Kevin Lau
Hands down the best Spongebob book so far. Not only is the writing as swift and energetic as the episode, but it also adds a bit more to the end to bring the story full circle while remaining true to character. The illustrations are particularly fantastic here as well.
My 5 year old brother really likes this one.
Robbie Thompson continues his run on a younger version of our web-slinging hero, keeping the same set-up and momentum as the first volume.
This set of issues has a bit more going on. On top of the usual villain-of-the-issue, Spidey teams up with the likes of Black Panther and Captain America, each taking an interest in Spider-Man after his team-up with Iron Man. Of course, Spider-Man still has to stay on top of his life as Peter Parker, which includes tutoring not only Gwen Stacy, but bully Flash Thompson as well!
FULL REVIEW
Honestly, I could not have picked a better time to start reading this series.
I've read snippets of Brian K. Vaughn's work and absolutely love his writing and ideas. Then I came across Paper Girls when it was on sale for a dollar, the synopsis describing four 12 year olds in late-80's Ohio who come across a supernatural mystery that threatens the town. Still having to wait until Halloween for the second season of Stranger Things and almost done rewatching Gravity Falls, this comic totally hit the sweet spot for me.
You can read my full review here.
The concept itself is pretty interesting, working around the Chinese zodiac and bestowing 12 individuals with the aura of the animal correlating to the year they're born. It's quite unfortunate this novel didn't turn out as good as expected.
Stan Lee helms this story with help from Stuart Moore, both of which are mainly comic book writers with Moore having some experience in prose. Though not bad, the writing in this book felt like it would have been more impactful or entertaining if it were a comic or a TV show. It's a creative concept with a generic middle-school urban fantasy plotline, with characters that are rather flat in prose but would be suitable in a more visual storytelling manner. However, for most of the book, I'd give it 3 stars. Unfortunately, the way this book wraps up brings it down to 2.
My biggest problem has to do with the main character, Steven, and his own character arc. In the beginning, some big stuff happens to him. He gets powers, he loses a loved one, he meets a lot of people, all that jazz. Then somewhere in the middle it becomes a copy-and-paste of Peter Parker/Spider-Man-esque story of not really wanting the superhero life anymore, then rushes back into the big fight at the end, then ends on a note that pretty much ignores the biggest impacts on his life. I think even a middle schooler reading this can realize the flaws of this character development.
That being said, I'm not really interested in checking out the next few installments. It's not bad, it's just that prose isn't exactly the right medium for this story.
I kid you not, this has probably become one of my favorite comic books. Hear me out on this.
It's a story about friendship, loss, and acceptance. It's a story with laughs, action, and philosophy. It's a story that jerks at the tears and the heart, yet it centers around a character whose vocabulary is only 3 words (that are only spoken in a certain order).
The writing flows and the art adds to the characters and the setting. It's stuff like this that show me why I read comics.
Very silly and weird, reading more like bad fanfiction than a cheesy silver age comic. the art was trippy but very interesting, making this a bizarre, terrible, but kinda fun volume.
It's rare to see a sequel be better than it's predecessor, especially in a planned trilogy where the second books usually feel like a filler. However, Lindsay Cummings manages to not only continue the overarching plot, but also gives us more insight of the characters.
This book was very character-driven compared to the last one and the action was a lot easier to follow. The stakes were raised, more sacrifices had to be made, and it all ends with another cliffhanger that has me pumped for the finale!
Paper Girls volume 2 picks up right where volume 1 leaves off. So, fair warning, there will be very slight spoilers here if you're wanting to go into this series blind.
Review continued on my blog.
Dick Grayson (aka Nightwing/the first Robin) is trying to get back in the swing of things when Haley's Circus, the circus where his parents had died years ago, comes to Gotham. After paying his old friends a visit, the dying owner of the circus gives Dick ownership of the circus, hinting at a mysterious past in Dick's ancestry. As if Dick wasn't already confused, a highly-trained assassin is trying to punish him for crimes he didn't commit.
You can read the rest of my review here!
As I was reading it, I was considering that this was just an okay adaptation of an episode I haven't seen yet. Upon finishing and doing a little bit of digging, I discovered this was an original story. Therefore, I'm bringing it down to 2 stars.
Sure, it has a Moral of the Story the classic episodes had that fit well into canon of standard children's books, but the focus is so detailed on information that drama really gets left in the dust. All the comedy is physical too, which felt really odd pacing-wise.
Cool of Nick to mix in original stories with adaptations, but this ain't it, chief.
I figured this was going to be a hard one to adapt, since the strengths of this episode are in the visual and auditory humor (slapstick, sudden expressions, overall sound mixing) than irony like Tea at the Treedome.
Even my 5 year old brother was getting a bit bored with this one and I believe it's the shortest so far.
I don't think there's a real way to review this book in 2020 since it serves its purpose of showcasing a plethora of independent films, but does so in a manner where it might serve better as a coffee table book rather than something kick back and read.
The main problem with this book, however, is how it quickly and not-so-cleanly goes from one film to the next. No analysis outside of plot summaries that range from simple loglines to incoherent three-page descriptions. They're not essays, and they're not clearly labeled to actually be showcasing like a Roger Ebert book. If this were written in the age of the World Wide Web, I think a major restructure would happen.
It's fun to skim through, but not sure if worth seeking out. I have every film mentioned in the book listed here for anyone curious. There's definitely some deep cuts here worth checking out.
A five-star idea with six-star scenes sprinkled throughout, but overall dragged down by four-star execution.
Tom King is one of my “blank check” writers; I will read anything he writes to completion, no matter what. Rorschach is probably the densest work in his portfolio, and things don't really start connecting until four chapters in. Even then, it hammers the reader with so much that it's hard to read in long sessions, but it's a story meant to be read in one.
Rorschach is a story birthed from anger and frustration during 2020. You can see the parallels there, but you can also see the parallels in what has happened this year, or honestly any year where political divide dominates the headline market. Though it's clear what lens Tom King views through, Rorschach is purposely written as a rorschach test of its own.
It's intentionally confounding, confusing, and abstract, something I'm probably not knowledgeable enough yet to really dissect, but it still has points to make about political divides, social responsibility, and the influence art has in that world even though it's often dismissed as childish.
Kyle Higgins and Eddy Barrows continue their run on Nightwing with this second volume, which I found to be even better than the first!
This volume contains 3 story arcs: The first of which ties up the Court of Owls event (which actually still works in this series without crudely interrupting the main story), the second has Dick Grayson facing off the anti-Gotham group that framed him for murder, and the third is issue #0, which gives us Dick Grayson's origin story.
You can read the rest of my review here!
Talk about a serious downgrade from the first volume.
Told mostly from Wally West's (a.k.a. Kid Flash) perspective, Speed of Darkness contains 3 stories. The first one is an issue where the Wally you see on the cover meets the Wally from the pre-New 52 era who had recently returned home due to the events in DC's Rebirth. The second story is Speed of Darkness itself and runs for 3 issues, where Wally tries to achieve the Flash's trust by going after a rogue called Shade by himself, leading to scenario that traps him, his aunt Iris, and the Flash himself. The third story, another single issue, has Kid Flash patrolling the streets as Barry and Iris go on a date.
FULL REVIEW
Written by Robbie Thompson (former writer of CW's Supernatural and current author of Silk), Spidey is an ongoing comic going back to Peter Parker's high school days. There's not much of a plot, per se, but rather this series functions similar to the cartoon The Spectacular Spider-Man. Each issue has Spider-Man facing off with a different villain with subtle hints at a bigger villain that will come in later, this volume containing Doctor Octopus, Doctor Doom, the Green Goblin, and more. On top these supervillain debacles, Peter has to balance his priorities with high school as well as finding a way to make money.
FULL REVIEW
After being lost outside of time and space, Wally West (the original Kid Flash), finally returns home in the events of DC Rebirth thanks to the help of Barry Allen. However, a bigger power has taken away 10 years from their world and any memory of Wally. That doesn't stop Kid Flash from finding his friends, though, and through the magic of the speed force, Nightwing, Aqualad, Omen, Donna, and Arsenal are a team once again now called the Titans.
That's the summary for the first issue in this volume and it's certainly a heartwarming read. It was this one-shot issue that really made me think that this was going to be a fun series to get into.
I was wrong.
FULL REVIEW