Trees

Ten years prior to the start of this story, aliens had arrived on Earth. Unfortunately, all they did was plant/land massive Trees, which messed with the local environments. For the most part this was through seismic change and people’s fearful reactions, but some did eventually release toxic acid which killed everyone around them, while another has strange flowers growing near it. In the entire time the Trees have been there no alien has made contact, regardless of how hard humanity has tried to force them to. Because of this failure to communicate, most humans have learned to ignore them, even moving away if they can.

Thankfully, Warren Ellis goes beyond the usual alien encounter story. This isn’t an immediate fight for survival, but rather, a story that follows various individuals across the globe who are forced to face the changes brought about by their silent neighbours.

The cast of this story sounds like the set up for an inappropriate joke. There is a confused artist who moves to the experimental Chinese city of Shu. A Somalian head of state, a young lady under the protection of a fascist gang leader, as well as her new mentor, and entire team of scientists and engineers set up in a remote, frozen Norwegian location.

Unlike inappropriate jokes, however, there really wasn’t anything funny about this. This is more of a slow paced, thought provoking look at how humans react and interact during a crisis situation. Unfortunately, it was just a little too slow for me. I didn’t really care for any of the characters, and right up until the end there was very little action. I can appreciate the buildup, however, and I look forward to the story actually going somewhere.

Upon first look, I found the art to be a little jarring. There were so many extra lines, it was hard to tell if the Trees were supposed to look organic and similar to Earth trees, or if they were smooth and metallic. However, the art quickly grew on me, especially with the great scenic imagery and the expressiveness of the characters’ faces.

All New X-men

Sometimes it seems like the X-Men do more time traveling than Doctor Who.

Following the Avengers vs. X-Men crossover, Cyclops has gone a little kooky. He’s now working with Magneto and Emma Frost to very publically recruit new mutants while attacking humanity. The current X-Men fear that directly confronting him could kick off a mutant civil war so Hank McCoy decides that the best way to stop Cyclops is to let the young Scott Summers get a look at what he becomes. Hank takes a jaunt into the past where he recruits the original team of X-Men, including his own younger non-blue furry self, to come back to the future.

I had a lot of doubts about this concept, not the least of which was making even more of a hash of what remains of the X-Men’s timeline as well as giving us yet another live version of Jean Grey to kill off someday. However, I gotta admit that Bendis did a very good job with this. The dialogue doesn’t rely as much on humor as he usually does. Instead, he sets up a lot of intriguing things with the young X-Men being pretty much horrified at the way things have turned out for all of them.

I wasn’t sure how this works as a time travel story either. If the original X-Men are in the present seeing their future, wouldn’t that mean that it’s going to change? They get around this for now with the explanation that when they return to the past that Professor X will certainly read their minds, know what happened, and then wipe the memories from them. (But no one seems concerned about Xavier knowing

the future after that?) Plus, if one of the team gets killed in the present, wouldn’t that wipe the current version out of existence? This is a point that should come up more considering that Wolverine very vocally considers the idea that killing young Scott would save them all a lot of grief later.

But I was able to set that aside for the more intriguing questions that Bendis and company are playing with here, the ideas of what someone would think of themselves and their fate if they could see into the future as well as considering what warnings a person might offer to a younger version of themselves.

This One Summer

Garbage.

Kudos for tricking someone into publishing this and for the fantastic five-star artwork. Tragedy to have such great art with this dung heap narrative. Almost no plot, no conflicts, just a sour, artsy-liberal meditation with admittedly well-executed tone and very soft themes you have to really dig to find. Almost, ALMOST nothing really happens.

And the last lines, you ask? "maybe I will have massive boobs. Boobs would be cool." that's the nugget of truth we are left with in this Focus Feature-like indie movie, appealing to 1 percent of the teenagers who come in the libraries, obscurely written by (what came across to me as) feminists about their own self-important childhoods being sold off as psudo-fiction.

Here's what I learned: Innocence is lost because people older than you are fuck-ups.

Saga

Saga is a tale of star-crossed lovers. Literally star crossed. They’re on the opposite sides of a galactic war between two species. Marko has horns like a ram and spell-casting ability. Alana comes from a more technologically advanced race with vestigial wings. Guided by royal figures who have video monitors for heads (which makes them seem to be a third species), her faction appears to have the upper hand.

Magic versus technology isn’t the most original premise, but the quality of the writing does set this apart. The characters are contemporary, flawed, and insecure. Even the royal TV-head who is pursuing the couple is shown sitting on the toilet. Vaughan’s writing is humanizing and quite refreshing. The most endearing aspect of the story is the modern-day banter between the smart-mouthed, tough female and her big-hearted but somewhat naïve husband. I would describe it as Whedon-esque. If Saga wasn’t a sci-fi story, Alana would be a punk rock guitarist and Marko would be a street art muralist. Vaughan is best known for his series Y: The Last Man, which I loved but this, so far, has a much wider scope. I hear he also wrote for Lost, which makes me love him just a little bit more.

I love the emotional expressiveness to the art - there's sharper angles and vibrant colours, especially in the panels where Staples obviously threw in her love and went for it. So the book clips along at a nice pace and that's very much due to her, and so long as you don't linger over the filler panels then you'll probably find this is top-notch comics. I'm actually a big fan of the more feminine styles from creators like Staples - her character designs are pretty amazing, and the fluid quality of the backdrops is a nice change from the punch-to-the-head stark designs of many books. Vaughan's secret talent in writing this book is having these fantastic creatures and weird characters just talk like normal people.

Some great world-building gone into this work. Vaughan and Staples have created a universe with species upon species of different people and things that make my eyes go wide every time I meet one. Winged humanoids, horned humanoids - they're just the start. The robots-with-TVs-for-heads are sinister and human; the war beasts and forest creatures are wild. The politics of this galaxy are at the same time simple (hatred, fear and greed) and deliciously real (propaganda, jealousy, magic).

Rocket Girl

Rocket Girl Vol.1: Time Squared written by Brandon Montclare and illustrated by Amy Reeder, tells the story of Dayoung Johansson, a member of the NYPD teen division in an alternate universe from ours. Dayoung time travels back to 1986 in order to change a key event and alter history in the hopes of changing the entropic future that is controlled by a corporation. 

The story, although it is funny and light, is nothing out of the ordinary. Echoes of Terminator and Back to the Future can be found in the writing. The "future" being 2013. A 2013 that reminded me once again of Marty McFly's adventure or the Jetsons, where humanity has advanced so much that there are flying cars all over the place, among other technological advancements, which contrasts with our much grounded present.

What truly captivated me about Rocket Girl was the illustrations. The combination of the pencils, colors, movement and lighting effects is a fantastic complement to the story that actually enhances it. Let's just say that it is pure eye-candy.

I put this comic down quite a lot over my time reading it, and it took me a LONG time to get through it. Not because it was painful or hard to get through, but something about the plot or the execution of the plot was just not holding my interest for more than 5 or so pages. But I am interested in where this story goes and what these awesome characters do to continue on, hopefully in an even brighter and exciting volume 2.

Powers

So I saw mixed reviews of Powers, and I don't follow comics enough to understand why the comic store guy was salivating over Bendis, but obviously I find myself in the "Wow, that kicked ass," side of the balance. Well, kicked ass is maybe a little strong. But you can only say, "That was cool," so many times.

Bendis has written a unique story. Powers: Who Killed Retro Girl is the story of a pair of homicide detectives who cover the "Powers" beat - ie, homicides involving men and women with super powers. Someone has killed the nearly invulnerable Retro Girl, and detective Walker and his new partner have been assigned to the case. Walker has some history with both Retro Girl, and the rest of the heroes and villains in this story, and his new female partner is intent on figuring it out. It's a classic detective and murder mystery placed within an unlikely narrative landscape, but in the end manages to work very well. This is a story about policemen and the work they do, and less of a story about superheroes. You can sense the frustration of the coroner's job when he attempts an autoposy on Retro Girl - whose skin is impenetrable to everything, including a blow torch. You feel the long hours involved in a case going cold, with no leads materializing. The fact that it is set within the world of superheroes works mainly to jar the reader and "defamiliarize" an extremely familiar cops and robber story.

Brian Michael Bendis has done a fair bit of world building here along with Michael Avon Oeming as the artist. This volume introduces a series I will gladly continue reading!

The Book of Mr. Natural

I'm on a mission to understand why Robert Crumb is considered such a genius. I read one of his other books and enjoyed the artwork, and the artwork wasn't the issue with this. The problem is that I don't see the point of it. After reading Mr. Natural it seemed like a waste of time. It did not offend or confuse me, it just seemed pointless.

Throughout the book, it's clear that Crumb uses Mr. Natural as a way to comment on our cultural and personal dilemmas, whether it's sexual desires, misogyny, feelings of misplacement, or our desire to fit in. However, Crumb has said that sometimes he makes up stories as he goes along, and it's a bit easy to see that here as most stories don't really go anywhere. It's obvious what's bothering Crumb about our society, but the stories don't really wrap up in the end, and we're left wondering where exactly he's going with all this. Perhaps Crumb just uses Mr. Natural as a way to vent?

Either way, it's so easy to get lost in the beautiful art (as always) with Crumb's great linework and his use of space, choosing to show you only the essentials of the environment and focusing instead on the dialogue between the characters.

March: Book One

John Lewis’ story is truly amazing. He knew what he wanted and he went for it. The part where he was determined to get an education even at the cost of a possible chastising from his parents took gumption. It takes a lot to defy your parents at a young age. It also took heart for him to make the decisions he made to risk death for the cause. His eyes were opened during a trip to Buffalo. This stood out to me because I have always said that if our youth are to do better, they need to truly see the world...or at least other parts of the country. If John were not offered that small view of our society, he may have gone through with his initial plans for his future and done what he was told. “Stay out of trouble, don’t get in White people’s way.” 

There are portions of this book that solidify the fact that The Civil Rights Movement is still ongoing. Mayor West’s comment about him desegregating the airport is one of them. One success in righting an injustice is not enough. Even the “elders” at the time were trying to get them to slow down. Thurgood Marshall coming off of the Brown vs. Board of Education success, suggested that they take whatever deal was available to get out of jail if they are reprimanded. Dr. Stephen J. Wright, Fisk University President, and Dr. W. S. Davis, Tennessee State University President, made a deal on their behalf for partial segregation and they felt betrayed. 

This story has so many layers and those that do not read it, will miss out on a great way to educate themselves and their children on this continued movement. Illustrations help to carry the story. There are some instances where the writing is garbled, but it is intentional in explaining what the narrator (Lewis) felt, heard and thought. I loved the fact that all characters are being portrayed in the story. Resorting back to my youth, The Civil Rights Movement was always taught as if it was JUST a Black issue or movement. This book mentions and shows White supporters and participants.

Asterios Polyp

I see this as a love story, and - among many other things - a story about the communication challenges that we experience because of our differences. The way humans interact with each other is visualized with such elegance! But what I loved the most is that his novel has a living and breathing soul, a true soul that you can see much better in the second part. I found myself to be really moved towards the end. And also I think I found a certain kind of wisdom, that sees through selfish attitudes and behaviours as something that needs to be overcome and understood, in order to grow up.

Everything about Asterios Polyp is dense, and slow, and meticulously planned and executed. It is easily the most beautiful graphic novel I've ever seen. Each vignette has a specific palate, most using only two or three colors at a time--in fact, it isn't until the book's very last chapter that Mazzucchelli uses full four-color spreads--and there is no black in the book at all. Each character's speech is written in a unique font, one which is clearly representative of that person's personality. The story itself is full and rich, the characters multifaceted and real, and everything is augmented and reified by frequent digressions, both visual and described, on perception, human behavior, physics, philosophy, mythology, spirituality, metaphysics, and on and on. 

This is a story of redemption, of sorts, not only in the moral sense but in the graphic, on the level of visual design, a narrative and thematic utilization of the graphic in "graphic novel" that I would love to see taken up more in this genre.

Locke & Key

The story starts off with three siblings named Tyler, the oldest son, Kinsey, the middle daughter, and Bode, the youngest son and how when they were spending the summer at their family’s home, their father was brutally murdered by two strangers right before their very eyes. After their father’s funeral, Tyler, Kinsey and Bode had a hard time coping with life after their father was killed and they along with their mother who managed to survive the tragedy, decided to move to the city of Lovecraft to leave their old life behind. However, it turns out that the home that Tyler, Bode and Kinsey all moved into is no ordinary home as Bode soon discovers that the house has dark secrets that only he knows about and those secrets will soon change all three siblings’ lives forever!

Words just cannot describe my feelings and my love for this graphic novel! I have never read a comic series that really knows how to blend horror, loss and mystery all into one glorious story that will remain to be an all-time favorite. Joe Hill has certainly done a brilliant job at writing this story as it is full of suspense and mystery that will keep you wanting more from the story! I loved the way that Joe Hill focused on how the three siblings all deal with the murder of their father and how they all react differently to the situation. Such as Tyler blaming himself for his father’s death, Kinsey not knowing about what to do with her life without her father, and Bode being extremely young, not quite understanding the seriousness of the situation. I felt that knowing what these characters are going through after the tragedy that has taken place really gave them depth. I actually felt sad for Tyler, Kinsey, Bode and their mother as they had to deal with the loss of the person they love so dearly. 

I also loved the way that Joe Hill brought the supernatural themes into the story without really interrupting the tragedy that the characters were going through. Gabriel Rodriguez’s artwork is brilliant as the artwork has dark coloring that fits the gloomy mood of this story extremely well. I also loved the way that Gabriel Rodriguez drew the images of the supernatural activities such as the images of characters turning into ghosts; you can see the blue wisps of the characters themselves floating towards the reader. 

The Wicked + The Divine

Every 90 years the gods are resurrected as young people. They live for 2 years and then they disappear. This time around they’ve come back as rock gods, pop and rap stars. Except somebody wants them dead. After a thwarted assassination attempt, Lucifer is taken to the dock for the deaths of the would-be killers - and seemingly makes the judge’s head explode! Did she do it - or is Luci being framed? It’s up to mega-fangirl Laura to find out!

The Young Avengers creative team of Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie and Matthew Wilson reunite for The Wicked + The Divine, an epic fantasy/music murder mystery with a cast of gods! Like Young Avengers, Wicked is a very current comic for 2014 audiences, referencing a lot of what’s happening now and incorporating it into its structure. It’s also rather good!

This first volume introduces us to the colourful cast via Laura, our main character and audience stand-in, as she meets Baal, a Kanye West type, and Amaratsu, a Florence Welch type, as well as numerous others - Luci herself seems very David Bowie. The murder mystery is a framework for the book but doesn’t seem to be the point of it. It’s not resolved by the end and a number of questions remain.Wicked feels very moody in comparison to the joie de vivre of Young Avengers. The “dead in 2 years” rule hangs morbidly over the story as the gods pack in as much living as they can in the short time they have before they die, the exploration of mortality being perhaps the point of the story.

It is however, extremely stylish in all areas, from Gillen’s snappy script to McKelvie’s stunning artwork with Wilson’s insanely beautiful colours. From the cast’s character designs to pages like Luci’s transformation into Lucifer, to the underground battle with the Morrigan, all of the visuals are remarkable. If you’ve seen McKelvie’s art before, you’ll know how clean, precise, and breathtaking it is. Add in Wilson’s vivid, eye-catching colours and you’ve got something special. Every page, bar none, is a masterclass in comics art.

Sex Criminals

A girl discovers that she freezes time briefly whenever she orgasms. Later as a young woman she meets a man who can do the same thing. They compare notes and histories and eventually join forces, using their odd ability to rob banks so that they can save her library...until the SEX POLICE track them down.

The intro was an amazing depiction of the scary, lonely hell that is adolescence. This girl does not know what the fuck is happening to her and her attempts to understand are stymied. Adults pollute answers with judgment, squeamishness, more judgment, incomplete information, bad information. Her mother calls her a whore just for asking about sex. Other kids give her answers for which she is not ready. There's so much truth in this part of the story. It's rare that I find myself empathizing with, cheering on, feeling for a character to this extent.

The "Criminals" chapters are more straightforward...as straightforward as a time-freezing-orgasmic-bank-robbers plot can be anyway. They have sex in bank bathrooms. They rob said banks. The Sex Police hunt them. They run. It lacks the wonderful insight and commentary of the earlier stuff but it's well-constructed and well-drawn enough to be worthwhile on its own. We're also given the best graphic novel villain name of all time: Kegelface.

Matt Fraction's writing is both frank and clever, and Chip Zdarsky's art is simply gorgeous, deliberately "cartoony" at some points and wildly psychedelic at others. I love that the author acknowledge some of the logical inconsistencies inherent in freezing time. Why can they smell? Aren't the molecules that they're sensing frozen in place? Why do some machines work and others don't?

Black Science

'Black Science, Vol. 1: How to Fall Forever' is a great read. Showing how pride and greed can lead to all kinds of problems. I really loved the book and can't imagine where it will go next, but the possibilities are worth thinking about.

Grant McKay has created a device called a Pillar. With the device, he can travel between dimensions. The only problem is, it gets triggered before it is ready, sending Grant, his kids, a group of scientists and a greedy company man careening off to who knows where. The book starts off in the middle of a chase and then catches the reader up. There are numerous flashbacks throughout the book to fill in gaps. Compounding things, the Pillar has decided not to work correctly, or perhaps was sabotaged, so when it activates, the team is not sure where they will end up. Things go from bad to worse like a slow motion car wreck. Alternate versions of people try to intervene to stop things and save the kids. You know it will end badly, but you can't stop reading.

The writing by Rick Remender is solid. The arrogance and danger had me wanting to yell at the character's stupidity in their choices. Art by Matteo Scalera is simply stunning. Gorgeous panels filled with strange alternate times. It all feels like the plot of a 1960s science fiction show like Lost in Space with a decidedly modern take. This is really good and I can't wait to see where it goes next.

Y: The Last Man

Imagine a world in which every creature possessing a Y chromosome has just died. In a single moment, the world's animal population has been reduced by roughly half. This is a world where most of the world's politicians, most of the world's scientists, most of the world's military, most of the world's pilots, most of the world's film-makers, and most of the world's businessmen are no longer with us. This is a world of chaos and desperation, a world trying to find its way in the cataclysm-wrought darkness. 

And this is a world of nightmares and madness for Yorick Brown, the lone surviving man.

Y: The Last Man begins on July 17, 2002—about a half hour prior to the great extinction, and introduces Yorick, his pet monkey Ampersand (also male and also a unique survivor of the coming pandemic), and the beginning of a large cast of well-conceived female characters. The second chapter picks up several weeks after the plague hit, revealing a world very much changed. Apart from those women who are simply scrambling to survive in and make sense of this new world, the new society-in-flux has given rise to numerous factions struggling with and abusing power. From the ultra-feminist Amazons who burned all the sperm banks to assure that the world would never again be plagued with men to those women who were involved in politics and the military prior to the fall of man, author Brian K. Vaughan presents a world that believably captures both the horror and hope of the human condition.

And all the while Yorick is racing from Boston to find his would-be fiancée Beth, who was participating in anthropological research in Australia when the plague hit.It's a very slow race. The entire scope of the ten-volume series covers approximately five years and follows Yorick as he and his two companions Agent 355 (an American spy) and Dr. Allison Mann* (a bioengineer who hopes to clone Yorick to preserve the human race) as they traverse the globe (via foot, train, and boat) in search of Yorick's Beth. Because of their travels they experience enlightening episodes with Amazons, astronauts, agents, assassins, actors, antagonistas, androbots, atheists, angry Arizonans, and a whole mess of lesbians (both long-time and newly blossomed).

As far as speculative fiction goes, Y: The Last Man is really the creme de la creme, hitting all the right notes and being funny, grim, and mind-blowing for its duration. Vaughan has lessons to leave and pedagogy to forge, but he never gets preachy—and the moment he begins wading in that direction, his characters themselves seem to call him on the carpet for it. These are intelligent people and pretty well representative of the human race. While the book most overtly concerns Yorick and his quest, this is merely a framing device for an exploration of humanity itself (and to a lesser degree, women). Vaughan succeeds wholly in taking a genre concept that could have been been the basis for the typical male fulfillment fantasy and spinning into one of the most worthwhile fables of the last hundred years.

Largely visually composed by Pia Guerra, the illustrations of the book sing in their subtly. This is not a book featuring dynamic duos or caped crusaders. It's about real people. And Guerra's line captures that about as well as any artist out there. So goo is her skill that I cannot imagine any other artist succeeding so well at capturing Vaughan's story, characters, and setting. Her talent is made more so obvious by the occasional instances of filler artists.

East of West

Here’s the premise: The Four Horsemen have been reborn to ravage mankind yet again, only there’s one problem—there’s only three of them. The fourth, Death, did not die along their side to require a rebirth, and the other three don’t like that. Though reborn as children, they already plot Death’s decimation.

Know, though, that this is not happening in our version of reality. In East of West, America is divided among seven nations due to events dating back to 1908. There is also a prevailing religious fervor within the population referred to as “The Message.” The time is “now,” but “now” seems to be a mixture of the old west and the far future.  

We soon meet Death, and Death seeks revenge. He travels with two witches, the Wolf and the Crow. The three of them are a formidable posse, and also three of the most visually interesting characters in comic books. Why does Death seek revenge? You’ll have to read the book to find out, but it involves his former Horsemen, a romance, and a child.

Nick Dragotta provides exceptional artwork you have to see to believe. Let’s be honest: the graphic novel covers are rather boring. Trust me, though, the interior artwork is exquisite. Dragotta makes futuristic cities and barren desert landscapes equally interesting. But it’s the sense of movement that sets Dragotta apart. His battle scenes are clean, violent, and frenetic. He knows just the right angles, just the right times to open the panel up or draw it in tight. It’s a delight to look upon.  

Hickman has built a complicated world comprised of diverse mythology, cutthroat politics, maniacal religion, insane science fiction, all-out action, and some chilling horror. Somehow he blends it all together seamlessly, and the result is a must-read.

And so a semesters worth of comic book/graphic novel reviews in less than a week. Let us begin shall we?