A fair amount of good books came out last week and I could have added two other books to my best list, but I like leaving it at three unless there is some (in my mind) compelling reason to change it. The worst of this week is an all time candidate for worse book in my mind, just really bad.
Best
Stormwatch PHD #7 - This series has made me a fan of characters who I knew nothing about coming into the book. I have read Stormwatch stuff before, but I had never gotten really into it and invested in that universe. This issue we see the PHD squad (who are low level to no power at all characters) defeat a major villain (Defile) on there own. Also Jackson King lies to Fahrenheit who betrayed the group and tells her she betrayed them due to being mind controlled. Jackson also lets the leader of the group know it is a lie and tells him that he did it to relieve her of the guilt for making a bad decision while she is depressed. This is a really well done series and Christos Gage has become a writer that I look for, the Doug Mahnke artwork is a huge plus as he is a very good artist.
Killer #4 (of 10) - This is a reprint of a French comic, so at least I know we should get a consistent publishing schedule. The best part of this book is the portrayal of the killer. To my knowledge we have never been given his name. The book is told from his perspective. Right now his carefully constructed world has been unraveling. The last hit went wrong, he killed a policeman who was tracking him, his handler tried to kill him and he killed his handler. A very noir type of feeling is evoked when reading it. I feel like we are seeing the killer unravel and learning what it takes to be a contract killer. Very nice clean artwork that depicts everything, but still keeps a very clean line.
Cover Girl #1 (of 5) - This was a book I took a chance on and was pleasantly surprised in how well the concept was executed. The premise is an actor needs a body guard due to people trying to kill him. The actor is a macho star and the body guard has the looks of a beautiful starlet. The first issue the body guard doesn't show till the end. The actor is a loser when the story opens and he accidentally runs a girl off the road. He then saves her from a fiery death. Well dressed bad guys show up noting what happened and TV news copter shows up. The actor pretends he just saved her, his agent starts to build on his "hero" status and he gets a decent movie role, but he is being pursued by the bad guys. So a body guard is hired. Good writing and solid art work make this book a winner so far. The dialogue is especially well done.
Worst Book
Salvador #1 (of 5) - What a pretentious piece of crap. I give almost any book a chance, but my $4 brought a wordless 22 pages of pictures. The pictures were not strong enough on their own to really tell enough of a story to interest me. If they had been I could have hung in there, but the only reason I had a clue what this was about is due to reading the official hype on the book that described the premise. For $4 I want a comic book, not some grand frelling experiment in how to open up a story. The writers are hyped as big time movie people and maybe the first five minutes (or more) of a silent movie might work as you eventually get the words, but as part 1 of a 5 part story - it did not work. I cancelled this book immediately.
Best
Stormwatch PHD #7 - This series has made me a fan of characters who I knew nothing about coming into the book. I have read Stormwatch stuff before, but I had never gotten really into it and invested in that universe. This issue we see the PHD squad (who are low level to no power at all characters) defeat a major villain (Defile) on there own. Also Jackson King lies to Fahrenheit who betrayed the group and tells her she betrayed them due to being mind controlled. Jackson also lets the leader of the group know it is a lie and tells him that he did it to relieve her of the guilt for making a bad decision while she is depressed. This is a really well done series and Christos Gage has become a writer that I look for, the Doug Mahnke artwork is a huge plus as he is a very good artist.Killer #4 (of 10) - This is a reprint of a French comic, so at least I know we should get a consistent publishing schedule. The best part of this book is the portrayal of the killer. To my knowledge we have never been given his name. The book is told from his perspective. Right now his carefully constructed world has been unraveling. The last hit went wrong, he killed a policeman who was tracking him, his handler tried to kill him and he killed his handler. A very noir type of feeling is evoked when reading it. I feel like we are seeing the killer unravel and learning what it takes to be a contract killer. Very nice clean artwork that depicts everything, but still keeps a very clean line.
Cover Girl #1 (of 5) - This was a book I took a chance on and was pleasantly surprised in how well the concept was executed. The premise is an actor needs a body guard due to people trying to kill him. The actor is a macho star and the body guard has the looks of a beautiful starlet. The first issue the body guard doesn't show till the end. The actor is a loser when the story opens and he accidentally runs a girl off the road. He then saves her from a fiery death. Well dressed bad guys show up noting what happened and TV news copter shows up. The actor pretends he just saved her, his agent starts to build on his "hero" status and he gets a decent movie role, but he is being pursued by the bad guys. So a body guard is hired. Good writing and solid art work make this book a winner so far. The dialogue is especially well done.Worst Book
Salvador #1 (of 5) - What a pretentious piece of crap. I give almost any book a chance, but my $4 brought a wordless 22 pages of pictures. The pictures were not strong enough on their own to really tell enough of a story to interest me. If they had been I could have hung in there, but the only reason I had a clue what this was about is due to reading the official hype on the book that described the premise. For $4 I want a comic book, not some grand frelling experiment in how to open up a story. The writers are hyped as big time movie people and maybe the first five minutes (or more) of a silent movie might work as you eventually get the words, but as part 1 of a 5 part story - it did not work. I cancelled this book immediately.
If her jeans covered any less they'd no longer be pants!
ReplyDeleteSorry, I've got enough typical girl in me to notice fashion. ;)
Actually I noticed the pants also and had similar thoughts, but also thinking that I hope my daughters aren't wearing those pants, but I hope Jessica Alba is - father vs male.
ReplyDelete