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brokenmnemonicI've ended up reading a lot of comics this week - half my pull list seemed to arrive in one go, plus I had time to catch up with some random purchases while I spent hours traveling. So ... I thought I'd try putting some thoughts together on them, and not just because I keep putting off the more serious adulting stuff I need to do.
I caught up with issues 11-13 of Copperhead, a sci-fi western that fell off my pull list at the end of the first arc. I decided to grab the issues when I saw them on sale. Copperhead has some good stuff going for it - I like the sherriff, who's also the female lead (helpfully), it had a certain amount of visual humour, and there are a couple of interesting secondary characters like Boo the deputy and the cloned soldier who seems to be growing to be a good friend to her son. And yet, I can't make myself rate this above 3 stars on Goodreads, and I don't know why. The first 10 volumes felt a little aimless in places, and I don't mind that if there's strong and interesting character interactions, but for some reason the plot didn't grip me and a lot of the character work didn't get followed up on, and the same's happening again. There are better crime-solving comics out there (I love The Fuse, my go-to sci-fi crime-solving series) and there are a lot of less potentially interesting sci-fi stories out there, but it feels like this is missing something that would make it great for me. It seems to get good reviews from others though, so I'm maybe missing something obvious.
Pestilence 3 was... well, ok. I like a good zombie story, and a medieval zombie story seemed like a good prospect, but this one isn't clicking for me. Possibly it's the slightly exaggerated art style (although I have to give the comic props for being happy to include male nudity) but I think it's more that despite the setting, the comic isn't really doing anything I haven't seen before, and combine that with a couple of commmon zombie tropes and art that doesn't really work for me and I think I'm going to drop this at the end of the first arc. It might become more my thing, but I'm not holding out a lot of hope at the moment... although the closing section of this issue implied that something interesting *might* be about to happen.
Batwoman 5 was somewhat unexpected; Marguerite Bennett is rapidly becoming one of my favourite comic book authors (although I'm not sure how much of the work is James Tynion IV, who also has a writing credit), and I didn't anticipate this being an epilogue to the previous story, which covered issues 0-4. I added this to my list because MB was writing it, and while I enjoyed the first story arc, I didn't like it as much as I wanted to because I don't have any background knowledge of Batwoman, and it felt like there were people/relationships that I was meant to know something about. The issues that explored Batwoman's backstory were my favourite, and this is another backstory issue... and a really good one. In some ways, it was predictable, but I don't mind that if a story's well-told and well-drawn, and this one was.
Aliens: Dead Orbit 3 didn't do anything new for me, and again I don't particularly like the art style. The setting is different to those that've been used in previous Aliens stories, but the story itself is feeling predictable, and very much as if a lot of elements are simply following the pattern laid down by existing Aliens stories. I've found the writing on the Aliens and Predator franchises to be highly variable, and while this is far from the worst, it's just ... not interesting.
X-files 16 continues to have art that I struggle to follow because it's so dark. I think I'm keeping up with the story, but I'm not convinced about it, and I kind of... don't care? It feels like it's taking a long time to work through the mystery, and I'm not sure the payoff will be worth it. Assuming I can remember what happened in previous issues.
The Forever War #6 is apparently based on a novel, and based on this comic book series, I'm going to go and read the novel. A six-issue hard-sci-fi story told very well; the first time I've seen a comic that deals with the idea of trying to fight a war where space travel involves actual relativistic physics and the effects of going on a six-month mission that brings you home 200 years after everyone you know died of old age. The two protagonists in this were effective, and I really loved seeing the disconnect between them and the world they returned to each time. The societal changes were really interesting - I was particularly taken with the era where homosexuality was the genetically-modified norm, as a means of societal population control.
InseXts 12 was great - possibly my favourite title of the year. I know it's the only comic series I've really talked about in any depth before, but this was another strong issue. Female characters supporting and sacrificing for each other, a mix of classical themes and beings, a strong horror tone, evil misogynistic assholes getting ripped apart... I've mentioned that Marguerite Bennett is becoming one of my favourite authors, right?
James Bond: Kill Chain #1 was interesting. Seeing Bond being manipulated (or possibly manipulated? There are lots of twists here) through his well-known sexual habits was a nice idea - I like seeing the comic calling this out - and I like having SMERSH as one of the antagonists. If they can keep pulling the double/triple switches off effectively, then the idea of pitting MI6 and the CIA against each other could be really rather fun; seeing Bond being more than a little weary of the repeating patterns in his life is also an interesting idea to explore. I hope they do it well - and bring Moneypenny in, because her character in the previous Bond comics has been great (and we need more black British awesome female characters in comics.)
Black-Eyed Kids 13 continues it's trend of being interesting on one hand and slow on the other. Each time there's movement forward, it feels like there's then a step backward with other characters. I like seeing the female lead get more page time though, and with the male characters dropping off, seeing the female lead transition from captive to fighter feels like a deserved transition.
The Wild Storm 6 continues to combine plot elements I'm really interested in with some characters I'm not in any way invested in. I've missed at least two big WildStorm universe re-imaginings or reboots since the 1990s, but I'm enjoying this one; the art style really appeals to me, and I like what I've seen of the characters who're acting as key protagonists. The Engineer is acting as a vehicle for the world's structure to be explained to us, but the world is quite interesting, and with Chapel a dangerous and athletic African-American guy in this iteration, rather than a white soldier dude with a build that makes Hulk Hogan on steroids look like an underachiever, the comic feels much more grounded and interesting. The new iteration of Void is inhuman enough to be striking - I loved the mask reveal - and while we've still got Jacob as the super-smart alien white guy who knows everything (while frothing at the mouth Weatherman is also a white guy) there's a nice vein of occasional humour being used well. Christine's back in the plot (and she was a favourite of mine back in the day) so I'm optimistic that while this has so far largely been six issues of world-building, that world's going to be more fun than I expected. I mentioned I really like the art, right? Well, other than the Weatherman, but I think he's meant to look that way just to freak people out.
ETA: I know I use "interesting" a lot, and should probably try and remember some synonyms for it, but honestly? I look for two things in my comics - interesting, effectively told stories, and strong characters. I can forgive weaker characterisation if the ideas are... interesting.
I caught up with issues 11-13 of Copperhead, a sci-fi western that fell off my pull list at the end of the first arc. I decided to grab the issues when I saw them on sale. Copperhead has some good stuff going for it - I like the sherriff, who's also the female lead (helpfully), it had a certain amount of visual humour, and there are a couple of interesting secondary characters like Boo the deputy and the cloned soldier who seems to be growing to be a good friend to her son. And yet, I can't make myself rate this above 3 stars on Goodreads, and I don't know why. The first 10 volumes felt a little aimless in places, and I don't mind that if there's strong and interesting character interactions, but for some reason the plot didn't grip me and a lot of the character work didn't get followed up on, and the same's happening again. There are better crime-solving comics out there (I love The Fuse, my go-to sci-fi crime-solving series) and there are a lot of less potentially interesting sci-fi stories out there, but it feels like this is missing something that would make it great for me. It seems to get good reviews from others though, so I'm maybe missing something obvious.
Pestilence 3 was... well, ok. I like a good zombie story, and a medieval zombie story seemed like a good prospect, but this one isn't clicking for me. Possibly it's the slightly exaggerated art style (although I have to give the comic props for being happy to include male nudity) but I think it's more that despite the setting, the comic isn't really doing anything I haven't seen before, and combine that with a couple of commmon zombie tropes and art that doesn't really work for me and I think I'm going to drop this at the end of the first arc. It might become more my thing, but I'm not holding out a lot of hope at the moment... although the closing section of this issue implied that something interesting *might* be about to happen.
Batwoman 5 was somewhat unexpected; Marguerite Bennett is rapidly becoming one of my favourite comic book authors (although I'm not sure how much of the work is James Tynion IV, who also has a writing credit), and I didn't anticipate this being an epilogue to the previous story, which covered issues 0-4. I added this to my list because MB was writing it, and while I enjoyed the first story arc, I didn't like it as much as I wanted to because I don't have any background knowledge of Batwoman, and it felt like there were people/relationships that I was meant to know something about. The issues that explored Batwoman's backstory were my favourite, and this is another backstory issue... and a really good one. In some ways, it was predictable, but I don't mind that if a story's well-told and well-drawn, and this one was.
Aliens: Dead Orbit 3 didn't do anything new for me, and again I don't particularly like the art style. The setting is different to those that've been used in previous Aliens stories, but the story itself is feeling predictable, and very much as if a lot of elements are simply following the pattern laid down by existing Aliens stories. I've found the writing on the Aliens and Predator franchises to be highly variable, and while this is far from the worst, it's just ... not interesting.
X-files 16 continues to have art that I struggle to follow because it's so dark. I think I'm keeping up with the story, but I'm not convinced about it, and I kind of... don't care? It feels like it's taking a long time to work through the mystery, and I'm not sure the payoff will be worth it. Assuming I can remember what happened in previous issues.
The Forever War #6 is apparently based on a novel, and based on this comic book series, I'm going to go and read the novel. A six-issue hard-sci-fi story told very well; the first time I've seen a comic that deals with the idea of trying to fight a war where space travel involves actual relativistic physics and the effects of going on a six-month mission that brings you home 200 years after everyone you know died of old age. The two protagonists in this were effective, and I really loved seeing the disconnect between them and the world they returned to each time. The societal changes were really interesting - I was particularly taken with the era where homosexuality was the genetically-modified norm, as a means of societal population control.
InseXts 12 was great - possibly my favourite title of the year. I know it's the only comic series I've really talked about in any depth before, but this was another strong issue. Female characters supporting and sacrificing for each other, a mix of classical themes and beings, a strong horror tone, evil misogynistic assholes getting ripped apart... I've mentioned that Marguerite Bennett is becoming one of my favourite authors, right?
James Bond: Kill Chain #1 was interesting. Seeing Bond being manipulated (or possibly manipulated? There are lots of twists here) through his well-known sexual habits was a nice idea - I like seeing the comic calling this out - and I like having SMERSH as one of the antagonists. If they can keep pulling the double/triple switches off effectively, then the idea of pitting MI6 and the CIA against each other could be really rather fun; seeing Bond being more than a little weary of the repeating patterns in his life is also an interesting idea to explore. I hope they do it well - and bring Moneypenny in, because her character in the previous Bond comics has been great (and we need more black British awesome female characters in comics.)
Black-Eyed Kids 13 continues it's trend of being interesting on one hand and slow on the other. Each time there's movement forward, it feels like there's then a step backward with other characters. I like seeing the female lead get more page time though, and with the male characters dropping off, seeing the female lead transition from captive to fighter feels like a deserved transition.
The Wild Storm 6 continues to combine plot elements I'm really interested in with some characters I'm not in any way invested in. I've missed at least two big WildStorm universe re-imaginings or reboots since the 1990s, but I'm enjoying this one; the art style really appeals to me, and I like what I've seen of the characters who're acting as key protagonists. The Engineer is acting as a vehicle for the world's structure to be explained to us, but the world is quite interesting, and with Chapel a dangerous and athletic African-American guy in this iteration, rather than a white soldier dude with a build that makes Hulk Hogan on steroids look like an underachiever, the comic feels much more grounded and interesting. The new iteration of Void is inhuman enough to be striking - I loved the mask reveal - and while we've still got Jacob as the super-smart alien white guy who knows everything (while frothing at the mouth Weatherman is also a white guy) there's a nice vein of occasional humour being used well. Christine's back in the plot (and she was a favourite of mine back in the day) so I'm optimistic that while this has so far largely been six issues of world-building, that world's going to be more fun than I expected. I mentioned I really like the art, right? Well, other than the Weatherman, but I think he's meant to look that way just to freak people out.
ETA: I know I use "interesting" a lot, and should probably try and remember some synonyms for it, but honestly? I look for two things in my comics - interesting, effectively told stories, and strong characters. I can forgive weaker characterisation if the ideas are... interesting.
no subject
Date: 2017-07-23 07:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-07-26 08:07 pm (UTC)I always struggle to find alternatives to interesting. Fascinating always implies that something's gone beyond interesting and into the realm of the compelling to me, while I always think of intriguing in the context of "ooh, I'm intrigued" as compared to "huh, that's interesting." I know I should perhaps sometimes use "novel" instead but that always seems to carry a degree of objective originality, whereas what I find interesting will always be subjective...
Words are hard :P
no subject
Date: 2017-07-26 08:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-07-25 06:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-07-26 08:09 pm (UTC)The first arc of Batwoman revolves around an island and some people that I gather from context are significant to Batwoman, and I suspect long predate the current story arc. I think that's why I struggled a bit? But the character background issues really were great, and the most recent issue has possibly the best art of any of the comics that week, too. Sometimes I'm such a sucker for the pretty...
no subject
Date: 2017-07-27 07:51 pm (UTC)I gave up about half-way through the first series, but there was some great stuff there as well. Have you read Batwoman: Elegy? That's the mini-run that kickstarted her whole comeback the first time around. 100% recommended.
Did you get to read Angela yet?
Also, excited to see what Red Sonja icons you'll be posting ;)