Trades Day again, enjoy all these reviews:-
Dawn: Lucifer’s Halo Supplemental Book
The Losers v2: Double Down
Batman: Hush Returns
Modern Masters v6: Arthur Adams
Essential Luke Cage, Power Man v1
Preacher v4: Ancient History
Gotham Central v2: Half A Life
Craig’s Mini-Reviews, aka What Have I Been Reading This Week?
Couple of trades, both hardcover, both as far apart on the comics spectrum as you could ever experience, yet both with lots of merits.
First up, Acme Novelty Library 16 – issue sixteen, yet a hardcover 64-plus-page original graphic novel, featuring the school days of Rusty Brown – a comics and action figure fan, with dysfunctional parents, bullied at school, yet running in parallel is the story of Chalky White’s first day at school: a figure even more tragic and pathetic than Rusty…except Rusty has that streak of maliciousness brought upon by being a victim all his life. The last eight or so pages are the Eisner-esque Building Stories – different people live on different floors of a building, each story focuses on one particular occupant, yet others flit in and out of the background, their actions in Story A being explained in Story B. Hugely complex yet a work of genius.
And also…NYX/X-23, the Marvel HC collection of X-23 #1-6 and NYX #1-7. I only read the first four issues of NYX in monthly format, before the scheduling problems with it put me off, after which I seemed to miss the last three issues. I was umming and ahhing about buying this book for a few weeks, really didn’t have much faith in X-23, I mean, Daughter of Wolverine, give me a break. However, I spent the cash, read the book, and it’s so much better than a DofW knock-off. First off, she’s not the Daughter of Wolverine – I won’t reveal how X-23 came about (nor what happened to X-1 to X-22, nor the fate of X-24 to X-50), but the story builds nicely to a not unexpected denouement (although with a very nice final touch, presaged subtlely yet shocking when it does happen). Also, reading this series first makes a few scenes in NYX make more sense…part of what turned me off NYX in the first place was the lack of use of the heroine of that book, Kiden’s, mutant powers. She has such a cool power, shown in the first couple of issues and then apparently forgotten…until it comes back in style in the last chapter. A great take on young superheroes, a fine story.
This was my truth, now tell me yours.
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