Graphic Novel and Trade Reviews

I thought we needed a thread where we can apply the kinds of critiques and reviews we use on weekly comics to graphic novels and trades. This can be a place where folks who are looking for something new to read can see what others have thought about particular books.

Title: Catwoman: Replacements (A One-Year Later Story), DC Comics, 2007. Written by: Will Pfeifer. Drawn by: David Lopez and Alvaro Lopez. This volume collects Catwoman #53-58. 144 pages.

Synopsis: It’s one year after the events of Infinite Crisis. Selina Kyle is no longer Catwoman. She became pregnant and is now focusing on being a mother to her new daughter, Helena. The father’s identity remains a mystery. Selina moves from the East End of Gotham to a new and safer neighborhood in Downtown where she lives under the alias, Irena Dubrovna (the name of the main character in the 1942 movie, Cat People). Selina has chosen her friend and previous sidekick, Holly Robinson, to take over her role as Catwoman – passing on the whip, if you will. Ted Grant (Wildcat), former trainer and mentor to Selina, now does the same with Holly. Because of Holly’s inexperience, Selina is soon drawn back onto the mean streets as Catwoman. Together, she and Holly battle the villains, Film Freak and Angle Man.

Thoughts: First let me say that I am not a big Catwoman fan. I checked out the title a couple of years ago when I returned to comics, but didn’t stay with it long. I picked this trade up this week because I had heard some good things about Catwoman OYL. And I wasn’t disappointed. It was a fun, enjoyable read. I bought into the premise that Catwoman has to give up the leather suit because of the new baby. She hands over the costume to Holly, a former prostitute, former sidekick, and current lesbian lover to her partner, Karon. But a crash training course doesn’t quite cut it. Holly is enthusiastic, but not well-enough prepared. This of course sets up the necessity of Selina getting back in costume to help her successor out. (There’s a nice use of storytelling and art when the costume doesn’t quite fit Selina’s post-pregnancy figure.) As you might guess, the baby is soon put at risk because of Selina’s decision.

I love the characterization of Selina as a new mother. I also thought Helena was an interesting choice of names for her baby and a nice touch of writing since Helena Wayne was the name of the daughter of Earth Two’s Batman and Catwoman who married. Helena Wayne was also the first Huntress. But of course, this storyline and history was eliminated in Crisis on Infinite Earths. Still, a nice tribute though – and a tad suggestive about possible paternity for the baby.

Holly was fun as Catwoman only if you see her as temporary. She’s no permanent replacement. Of the two villains, Film Freak is the more interesting. And there’s a third underlying storyline of a police detective who’s certain that Catwoman murdered the Black Mask and out to prove it. This subplot was the least interesting of all.

[jerome]

great idea, iSteve.

[jerome]

We3

Written By Grant Morrison
Illustrated by Frank Quitely



Summary: Three household pets (a dog, a cat, and a bunny rabbit), collectively named We3, are used as government test subjects and turned into cyborg government killing machines. Upon becoming obsolete, they are scheduled to be put to sleep, but a series of events lead to their eventual escape. They run - out into a frightening and confusing world, where they are now as much of a threat as those who hunt them. Relentlessly pursued, We3 fights the combined firepower of a battalion - and a faint, warm memory of somewhere called "Home"...

Review: If I were to not tell you the author of this book and only read you the above summary, chances are you'd still be able to figure out who wrote it. It's another crazy, ****ed up idea by Grant Morrison, and its one of the ones that works. This comic is a unique combination of grotesque violence and real human emotion. Don't let the 3 cute pets on the cover fool you: this book is bloody. The violence in some parts would make Jonah Hex blush. Still, stories with meaningless gratuitous violence usually don’t really appeal to me. It’s a good thing We3 has the heart to match.

In the course of the 100 or so pages of this book, you really get to care about these animals. They had no choice in the experiments that were put upon them, and really had no choice in some of the more gruesome actions they take. They were programmed killing machines, and it becomes heartbreaking to see them try to get out that brainwashing. If I were to give an oversimplified description, We3 would be very similar to Pride of Baghdad, but on crack, and every bit as good. And it also came first.

Frank Quitely’s art is predictably outstanding. I don’t have much to say outside of that. I’ve heard that his style is an acquired taste, but to me the appeal is rather obvious. We3 is simultaneously detailed and focused. The art conveys the emotion perfectly, and that’s especially important considering the main characters’ decidedly limited vocabulary.

Of course, not everyone is going to like this. There’s a significant portion of people who for whatever reason don’t really enjoy Morrison’s style of writing. But chances are, if you’ve been reading comics for any length of time, you already know what camp you fall under. I highly recommend it.

[acomicbookgirl]

I love We3. Vinmarama is another good one of Grant Morrison's IMO. I just got Absolute New Frontier..

[humphrey-lee]

Pride of Baghdad, cut and paste from the review I did of it for the site because god forbid I just save the links in my own personal archive (because the achival system on that site ****ing blows):


If anyone out there has ever bothered to pay attention to my reviews (and I have it on good authority not a bloody one of you does... ah well) then you would know that I'm not exactly one to mince my words. If something is truly good/great and deserving of praise and accolades all around, I'll do my best to try and make sure the good word gets spread and hopefully encourage some new readers to give said book(s) a fair chance. But if something doesn't jive with me, or in some occasional cases even offends me I'll also do my best to let people know to avoid said book like the goddamn plague, or that one cheerleader that did the entire football team. You know the one and why. Thus is the power of the press.

With that all said, I'm here now to let anyone reading this in on a little bit of information: Brian K. Vaughan's PRIDE OF BAGHDAD is easily amongst some of the finest pieces of comic book literature I have ever read and is also easily the best comic I have read, and probably will read, all year. Maybe even this decade.

If you don't know by now, PRIDE OF BAGHDAD is an Original Graphic Novel (OGN) based on the true story of a group of lions that escaped the confines of a Baghdad zoo during the beginning of the bombing of Iraq in 2003. Now, this book isn't going to revolutionize the genre. This isn't the second coming of WATCHMEN, this isn't going to kick off an entire era of mimicking trends and ripped-off storytelling to the point where even the source material seems trivial like we seem to be glancing at today. What PRIDE OF BAGHDAD is, is some of the tightest story-telling I've ever seen, combined with some absolutely jaw-dropping art, and that tells a tale that is at times joyful and smile-inducing but will also tear your goddamn heart right out with some truly tragic affairs.

There's so many elements of PRIDE that make it the experience that it is. One is that you instantly fall in love with the characters and actually care what happens to them on their journey. That had to be an especially difficult task for BKV as one, they're not human so obviously to draw emotions to these characters is going to take a little bit of effort since you have to humanize them and give the reader something to identify with, and BKV pulls it off beautifully. But there's also some unfairly drawn comparisons thanks to works like, primarily, Disney's "The Lion King" that will cause some readers to question this book's "legitimacy" as a work of art as with a glance they will dismiss it simply as "kid's stuff". But I assure you, yes, the book has at times a light-hearted and playful air around it, but there's some very mature themes based in this work, handled very deftly and subtley, but always packing a great deal of meaning that is a testiment to BKV's skill as a writer and storyteller. No panel is wasted, there are no throwaway scenes, there's no "padding", this is simply just an exhibition of how comics can, could, and should be written.

And the visuals, oh my the visuals. For a couple years now I've been touting artists such as J.H. Williams III and Tony Harris and Darrick Robertson and a small hanful of others as some my personal favorite comic book artists. These men, and men like them, in my opinion have some of the greatest eyes (and hands of course) in the industry when it comes to the art of visual storytelling in the medium of comics. Well, with PRIDE here one Mr. Niko Henrichon has now risen high up on that list. The art in this work is absolutely brilliant. Everything has such a vibrancy to it, it's uncanny. There is just so much detail, and articulation, and energy in each and every panel, it's just unbelievable. The panel transitions are perfect, the story has such a great flow and is so kinetic, and there are some single and double page splashes in here that are just breath-taking. The art of PRIDE OF BAGHDAD is as equally responsible for the amazing experience reading this comic was (and will be over and over again) as the writing was.

This book should be on everybody's shelf. It's that simple. If you in any way consider yourself a true fan of the "art" of comic books, then this is a must own. If you are constantly on the look out for material that exemplifies what comics can and should aspire to be, this is one of the biggest no-brainers when it comes to spending $20 of your hard earned cash on the medium. This book will win awards, and if there is any justice in the world it will win a whole slew of them and be talked about for years to come. Don't wait for the word of mouth to spread and the nominations to (hopefully) start coming in. Get in now and start spreading the word to your peers. You owe it to your love of comics and yourselves. Cheers...

[humphrey-lee]

Oh, and THE FOUNTAIN too. Ditto on the cut and pasting.


Almost a full year after the release of the forty dollar hardcover version, and less than a month before the release of the feature film it was alway intended to be, Darren Aronofsky's opus, THE FOUNTAIN, has now hit the shelves in a sleak and much more affordable softcover package. And right off the bat you can tell this book is something special. Forget the name attached to it, one look at the brilliantly painted cover shot and you just know this story is going to be a very epic, heartfelt, and an emotional rollercoaster of a read.

And THE FOUNTAIN is all those and more. The story therein is a very unusual, but brilliantly designed one. Spanning a millenia and three separate time periods, this is the story about a man named Thomas and a love and dedication that spans beyond the laws of time and space. From the jungles of Mexico and fierce battling with the Mayan army, to the deep reaches of space and a quest for knowledge of a dying star, to a present day struggle to cure his wife's cancer, THE FOUNTAIN is a love story that shows that no conflict is too great and that the laws of space and time mean nothing when it down to the one thing that makes our lives worth living.

The story, as you would expect, flows very cinematically. Lots of widescreen paneling and extreme zooms and close ups to put the reader exactly where Aronofsky wants them. Now, I'll say this now, this doesn't always work. If there is any fault I found with this completely engrossing read, it's that sometimes the choice of framework for the events in this book doesn't really do the scene the proper justice. Sometimes it goes into a close shot that feels too cramped for what it is, or it pulls back into too much empty space needlessly. The actual story itself flows very, very well as far as pacing goes, I just can't help but think that this work here would be of the level of perfection if maybe a co-writer was attached to this that has more experiece in the medium of comics and that could help choose the right devices for the right occasion.

But that's about all I can do for negativity when it comes to this work of art. It had some paneling issues. Big deal. In the big scheme of things it doesn't matter. The story is beautiful, you can't deny that. There is so much genuine emotion in the book you can't help but be overwhelmed by it all. The scenes where present-day Thomas is fighting for the life of his cancer-ridden wife are absolutely devastating, and the stalwartness of his Izzy in the face of death does well to make an already heartbreaking moment that much more tragic. And the feelings of awe and wonder invoked during the futuristic sequences as Thomas traverses space itself are equally astounding. I really can't say too much about the plot threads that occur in these sequences because I don't want to ruin the overall experience that the story therein contains, but I can just keep reiterating how deep this book will take you into its pages. And that is the sign of a truly brilliant work.

Alot of the brilliance that makes this comic just that is the amazing painted art by Kent Williams, of BLOOD: A TALE fame. I already said earlier that the cover alone will hook you and give you just the hint of what THE FOUNTAIN will be, but the interiors are a sight to behold as well. The art here is a collage of storytelling techniques done to a "t". You've got tons of lighting varieties and uses of stark and contrast, you've got some basic stripped down lines to depict moments of breakdown and decay, and then great moments of detail and clarity to pull you back into our lead's sense of determination. And there's some simply unbelieveable splash page work that I would love to have as oversized prints, like the one of page 35 as future Thomas is meditating at the edge of the galaxy, on the life tree Xibalba. It's all just glorious work.

THE FOUNTAIN is another one of those "prime examples" I like to cite of just what the medium of comics can and should be. Think about it. We have an up-and-coming, highly acclaimed director who is having issues getting a movie of his made. So since he can't get it on the big screen, he sits back and says then it absolutely has to be done as a graphic novel. No other medium would do. These are the kinds of stories comics are made for. These are what bring back legitimacy to an artform that seems to be doing nothing right now but reveling in mediocre crossover "events" and desperately throwing out shock value to try and raise interest in its proerties. Sometimes you just have to let the writers write and let unbridled creativity rule the day.

[drwally]

Originally Posted by iSteve

I thought we needed a thread where we can apply the kinds of critiques and reviews we use on weekly comics to graphic novels and trades. This can be a place where folks who are looking for something new to read can see what others have thought about particular books.

Funny, I was just thinking this is exactly the kind of thread we need...

Steve, when the official iFanboy Community Service Award is handed out, you will get my vote! I just read something that set my hair on fire, wanted to write about it, and get other opinions...and here you are, five steps ahead of me, providing the right kind of forum/thread for it. Wonderful.

Five steps ahead of me. Did I say you are wonderful? Looking forward to seeing more people posting here! And heroes and costumes too! I just read the first trade of the Young Avengers (Sidekicks), and I am awaiting the next one before I weigh in...if somebody want so do so before me, feel free! I am especially interested in the views of younger readers...

Originally Posted by DrWally

Funny, I was just thinking this is exactly the kind of thread we need...

Steve, when the official iFanboy Community Service Award is handed out, you will get my vote! I just read something that set my hair on fire, wanted to write about it, and get other opinions...and here you are, five steps ahead of me, providing the right kind of forum/thread for it. Wonderful.

Five steps ahead of me. Did I say you are wonderful? Looking forward to seeing more people posting here! And heroes and costumes too! I just read the first trade of the Young Avengers (Sidekicks), and I am awaiting the next one before I weigh in...if somebody want so do so before me, feel free! I am especially interested in the views of younger readers...

Thanks for the nice comments, Wally. You might enjoy Catwoman: Replacements. Lots of classic movie references throughout. Well written.

[jgg0610]

Days Like This by J. Torres: This novel is set in the late 50's and early 60's and traces the beginnings of one of the girl bands of the day. It takes it from conception to the their first major performance. If that sounds like it would make for a short book, you're right, it's only 80 pages.

I bought this book from LCS because I was running low on funds and needed something to read that wasn't superhero related pretty bad last weekend and it was cheap. Turned out to be a really good purchase. The feel of the characters and the period are spot on. If you like the movie That Thing You Do, this is a book for you.