Eternals - Neil Gaiman

Eternals - Neil Gaiman

Chafing at being stuck for millions of years as in the form of an eleven-year-old (and thus missing out on Sersei's charms, among other things), the Eternal known as Sprite plays a classic Loki-like prank and arranges it so that all 100 Eternals forget their history and live their lives as normal humans.  Makkari becomes "Mark Curry," perpetually overworked resident at an emergency hospital. Zaras is a wino sleeping in an alley.  Sersei is a party girl.  And so on.  Unfortunately, at the same time, the Deviants have decided to waken the Sleeping Celestial, who will destroy the earth when he wakes.  Making things worse, they capture and temporarily kill Ikaris.  But the Eternal spirit cannot stay dormant for long, and although they can't exactly stop the Celestial, they manage to talk it down.  I think this is a pretty good attempt to integrate the Eternals into the larger Marvel universe; Iron Man makes an appearance, reminding some Eternals that they too can take action, and to try to persuade Sersei to rejoin the Avengers.  Regarding the then-pertinent question of registering and picking a side as a metahuman, I enjoyed Zaras asking Iron Man if he cared which children were playing in a trash heap.  I admire John Romita's talent, but his art never grabbed me — everything looks too blocky and doughy at the same time — and maybe I'd have appreciated it more with a more sleek, modern art style.  The first half of the story, when the Eternals are all living and working on Earth and dealing with awareness of who they are, is more interesting than the second half, in which the Celestial threatens to awake — though I did like how that storyline reminds us of the cosmic struggles going on continuously far over even the A-list superheroes' heads.  [3.5]

Danger and Other Unknown Risks - Ryan North and Erica Henderson

Danger and Other Unknown Risks - Ryan North and Erica Henderson

The good news is the world didn't end via the Y2K tech bug.  The bad news is that it ended through the sudden arrival of magic, which split the world into different realms where magic is unpredictable.. Years later, the Earth is mutating, decaying, and inherently unstable. To prevent it from plunging into total chaos, Marguerite and a talking shar pei named Daisy, under the tutelage of Uncle Bernard, set out on a quest to gather ingredients for a spell that promises to eradicate evil magic once and for all.  They meet and enlist a gung ho mall guard from 1999, but when one of their quests reveals that they're only one in an ongoing cycle of questers continually resetting the timeline, they start to question everything they believed to be true.  This is a fun story with quirky characters.  The twist is clever and not telegraphed ahead.  I thought the art was good, but the colors are sometimes too dark and monotone; I know it's meant to set mood, but I found it obscured details.  And some of the story is a little cutesy, with teen romance and girl power and young people taking charge and so on all seemingly shoehorned in.  [3.5]

Eight Million Genies - Charles Soule & Ryan Browne

Eight Million Genies - Charles Soule & Ryan Browne

In a bar in Michigan, a band prepares to set up for their gig in a bar, a young boy tries to wake his passed-out father, and a Chinese couple come in looking for directions.  At that moment, a genie appears to everyone on Earth, ready to grant one wish.  Instantly, the bartender (who seems to be more than he appears) wishes that the bar and everyone in it be protected.  Outside, the world goes berserk as every single person on earth gives voice to their craziest desire.  Some are superheroes, some save their wishes, some just want to watch the world burn.  The planet, obviously, will never be the same.  This is an intriguing through experiment brought to life by one of the most interesting writers in comics.  In terms of the "rules" of the premise, the genies sometimes are transferred to other people so they can collect plural wishes, and unless I'm missing something, this is never explained, which I find annoying.  Other than that, it's a fun thrill ride that goes in some unexpected directions.  [4]

Sebastian O - Grant Morrison

Sebastian O - Grant Morrison

In a technologically advanced Victorian England, renowned reprobate and dandy Sebastian O escapes Bedlam prison, where he has been held for writing a little book on "Uranian love,"and seeks vengeance on the powers that be that broke up his scandalous club, silencing their ideas.  The evil Lord Lavender sends some nasty assassins after Sebastian, but with the help of some tribadists and pederasts. Sebastian triumphs.  I give it points for audacity and wit, and even though it's only three issues, I though Morrison did a good job condensing his quasi-steampunk Victorian setting into an understandable gloss.  I'd like to have enjoyed it more, but it feels a little degrading to root for a "hero" who cavorts with a pedophile.  [3.5]

Drafted - Rick Parker

Drafted - Rick Parker

The Vietnam War has generated no shortage of memoirs, but Rick Parker's graphic memoir stands apart because it isn't really a war memoir at all. Instead, it's a diary about waiting for war, fearing war, and trying to survive the absurdities of military life while hoping not to be sent into combat.  Parker, a shy and artistically inclined young man who isn't particularly good in school, is drafted into the Army in 1966. Unlike in many Vietnam narratives, he never actually serves overseas. The threat of deployment looms its head every now and then, but the book's focus is on boot camp, officer training, military bureaucracy, and the strange, often ridiculous routines of Army life. Parker discovers quickly that he is profoundly unsuited to military culture and spends much of the book trying to endure it rather than embrace it.  It's a fairly sanitized account.  The only violence comes from two candidates who die in car wrecks, and sex mostly presents itself in the form of a couple of women who flirt with Parker, who is wooden and awkward and (at first) doesn't reciprocate.

Parker doesn't reinvent himself as a hero, nor does he present military service as a grand coming-of-age journey. If anything, Parker is too taciturn — there's very little introspection, regret, or sizing himself up.  Perhaps that's just a tendency of his generation; his parents drop him off at the recruiting office (with war a very real specter hanging over him) with far less anxiety or emotion than parents today drop their kids off at summer camp.  The memoir's most memorable scenes often involve mundane frustrations, arbitrary authority, and the constant low-grade fear produced by the draft itself. Parker is similarly silent on the social and racial issues of the day.  The cartooning is expressive and accessible, leaning toward caricature rather than realism. His storytelling often recalls the autobiographical comics of Harvey Pekar: anecdotal, conversational, and more interested in lived experience than dramatic plotting.  [3.5]

Superman: American Alien - Max Landis

Superman: American Alien - Max Landis

Collecting all seven issues, this book adapts, retells, and modernizes the Superman mythos.  But as the jacket states, this is not a Superman story.  It's the story of Clark Kent, an alien wondering who he is.  Meeting Bruce Wayne and Oliver Queen and Lex Luthor, fighting the Parasite — these are not the point of the stories, but merely events that help Clark discover what he should be.  I love how Landis implied that the whole town of Smallville knows Clark is Superman and keeps it to themselves, I love the Lois Lane romance (although it's extremely compressed), I love the retelling of the Deathstroke meeting on the yacht.  Just brilliant mythmaking.  [5]

Silver - Stephan Franck

Silver - Stephan Franck

1. Of Treasures and Thieves, Book 1: James Finnegan, con man and master thief, finds he and his gang are out of luck when after a daring escape, he loses the key to their loot.  Desperate, he looks through the old journals of Jonathan Harker and learns two unbelievable things.  First, there exists a massive silver hoard called the silver dragon, worth millions.  And second, vampires exist and this hoard is in the possession of Drakh-Kahn, king of the vampires.  With the help of a sword-wielding Van Helsing granddaughter, a future-telling child, and an old ham actor, Finnegan goes for the big score, undead blood rituals and monsters be damned.  This is an exciting and fun adventure, with writing that evokes Brian Azzarello and black and white art that evokes Sin City.  Franck pays proper homage to Stoker's work, while letting Finnegan be a modern, devil-may-care hero.  This collection has six issues, stopping at a cliffhanger just as the long con gets rolling.  [4]