Y: The Last Man: Book 1: Unmanned

From the shelf of unread books.

Title: Y: The Last Man
Issue: Book 1
Date: 2003
Publisher: DC Comics (Vertigo)
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan 
Penciler: Pia Guerra 
Inker: Jose Marzan, Jr. 
Colorist: Pamela Rambo
Letterer: Clem Robins 

Collects the first five issues of Y: The Last Man, featuring the story of the last man on Earth when a plague (biological attack? something supernatural? something else?) instantly kills every male on the planet except for the protagonist, Yorick and his pet monkey.

The thought-experiment aspect of this can be a bit frustrating in places as I was left trying to make some sense out of the setup scenario, but of course the point here is the symbolism more so than the chain of logic, and as symbolism this is great, both in the story an embedded in the art. It's also a really interesting story that does a good job of building tension with plenty of violent action while introducing characters and setting up longterm plotlines. This is a story with a lot going on.

The character of Yorick, an escape artist, has some really clever moments, and his pairing with a hardcore intelligence agent makes for fun chemistry.

As a side note, I had just finished reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon, which also features an escape artist protagonist, and included a bonus story in which the character of Sam Clay meets none other than a young Brian K. Vaughan. I didn't review that book on this blog, but you can find my review here.

I was late to the party as far as reading this series, having only previously read the first issue, but this was a really good start.

Rating: 8/10

Hellboy: The Wild Hunt

Bought at Boocup, Kerry Parkside, Pudong, Shanghai, China.

Title: Hellboy: The Wild Hunt
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Date: October, 2018
Writer: Mike Mignola
Artist: Duncan Fegredo
Colorist: Dave Stewart
Letterer: Clem Robins
Editor: Scott Allie

Hellboy is recruited to join the Wild Hunt to defeat a gang of six giants who have awakened from their tombs. But the battle with the giants leads to betrayal and plunges Hellboy into a rapidly-brewing war between the forces of mythical Britain.

This was a beautifully atmospheric deep dive into Arthurian mythology with Hellboy's own distinctively snarky viewpoint laid over the ancient forces a play.

There is a lot going on in terms of plot and characters, and much of this volume is simply putting pieces onto the board for the game to come, but the setup is lovely to watch unfold.

Duncan Fegredo does a great job with the art, incorporating the mythical elements while keeping the distinctive look of Hellboy.

Rating: 8.5/10

The Strain #1

Special $1 introductory issue released a few weeks ago.

Title: The Strain
Issue: 1
Date: 2011
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Writer: Guillermo Del Toro, Chuck Hogan, David Lapham
Artist: Mike Huddleston
Letterer: Clem Robins
Colorist: Dan Jackson
Editor: Jim Gibbons, Sierra Hahn

Comic adaptation of the first novel of a trilogy by film director Guillermo Del Toro and writer Chuck Hogan. David Lapham adapts the story to script.

The opening flashback is standard vampire fare, with a young boy in Romania in 1927 hearing a local legend from his grandmother.

Flash forward to the present and there's a plane quarantined on the tarmac at JFK with all communication cut off and a bioterrorism response team en route. CDC doctor Ephraim Goodweather finds all but three passengers dead in an incident that apparently lasted only six minutes.

All of this is a reasonable prologue for what seems to be a full-scale vampire apocalypse. Like the investigators themselves, I'm left trying to figure out how things transpired on the plane, and it makes for a pretty engaging mystery.

Doctor Goodweather comes off as rather generic as main characters go. The other main character, Abraham Setrakian, seems a bit more interesting, but the present-time version of him just gets a tease in the last two pages.

This issue did a nice job of setting the scene, but other than the opening flashback, there the story felt like it was all setup and no depth. The arrival by plane was a nice variant on the events of Dracula, but the really interesting aspects that will distinguish this from other vampire stories are not yet apparent.

Rating: 6/10

Baltimore / Criminal Macabre

Missed yesterday's review due to technical difficulties with our internet connection. Fortunately, we seem to have solved the problem (by changing providers; bye-bye Verizon!). Here's another selection from Free Comic Book Day 2011.

Title: Avatar: Baltimore / Criminal Macabre
Date: May, 2011
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Writer: Steve Niles, Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden
Artist: Christopher Mitten, Ben Stenbeck
Letterer: Nate Piekos of Blambot, Clem Robins
Colorist: Michelle Madsen, Dave Stewart
Editor: Scott Allie
Cover: Christopher Mitten, Michelle Madsen, Mike Mignola, Dave Stewart

Flip book. First up is Baltimore, a well-executed but somewhat generic alternate history monster-hunter story by Mike Mignola. It's set in 1916 in Germany, where war has given way to a plague of monsters that threatens the land. Two boys observe the arrival in their town of a stranger, a mysterious monster-slayer who just might be exactly what the citizens need to deal with the local vampires. And giant spiders. Decent introduction didn't deliver much in the way of surprises but featured good storytelling from start to finish.

Flip over the book and you get the supernatural noir comedy Criminal Macabre. The plot for this one-shot story involving Frankenstein's monster was resolved a bit too quickly ( a function of the format of this FCBD freebie to some extent), but the dialogue and narration were very entertaining.

Neither book showed much depth, but they were both fun.

Rating: 7/10