Manga Review: Pluto

These are the covers for the American translation of Pluto

If you've been reading my blogs for a while, you know that I love the Protomen, who sing a rock opera about a robot boy who fights to save mankind, and you know that I love Naoki Urasawa, the genius manga artist who created 20th Century Boys. So it should not come as a surprise that I was blown away by Urasawa's Pluto, a manga series about a robot boy who saves the world.

Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Search goes right where The Promise went wrong

In my review of the previous Avatar: the Last Airbender comic series, The Promise, I hoped that the next series, The Search, would do better. I am happy to say that it did! Where The Promise had too many characters, too many storylines, shifts in tone, and characters acting out of character, The Search told a tighter story with fewer characters, a better narrative, and better writing.

And of course, The Search answers the top question asked by fans of Avatar: the Last Airbender: what happened to Zuko's mother? I won't spoil the answer, but it's worth picking up the comics just to finally know.

(This review does contain some minor spoilers, though, but probably nothing you couldn't pick up from the covers.)

Graphic Novel Review: Saga

This image, and all others, taken from fionastaples.tumblr.com

 I'd been hearing a lot about a new trade paperback, and everything I heard made me want to read it. First, it was written by Brian K. Vaughan, who wrote one of my favorite graphic novels ever, Runaways. It was drawn by Fiona Staples, whose art had been one of the reasons I enjoyed North 40 so much. The plot of Saga sounded great, too: an epic story that combined elements of fantasy with science fiction, concerning a young couple from opposite sides of a war who must protect their newborn daughter. All of these things sounded good, but I was still surprised by how much I ended up enjoying the first volume of Saga.

A Review of Avatar: the Last Airbender - The Promise

 I love Avatar: the Last Airbender. It's my favorite animated show of all time. I love the story, the characters, and the setting. I love The Legend of Korra, and I long to cosplay Tenzin. I have written fanfiction for the setting, and I consider it to be one of the best fanfiction stories I've written. So when I learned that they were releasing a comic series to bridge the gap between Avatar: the Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, I had no choice but to read it. Alas, it did not live up to the greatness of the show.

Prophet is the best galactic post-apocalyptic barbarian story I have ever read

The first issue of Brandon Graham's run on Prophet begins with an ancient capsule burrowing its way out of the ground. John Prophet emerges from the capsule, awaking from suspended animation on an Earth that has been colonized by aliens. Prophet is driven by a single mission: to make his way across the blasted landscape, climb the towers of Thauili Van, and re-awaken the Earth Empire.

Why the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the best superhero setting

You already know that Joss Whedon's Avengers movie has been one of the most successful superhero films, both among fans and critics. Of course, the Avengers is the latest in a series of  films introducing each of the main Avengers, which were all at least fairly popular, and some blockbusters in their own right. My fellow superhero nerds can't help comparing the characters in the films with their comic forebears, wondering why certain things were left out and speculating about whether certain characters and plots from decades of comics will appear in the films' sequels. The feeling seems to be that the films are dumbed-down versions of the "true" stories as told in the comics, but I'm having trouble agreeing with that. Lately I have begun to make my peace with the fact that the films are exactly the sort of superhero entertainment I want to see. Here's why.

King City: A Guy, A Cat, a City

Image from Brandon Graham's DeviantArt

Brandon Graham's King City is brilliant. The comics tell the story of a young man named Joe, his cat Earthling, and their adventures in King City. Joe is a Cat Master, an expert at the art of injecting his cat with a variety of juices that give the cat various superpowers. Early in the book, he injects Earthling and feeds the cat a key, and Earthling makes a perfect copy: copy cat. Later, we learn that the cat has a perfect memory: information cat-alog. Not all of his powers are pun-based, but just enough of them are. King City rules.

Manga Review: 20th Century Boys

What if it were up to you to save the world? Not you as a suave secret agent, a mighty super hero, or a veteran special forces commando. You as you.

20th Century Boys is about a man named Kenji, who is a convenience store clerk and may be humanity's only hope. A new cult is gaining power in Japan, while there are reports of outbreaks of an unidentified deadly disease in major cities abroad. At first none of this seems to have anything to do with Kenji, who is more concerned with keeping his struggling store in business while taking care of his sister's baby. But something about recent events is eerily familiar to Kenji.

Followup: You can safely avoid Gladstone's School for World Conquerors

Note: It's been a while since I finished Gladstone's School for World Conquerors, so this review is going to be more about my impressions of the series and the way I remember things playing out.

El Campeon is wondering why he's in this comic

How long should you wait before having a completely unnecessary crossover with a character from another comic series? I don't know, but you should probably wait until after the second issue. Give your own characters a chance to find their feet and grow on your readers before you throw in someone else's character for that "Hey kids, look who's here!" moment. But Gladstone's School for World Conquerors has a completely unnecessary appearance from El Campeon, from The Amazing Joy Buzzards. El Campeon adds nothing to the plot, and ends up taking up time that could have been better spent establishing the characters from Gladstone's School for World Conquerors. In fact, El Campeon's cameo gets almost as much character development as any of the main characters in the series.

Beasts of Burden: Animal Rites. Because pets need to fight the supernatural, too!

What do you do if you have a supernatural problem? You call a paranormal investigator, right? Depending on your preferences, that could be Hellboy, or Harry Dresden, or Abraham van Helsing, or Ginko... but what if you're a suburban pet? Then you had better howl for the Beasts of Burden.

The Sixth Gun

Just look at this cover! LOOK AT IT!

What do you want from your Weird West stories? Zombie Confederates? Check. Native American legends come to life? Check. Supernatural six-shooters? Check, check, check, check, check, and check! Werewolves? Okay, for werewolves, you should check out High Moon instead. But for those other elements, you can't go wrong with The Sixth Gun. My wife bought me a copy of the first volume for my birthday, and all I can say is, that woman knows what I like.

Gladstone's School for World Conquerors, Issue 1

Click here for a followup to this post covering the first arc of the series

The new comic book series "Gladstone's School for World Conquerors" is about a school for superpowered kids, and I'm a sucker for stories like that. The X-Men, with Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, is the most well-known example. There was also the live-action Disney movie "Sky High," the comic book series PS-238 by Aaron Williams (the guy behind Nodwick), and no doubt countless others. I even wrote a superhero school novel for my first National Novel Writing Month novel. I'm also a big fan of the Teen Titans cartoon, which is not about a school, but it has the same wild energy of "Gladstone's School."

Graphic Novel Review: North 40

I should start by pointing out that the cover above is a total misrepresentation of the story. The Goth girl and the chubby guy in the Cthulhu Lives t-shirt start things off, but they don't really figure much into the whole plot. Two of the main characters, Sheriff Morgan and Wyatt Hinckle, can be seen in the background, while the third, Amanda Walker, is nowhere to be seen. That strikes me as odd, as a scythe-wielding young woman on the cover strikes me as something that can be used to sell comics, but apparently Goth girls rate higher.

But I digress. North 40 was written by Aaron Williams, whom some of you may know as the mind behind the popular Nodwick comic. But while Nodwick, along with Williams's other comics, PS238 and Full Frontal Nerdity, are light-hearted comedies, North 40 is decidedly a weird horror comic. And if the tentacles on the cover didn't already give it away, the horror is of the cosmic/Lovecraftian/weird variety.