Invincible Ultimate Collection Vol. 3

Kirkman

Ottely

Crabtree

More setup in this volume, with Sinclair making more Reanimen, in a storyline that's been boiling since the beginning, and the Martian (who took the astronaut who was left on Mars' place) gives being a superhero a chance.

Invincible meets his Dad, Nolan who's married and has a baby. He's been living in another planet hiding from the Viltrumite Empire. They find him, and have bloody fight and in the end Invincible is left to take care of his half brother, and Nolan is captured by the Empire. Invincible takes his baby bro to his Mom, and she finally has something to make her stop drinking.

When Mark and Amber take a vacation to Africa to visit Eve, Angstrom Levy (the guy who could travel into alternate dimensions and ended up absorbing all his "alternates" information about said dimensions but was disfigured in the process) beat up Mark's mom and tried to kill Invincible by throwing him into dimensions. After, a while Invincible got the upper hand and accidentally killed Levy. He's stranded but the FUTURE Guardians of the Globe save him which begs the question, could Levy time travel? Because I thought he traveled to dimensions with different times...

The plots in this volume move at a nicer pace and the cliffhanger was really good. Even though I complain that the story-lines simmer too much, I must say that Kirkman does a great job at tying up loose ends, nothing is wasted but it's not predictable.

The Graveyard Book

Neil Gaiman

I am a big fan of Neil Gaiman's comics and novels (who isn't?) but I'm the first to admit that sometimes it's hit or miss. Neverwhere and Stardust are good, though not as great as American Gods or Coraline.

The Graveyard Book sadly, falls into the good not great category. Neil Gaiman has stated that this is his version of The Jungle Book, which I haven't read. I'm sure that most of my complaints about the story are because this is a retread of The Jungle Book and not a truly original story.

The story follows a little baby whose family is murdered by one of the Jack of Trades. The baby wanders to the Graveyard and is adopted by the ghosts, and given Freedom of The Graveyard. The books are divided into short stories from Nobody's life (the little baby), and his guardians (the ghosts and Silas- a mysterious creature). There were a lot of great ideas in the stories, and in true Gaiman fashion all the threads are tied neatly in the end. Still, the big picture doesn't flow at all, some important elements are abandoned for Bod's relationships with the ghosts, and the ending is a bit unsatisfying, and it's all because Neil Gaiman was set on doing The Jungle Book. The Graveyard Book would've shined as a comic, but as a novel it's just ok.

Invincible Ultimate Collection Vol. 2

Kirman

Ottley

Crabtree

Mark is dealing with going to college, and with the dissolution of his family. His father is MIA and his Mom is drowning her loneliness and sorrow with drink. Mark's good attitude abides, though, so he approaches every challenge positive that he'll figure a way around it. As far as his personal life, he's devastated over his family, but he knows to put it aside so he can be a student and a superhero. This is what I like most about Mark, he doesn't dwell, but he's not denying his emotions, they're boiling underneath the surface.

Mark's adventures as Invincible are varied, and this is the part I didn't like. This whole volume feels like a huge setup for Invincible's villains. The stories are vignettes that for now don't have much to do with Marks life. Whether, Invincible escorts some astronauts to Mars only to leave one of them behind possessed by parasites or Invincible unwittingly helping a new "kingpin" of crime take over, the payoffs will be in the future. The most tiresome of these setups, is the multiple dimensions storyline. Since we didn't actually see any of the other worlds, and I honestly didn't care about the characters, I found it tedious. Over all, even though most of the villains are interesting or funny, the pacing of their stories is slow, but since this is the result of focusing on Mark's personal life, I don't mind.

Yotsuba&! #9

Hiyohiko Azuma

Asagi attempts to catch candy at a hot air balloon race. She's waylaid by the savage children. You can almost hear her "oomph!".

Batwoman #0

J.H. Williams

W. Haden Blackman

Amy Reeder

This story is all about Bruce Wayne trying to figure out if Kate Kane is Batwoman, and if Batwoman is trained and ready to be part of the franchise. This makes perfect sense because Bruce hasn't seen Kate or the whole Cult of Cain business. When Batwoman first appeared, Bruce was having his forty nights in the desert to exorcise his demons, and in Final Crisis almost no one saw Kate at all! She a was a "blink and you miss her" Female Fury. So now, finally, Bruce can see what all the hoopla is about. This is a great introduction to Kate-Batwoman for people who missed Rucka's run on Detective Comics.

What is really perfection in this comic, is Amy Reeder drawing Kate in civilian life, and JHW drawing Batwoman proper. Amy Reeder gives Kate an instant likeability by making her look modern (no more frumpy nineties clothes!!), cool and you know, like a regular young lady! JHW continues drawing a moody and feral Batwoman, with extreme closeups to vicious smiles drenched in red lipstick. The art is so good it makes your back teeth hurt.

Yotsuba&! #8

Kiyohiko Azuma

Yotsuba&! is the only manga that makes me laugh out loud much to Carla's chagrin. So instead of going over the whole story, I'm posting the panel that made me laugh.

Yotsuba was so scared by the haunted mansion set up in Fuuka's school that she ROLLED out. ROLLED!

Ahhh Yotsuba!

Batman #666

Morrison

Kubert

Delperdang

I usually don't buy a lot of Batman comics, but after RIP and all the new titles that started after, I decided to give many of them a chance. Streets of Gotham and Gotham City Sirens I dropped pretty quickly, Detective with Batwoman and Batman and Robin became top of the pile choices. I must confess I really like Damien as written by Morrison in Batman and Robin.

So I took advantage of the New Year's Day sale and bought Batman 666 for $.99 through Comixology. It's the Future, I think it might be 20 years hence, and Damien is the new Batman. There's a heavy "Frank Miller" vibe with Damien monologuing and posturing. This Gotham is headed for the Apocalypse as orchestrated by the remaining replacement Batmen at the beginning of Morrison's run.

Bruce and Dick are gone, and Babs is the commissioner. A nod to the Batman Beyond animated series, maybe. She's very resentful of Damien and even has an anti-Batman policy. Damien kills the bad guys if he has to, a radical change of policy for Batman. However, he follows his father's other rules closely and he is always well prepared for any occasion.

What strikes most about this story, is that Damien doesn't seem to have an alternate personality. Bruce Wayne ditzy playboy or Dick Grayson's charm and idealistic young man were necessary respites from being Batman and Robin, but Damien has no other life than being Batman. He is alone, with no Robin to help him and no Alfred to keep him steady. Alfred is a cat, and Damien tends to his wounds alone. This is a stark contrast to the Batman: Brave and the Bold episode "Knights of Tomorrow" where Damien is Selina and Bruce's son and follows his father's footsteps by becoming Robin to Dick's Batman, and later on by having his daughter be Robin to his Batman (a clear nod to Dark Knight Returns).

There's also the fact that Damien alludes to selling his soul at the age of 14 to someone who could be the Devil or is actually the Devil in exchange for Gotham's survival. This is why he can get shot a couple of times and not die although he feels pain. So after fighting a Batman who thought he was the anti-christ, it turns out Damien is the anti-christ and he's waiting for the Devil to came claim him? Well if there's someone who can kill the Devil, other than the Saint of Killers, I guess it would be Damien. Bruce would be so proud!