Even if you have plans to see the movie you should probably read this book. They work very well in concert with each other. The basic beats are the same in both, but there are some notable changes – making them very interesting parallel texts.
A really sharp alternate history (or “history”) asking what if the Son of Jor-El landed in the Ukraine and became a Soviet Icon.
It’s a really fun story that will delight comics and Cold War nerds. (Plus, it features Cossack Batman in a wool & leather cowl!)
The twist at the end is delicious, too. I offer this up to people who scoff at superhero comics – it’s really, really fun.
An absolute joy of a book, collecting three new Alan Scott tales. Gorgeously painted and drawn with all of Scott’s outlandish color (and fear of wood.) Tongue in cheek only when absolutely necessary. Highly recommended.
This entertaining yarn of post-Cold War international intrigue goes to all the usual places, but does it in a sharp, clean manner. And involves the nefarious Cosmic Cube along the way.
Super Boxers!
Imagine all the dumbest elements of Rollerball put into one of the first Marvel magazine format one-shot “graphic novels” with lots of muscles and really predictable sci-fi tropes.
That’s Super Boxers! Something so stupid I’m proud to own it and proud to have spent a good hour (or was it even 90 minutes?) reading it on the couch this morning.
Super Boxers!
More on Super Boxers!
With all the recent buzz about the forthcoming film The First Avenger: Captian America, I realized something. I really don’t have much firsthand knowledge of Captain America.
He’s popped up in some of the other Marvel books I’ve read, but I’ve never read anything solely about him.
This series is, so they say, going to be very influential on the forthcoming film. I can’t say I’m too enthused.
It’s all just so bland and obvious. I won’t bore you with anything resembling a synopsis. It just doesn’t have any zing. He’s a guy haunted by the past. And his shield is a boomerang. I dunno . . I’ve got Volume 2 here, maybe it’ll all come together.
Truly one of the most clever, fun and meta things I’ve ever read. The characters and the world are so rich, even though the story is very simple. Top 10 knows how to evoke just enough out of every cop, sci-fi and superhero film you’ve ever seen to zip its story along. You could go over these pages with a microscope and find easter eggs forever.
Larry Niven and John Byrne join forces for some truly insane, time-paradox, theory of relativity quoting nerd-ass shit Green Lantern fun.
Ganthet appears to a strangely bummin-around-the-house Hal Jordan and takes him to Ireland to hunt for Leprechauns. Then, into the reaches of outer space to prevent something in the past that, if I’m understanding it correctly, is important to do and fail in order to insure that it happens. Or something.
Like I say, it’s pretty out-there deep SF nerdass shit. Also, Jordan uses the power of redshifting light while moving at relative speed to engage the power of yellow. I’m pretty sure the math works. Not sure Alan Scott would approve, though.
This is not quite as slick as the recent Rebirth or First Flight Hal Jordan origin tales – and certainly not as nerdy – but it is straightforward and good. And anything Green Lantern is inherently nerdy.
Join Hal as he zips through space to Oa to fight Legion and question the ethics of the Guardians. The artwork is pretty good for 1991, too.
They say this this is the book Martin Campbell is cribbing from for his movie next year. We could do a lot worse.
Ed Brubaker’s kinda-sorta follow up to Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke is a fast-paced and exciting Batman tale – but nothing truly striking.
The second half of this book, a Detective Comics run called “Made of Wood” is far more entertaining, bringing Bruce Wayne alongside a somewhat out-of-time first Green Lantern Alan Scott.
A mixed-bag collection of Fear Agent B-sides.
Recommended only for people who’ve read the full run (as you should!) and are itching for a little bit more.
You wanna see Heath Huston barf spider eggs, here ya go!
Allegedly, there will be a final Fear Agent arc some time this year. It’s truly a demented masterpiece of a comic.
Four extremely entertaining (and, at times, alarmingly violent) one shots about everyone’s favorite obese, interstellar thief.
There’s no shortage of gross out, as well as humor. Jabba eats his foes, slobbers when he’s nervous and even mugs to the camera once, that’s how awesome this is.
I read the Baltar book and the Adama book but I inadvertently saved the best for last.
Witness his birth to struggling workers on Sagittaron, his radicalized youth, his terrorism years and lengthy prison years. Much like the show, the book in ambiguous in its portrayal. He’s sympathetic, but still a killer. Any BSG nerd should probably read this.
A surprisingly well-told tale of Adama from his early First Cylon Wars years up til his “exile” on the broken down Galactica.
See how he met Saul Tigh! See how frakked up the Bulldog incident. See how he used to know. . .Admiral Cain’s mother?
It’s fun to get a little taste of BSG again, now that it’s over. I still plan to watch the whole thing from scratch again in a few years.
Let’s be honest – Generations just wasn’t enough K/P action.
Convergence is a fine short story that mixes an awful lot of solid fan service. You want some Captain Harriman? Some Gowron? Some Gary Freakin’ Seven? You got it.
Much like Generations, though, Kirk and Picard don’t get that much screentime, tho. Always leave ‘em wanting more, I suppose.
Holy wow. Imagine a lighter, funnier version of Watchmen. That’s how I describe Alan Moore’s Top 10.
A parallel city where everyone is a superhero, and still needs a police force.
There are easter eggs on every page, as well as very sharply drawn characters, great dialogue and some crazy, nerd-ass-shit sci-fi concepts. The murder in the “God bar” is worthy of its own review.
I strongly recommend this to anyone looking for something thick and meaty to sink their teeth into.
Anyone who has ever made a film – even a student short – needs to drop everything and read this. If for no other reason than you’ll feel better.
Author Julie Salamon found a willing participant in Brian De Palma. He allowed her unprecedented access to the mechanics of getting a movie made. Every meeting, audition, location scout, shooting day, editing, scoring, mixing, test screening and premiere. This would have been fascinating even if it was just, say, for Raising Cain or Mission to Mars. Salamon lucked out, though – the picture was the colossal once-in-a-decade flop The Bonfire of the Vanities.
If you are a fan of procedural journalism, this book reads like a thriller.
Ann saw me wasting my time, er, excuse me, reading this book and she asked, “Are those books actually any good?!” And I had a revelation – yes, usually, they are really entertaining. But this one, Book Two in the Five (and continuing) Vanguard series actually kinda isn’t.
I loved, loved, loved the worldbuilding in David Mack’s first Vanguard novel Harbinger, but the follow-up, authored by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dillmore, is desultory and dull. It lacks a singular narrative drive, a throughline, and has a never ending cast of expanding characters just drifting all over the place. It is, in short, a mess.
Still, it is a fun place to be, this space station in the nefarious Taurus Reach, and I’m not about to throw in the towel (especially as Mack is back for Book 3 – which I just ordered from Amazon.)
What it comes down to is this: I’ve been lucky with the Trek fiction I’ve read. I’ve read decent authors dealing with aspects of the expanded universe that I have an unquenchable interest in. But I recognize there’s a lot of dreck out there . . .and I’m hoping I don’t run into more.
