #1: I don’t read any DC comics anymore, and precious few Marvels. I enjoyed
the Free Comic Book Day Original Sin #0, so thought I would dip my toes into
Marvel’s latest big event. The book had mixed results.
Uatu
the Watcher, a character created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in the ‘60s, has
been watching Earth ever since. Forbidden to interfere in human affairs, he
does so anyway, regularly and brazenly. When the Watcher’s house on the moon
explodes, Nick Fury (the real one, not the politically correct movie Fury
Marvel has shoehorned into their books) gathers a team of Avengers to go see
what happened. In a particularly gory
two-page spread, they find the Watcher dead and two bloody spots where his eyes
used to be.
Noticing
that a few of the Watcher’s more destructive sci-fi gadgets are missing, Fury
decides they have to play detective and find who murdered Uatu and stole all of
his wonderful toys. Writer Jason Aaron shows he has a decent handle on Marvel’s
big guns and artist Mike Deodato gets better every year. I can’t say I like the
overall plot—is killing a 50 year-old character really the best choice for a
“big event” subject? The worst part—and not Aaron or Deodato’s fault—is the
horridness of modern Marvel superhero costumes. Captain America looks
awful—like he’s a transformer or something. His original costume worked for 70
years for a reason—it was cool. Iron Man’s armor is now mostly black, I’m sure
because there is not enough black in superhero costumes. Change for a reason is
fine. Change for change’s sake or to be exactly like the movie is stupid and ineffective.
This
story does have my attention, and for now I’ll follow to see where it goes.
Rating: *** stars out of 5
 |
| The Woods #1 |
The
Woods #1: I don’t think I am the audience for this book. Good writers can take
almost any concept and, while they may have a specific audience in mind, make
it enjoyable to general readers. Writer James Tynion IV seems to have the
modern teenager in mind here and no one else.
It’s
a normal day at Bay Point Preparatory High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The
class clown/jock is streaking through the hallways, a popular cheerleader
bemoans her unplanned pregnancy, the gay kid is ... gay, and the nerds want to
be popular. In the blink of an eye the entire school is transported to another
world, a planet of dark forests and flying bat-things that want to eat you. The
only man-made thing in sight is a big metal arrow pointing north. To what? Are
they supposed to follow it? Wait for their captors? Who knows? A general vote decides
that the students and teachers will stay put, but a small group shows
initiative by deciding to follow the arrow and see what happens.
This
first issue does a good job of setting up the theme of the book and giving us a
sample of the characters and their personalities. Unfortunately, the book is
somewhat rote and derivative. This type of story has been done many times, most
notably in the Japanese manga The Drifting Classroom, from which The Woods
borrows heavily. The characters are a bit flat and the exact same as the
characters in The Breakfast Club and a hundred other teenager movies. The
mystery is intriguing—what happened? Who transported the school? What do they
want? Where exactly are they? But I’m not sure I am interested enough to hang
around to find out. It doesn’t help that the art is mediocre at best.
Rating:
*** stars out of 5
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| Chaos #1 |
Chaos #1: Chaos, a comic book company that went out of business some years ago, sort of returns with all of their signature characters in one book, courtesy of Dynamite. The most popular characters; Purgatori the vampire and her significant other Evil Ernie, are aiming to bring on Ragnarok (I didn’t even know they were Nordic). The Chosen, a group of humans with supernatural powers, are fighting to stop them. I’m not sure if Chastity knows what side she’s on—I certainly don’t. I like some of these characters in their original incarnations, and I always appreciated that they never took themselves too seriously. They don’t here, either. This miniseries means to bring the characters out of ...um, purgatory ... and give them something to do. The art could be better, but the story is fun and serviceable enough. Welcome back, Chaos!
Rating: *** stars out of 5
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