Wonder Woman #8

From the random stack of unread comics.

Title: Wonder Woman
Issue: #8
Date: June, 2012
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Brian Azzarello
Artist: Cliff Chiang
Colorist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Jared K. Fletcher
Editor: Matt Idelson, Chris Conroy
Cover: Cliff Chiang

Diana and Hermes enter the Underworld to free Diana's friend Zola from imprisonment in the realm of Hades. If you have read your mythology, you probably realize that this kind of quest usually doesn't end well.

Generally speaking, I'm not a fan of the version of Greek mythology that shows up in Wonder Woman comics. I've also seen a LOT of versions of the underworld in one incarnation or another over the years. So I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised in both regards with this story.

The Greek gods were written in clever and original versions that kept the flavor of the stories. The underworld was imaginative and creepy, with Cliff Chiang's artwork doing an excellent job of bringing life (well, undeath, really) to the vision.

Diana spouts a lot of cliches in the dialogue, and she kind of blunders into big trouble as the story unfolds, but it was still a fun read that kept me interesting in seeing what was coming on the next page.

Rating: 8/10

Nail Polish

Ordered this one from the artist's Etsy store last Spring and picked it up from our mail drop when we visited the US in the summer.

Title: Nail Polish
Date: 2016
Publisher: Assigned Male Comics
Writer: Sophie LaBelle
Artist: Sophie LaBelle

Two transgender pre-teens discuss life, clothes, family, and everything else while one of them tries nail polish for the first time.

This was sweet and thoughtful, and the dialogue and pacing worked great for introducing the characters in a small space without a any really jarring plot developments.

LaBelle's artwork is lovely, and she works a kind of quiet wisdom into her writing that connects with the reader.

Rating: 8.5/10

Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets

The Kiddo brought this one home from the school library.

Title: Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets
Publisher: Scholastic
Date: 1999
Writer: Dav Pilkey
Artist: Dav Pilkey

George and Harold are excited for the upcoming schoolwide Invention Convention, but mean Principal Krupp hasn't forgotten what happened the previous year, when George and Harold invented a powerful new glue, which they demonstrated by applying it to every seat in the auditorium.

This time around, George and Harold are stuck serving and invention convention detention, but that doesn't stop them from engaging in a bit of after-hours sabotage. But when they mess with the wrong invention, they suddenly find themselves in the midst of an invasion they the toilet villains from their own comic books!

And when Principal Krupp changes into Captain Underpants, the situation could be headed, well, down the toilet.

This was tighter plotted than either of the other two Captain Underpants books I've read, and that helped it a lot. The story kept its focus, told funny jokes, and featured a couple of entertaining Flip-o-Rama fight scenes.

The Kiddo laughed out loud in a number of places, and I appreciated the jokes too. Overall, this was an amusing installment in this series.

Rating: 7.5/10

The Eye of Aya

From the random stack of unread comics. I bought this minicomic directly from the writer/artist at one of the Boston-area conventions.

Title: The Eye of Aya
Date: 2008
Publisher: Aya Rothwell
Writer: Aya Rothwell
Art: Aya Rothwell

This is subtitled "Cartoons From Daily Life", and fits into that geeky autobiographical subgenre that I always enjoy reading. This was extra-fun for me because of the Boston-area references (both geeky and non-geeky): Anime Boston, the Boston Marathon, Haymarket, and Boston Comics Roundtable.

The sequence on film school was particularly amusing. Aya Rothwell's cartoon style manages to be expressive even in tiny drawings, and she does a nice job of capturing quirky moments.

Rating: 8/10

The Sleeplessness: 2015 Special

Picked this one up at New England Comics in Quincy MA over the summer.

Title: The Sleeplessness: 2015 Special
Date: 2015
Publisher: Fat Cat Funnies
Writer:Jay Kennedy
Artist: Jay Kennedy

A father and son are new in town, trying to get back on track after a run of bad luck. The teenaged son has the psychic ability to see how anyone he touches will die. The father might just be the man who causes the end of the world. And a girl who wants to know her fate is about to set everything into motion.

I liked this story. The characters felt natural, and the dialogue had a good flow to it. The scope of the story was simple, but effective, and the ending was bittersweet.

Solid backup story too, involving a cursed arcade game.

Aside for some minor issues with the editing, this was a really enjoyable bit of horror with some interesting twists and turns.

Rating: 8.5/10

Motor Crush #1

One of my purchases over the summer. I got this books from New England Comics in Quincy MA.

Title: Motor Crush
Issue: 1
Date: December, 2016
Publisher: Image Comics
Creators: Brenden Fletcher, Cameron Stewart, Babs Tarr
Letterer: Aditya Bidikar
Editor: Jeanine Schaefer
Cover: Cameron Stewart

In a futuristic world, motorbike racer Domino Swift walks a dangerous line between the world of the high stakes big money World Grand Prix circuit and the shady world of anything-goes "Cannonball" street racing. Up for grabs in the illegal races is Crush, the illegal accelerant that fuels the street-race mayhem, and is the rather open secret of success in the WGP races.

When a member of her team turns up dead and her stash of Crush turns up missing, Domino trades in the danger of racing for the danger of dealing with criminal elements willing to kill anyone who interferes in their business.

This was fast-paced fun with a main character who is flawed but sympathetic, and a solid supporting cast. The worldbuilding was straightforward, but detailed, and Crush itself presents an interesting enigma (especially after unexpected the final scene!).

The artwork was good, and handled the challenging racing sequences very well. Great facial expressions on the characters too.

Excellent start.

Rating: 8/10

2017 Comic Review Recap

In 2017, I finished up my time in Vietnam, visited the USA, and moved to China.

I also reviewed 98 comics.

Highest-Rated Comics Read In 2017:

Darth Vader And Son (8.5/10)
Heavenly Bride Book One (8.5/10)
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume 2 (8.5/10)
Lontar #1 (8.5/10)
Princeless Volume 1 (8.5/10)
Scott Pilgrim Volume 6: Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour (8.5/10)
True Believers: Star Wars: Lando #1 (8.5/10)
Understanding Comics (9/10)
Castle Waiting Volume 1 (9.5/10)


Lowest-Rated Comics Read In 2017:

Castle Castle: Cold Heat (3.5/10)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (3.5/10)
The Avengers: Free Comic Book Day 2009 #1 (3/10)
Blood & Justice #2 (3/10)
Freaky Creatures #1 (3/10)
Project Superpowers: The Death-Defying Devil: Free Comic Book Day Special Edition (2.5/10)

Over the summer, I replenished the random stack of unread comics with a trip to the storage unit, so I have plenty in the to-read pile for 2018!

True Believers: Daredevil: Practice To Deceive #1

I'll be doing a recap of 2017 soon. In the meantime, here is my first comic review of 2018! This is one of the comics I bought at the Shanghai Comic Con in October.

Title: True Believers: Daredevil: Practice To Deceive
Issue: 1
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: September 2016
Writer: Charles Soule
Artist: Matteo Buffagni
Colorist: Matt Milla
Letterer: VC's Clayton Cowles
Cover: Bill Sienkiewicz
Editor: Charles Beacham, Sana Amanat

Bringing back the classic Daredevil & Elektra vibe... No matter how many hoops need to be jumped through to do it.

So the backstory here is that Matt Murdock somehow managed to do some sort of mass memory wipe that conveniently rebooted his continuity so that he's back to having a secret identity. Apparently he wasn't all that good at keeping secrets the previous time around. So we've got the classic Matt Murdock, struggling attorney (prosecuting attorney this time!) by day, and Daredevil, masked vigilante by night.

Elektra shows up, oblivious as everyone else that Matt and Daredevil are the same dude (really, if she can't figure this out in the first three seconds of hand-to-hand combat with him, she should turn in her assassin card... or should I say... HAND it over). She asks Murdock to arrange a meeting with Daredevil, who shows up expecting to talk, and Elektra commences with the beatdown.

Oh, and Daredevil has a sidekick! His name is Blindspot. No, really. He basically appears to have all of the annoying qualities of Jason Todd, with none of the good qualities of Tim Drake or Dick Grayson.

He lasts all of a couple of panels with Elektra while Daredevil just kinda cringes.

Finally, Elektra reveals a big dramatic plot development to end it all, none of which required all of the fighting. Apprarently she was just annoyed and had decided she needed to waste some time hurting Daredevil before getting to the point.

And I'm not really sure what the point of all of this was. But I will add half a point for the always-awesome cover work by Bill Sienkiewicz.

Rating: 3.5/10

True Believers: Guardians of the Galaxy: Galaxy's Most Wanted #1

I picked this one up at the Shanghai Comic Con.

Title: True Believers: Guardians of the Galaxy: Galaxy's Most Wanted
Issue: 1
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: September 2016
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Valerio Schiti
Colorist: Richard Isanove
Letterer: VC's Cory Petit
Cover: Arthur Adams, Jason Keith
Editor: Kathleen Wisneski, Jake Thomas, Nick Lowe

After Peter Quill's brief tenure as the ruler of a planet came to a bad end, he finds himself on the run, along with Kitty Pryde (no, I didn't know she was in the Guardians either) on a prison planet with alien soldiers trying to kill them.

At which point they have an extended discussion about Kitty Pryde's fashion sense.

The idea here is that Quill has been left hopeless after recent events, and Kitty is trying to distract him enough for him to get his will to live back. I get what they were going for here, but it just didn't work for me. For one thing, there really wasn't any actual discussion of fashion. Nothing that substantive, anyway. And while this may seem like an odd complaint to make, the whole effect just came off as hollow, with no authenticity. It all felt like a big space-filler where little was actually accomplished.

Things picked up a bit when the action intensified, but the bad guys were generic, and the additional bad guys introduced at the end looked just as generic (if perhaps a bit more menacing) than the previous ones.

Kitty's rage as she describes the prison planet as a concentration camp packed some emotional punch, but would need more emphasis as the stories continues for it to really have an impact.

Rating: 4.5/10

Dog Man Unleashed

Bought this for the Kiddo at his school's book fair here in Shanghai.

Title: Dog Man Unleashed
Publisher: Scholastic
Date: 2017
Writer: Dav Pilkey
Artist: Dav Pilkey
Editor: Anamika Bhatnagar

This is a Captain Underpants spinoff, presenting the comic book hero originally drawn by the main characters in the Captain Underpants comics.

Dog Man, a cop with a dog's head and a man's body (and maybe a fourth of the brains of each) battles crime, feline crime mostly, all while trying to celebrate the Chief's birthday and attempting to remember not to get the Chief a dead fish as a present.

This all leads to a saga involving multiple villains and the expected amount of mayhem.

Lots of goofy slapstick and dog puns, but props for including both Dr. Seuss and Charles Dickens references.

The Kiddo and I both got a lot of laughs out of this one.

Rating: 8/10