Gender Queer: A Memoir - Maia Kobabe

Gender Queer: A Memoir - Maia Kobabe 

A memoir of growing up female from birth, but never understanding what it's like to be a girl.  Wanting to be a boy, sort of, but not being romantically inclined.  Asexual, but interested in slash fiction.  Feeling like your body is wrong somehow and not fitting in socially.  Not knowing what to wear and seeing no representation or models of what you think you might be.  Kobabe's elegant lines, evocative of Erika Moen's art, are simple and clean. The panels are arrnaged with a sure and confident hand.  I bought this for two reasons (other than a general interest in both graphic novels and gender studies): one, because it was banned by bigots, and two, because I thought it might be instructive or appealing or my step-daughter, who might have some nonbinary traits.  In any case, this is an honest, poignant story of questioning and learning to carve out your own identity, written and drawn very well.  [4.5]

Amazing Spider-Man - Dan Slott

Amazing Spider-Man - Dan Slott

1.  Big Time: The Complete Collection Vol. 1 - Collects ASM #648-662 of the 2010 series, with a couple of issues by Gage and Van Lente.  I read this after I read the 2014 series with Superior Spider-Ock and what came after, but it was still a delight to read.  Petey gets a real job at last in the high-tech sector; has a girlfriend (who doesn't know his identity, but is a police investigator), goes to pay his respects to the FF (because the Torch is "dead") and gets to join them on an appropriately bizarre cosmic adventure; butts heads with mayor J. Jonah Jameson; and fights enemies old and new, including an emotionless spree killer and a new, improved Scorpion, courtesy of the plotting Spider-Slayer.  Slott is at his best here, with often funny, sometimes poignant, masterfully plotted superhero story.  Slott never forgets that a Spider-Man title is at its core about two principles: no matter how well things may be going in his life, Parker is at core a relatable, lovable nerd, but also the closest thing Marvel has to Superman in terms of his noble heart and soul.  [4.5]
   

 

2. The Parker Luck - Collects #1-6 of the 2014 series.  Finally back in his body after Dr. Octopus sacrificed his being while occupying it as Superior Spider-Man, Parker finds himself regarded as a feared CEO and genius.  He must answer for things that Octavius did, such as kindle a romance, destroy the Black Cat's life, and torture Electro.  Trying to repair the damage, he stumbles upon Silk, a woman who was also bitten by his power-giving spider and has been living in a bunker for a decade.  Wonderful writing, allowing Spidey to be his noble, funny, wisecracking self, with lots of action.  [4.5] 
3. Spider-Verse Prelude - this is all material from the Spiderverse collected addition.
4. Spider-Verse - collects ASM #9-15, all material covered in Spiderverse.
5. Graveyard Shift - Parker tries to rebuild Parker Industries with a bid to create a new supervillain prison, which alarms his coworkers and brings the worst out in his rivals.  The Ghost is hired to destroy the company.  Meanwhile, the Black Cat is back and out for vengeance.  This TPB also includes an annual with some funny stand-alone stories.  [4]

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Champions - Eve Ewing

Champions - Eve Ewing

1. Outlawed - Containing Outlawed #1 and Champions (2020) #1-5.  This Champions team starts out perforce in media res, so I'm not really sure who some of the characters are.  I dislike needless exposition, but some brief introductions might have been nice.  Anyway, this story starts with yet another terrible tragedy involving young superheroes, this time the Cole tragedy, in which a mission to protect a young environmental activist goes awry.  A fiery dragon (from the War of the Realms?) attacks,a nd Viv Vision gets frustrated and enraged at their inability to stop it and goes berserk, so must be stopped, at which point there's a big explosion.  Viv's gone, and before you know it, it's the Superhero Registration Act again only this time aimed at minor superheroes (it has the rather funny acronym CRADLE) , some of whom are locked up in reeducation camps.  The Champions go on the run, but someone seems to be giving away their location.  With an even more assured and vibrant progressive voice than in Waid's mighty fine run, this is a well-told, if rather unoriginal, story; Ewing gives her characters on both sides a wide range of feelings and points, and argues both sides competently.  It's a natural continuation of Waid's intent, but I would have preferred some more of the fun side as well.  [3.5]