The Boys - Garth Ennis

The Boys - Garth Ennis

1. Omnibus Vol. 1 - Containing #1 - 14 with bonus material.  After the brutal death of his girlfriend at the hands of a negligent and uncaring super, Hughie is recruited by the Boys, five individuals backed by the CIA who want to keep tabs on and sometimes take out bad supers.  And the supers of this world are very, very bad indeed.  They use surveillance equipment to blackmail the hedonistic young group Teenage Kix, infiltrate a Russian/CIA plot to overthrow Moscow using supers, and investigate the death of a young gay man who hung with sidekicks.  So here's the deal with this book.  It's vile, way over the top, sometimes funny, sometimes not so much.  Ennis' highly puerile anti-superhero fixation is given free rein; he's at his worst and least mature when mocking superheroes.  Here the supes are not only amoral and brutal, they are all, every single one, sexually neurotic or "poofs." There's even a scene where a gerbil crawls out of KO'd supe's rectum.  Gag.  The satire here is vulgar, cheap, mean, and over the top, but worst of all, childish. It's about a subtle as three hammers to the crotch.  All that said, though, as it gets going it becomes more palatable.  The Boys' mission is sympathetic, it's a decent story, and everyone is so terrible that you keep reading just to see somebody get some kind of comeuppance.  The world-building is pretty terrible though.  [2.5]

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Letter 44 - Charles Soule

Letter 44 - Charles Soule

1. Volume I: Escape Velocity - Collects #1-6.  The new US President, Stephen Blades, learns from a letter written by his predecessor, Carroll (a very thin stand-in for George W. Bush) that in the asteroid belt, an alien presence has built something that seems to be a mining operation.  A nine-person crew of military personnel and scientists is already en route, but of course contact is slow and sparse.  Blades makes some changes, such as using the super space technology that Carroll kept secret to win the quagmire oil wars, and his chief of staff is attacked.  When the crew makes contact, there are more questions than answers.  [4.5]
   

Ivar, Timewalker - Fred Van Lente

Ivar, Timewalker - Fred Van Lente 

1. Making History - Ivar, a time traveler, appears to Dr. Neela Sethi, who is about to invent time travel, and takes her on a voyage through time while being chased by strange entities representing a "sentient city" and 'clockwork holocaust" who want to get Neela, or perhaps rescue her from Ivan, who may not be the savior he claims he is.  The mix of action and humor and craziness I have come to expect from Van Lente; great stuff.  [4.5]
2. Breaking History - Neela is taken captive by her evil future self and it's up to Ivar and his two similarly immortal brothers to rescue her.  More madcap Grant Morrison-esque technobabble and wildly improbable derring-do ensues.  While less happens in this volume than the previous, it's still terrific fun.  [4]
3. Escaping History - Neela, now an experienced timewalker herself, resolves to make things right, and enlists the help of... Ivar?  But a young Ivar, taken from ancient Babylon.  Unfortunately, her future self is still out there trying to erase the universe, and Ivar's not who he will later be.  They end up in a world of Roman carnosaurs, who treat plant-eaters as slaves and mammals as gladiators.  Ivar teams with a world-weary humanoid ankylosaur while Neela tries to make things right.  Terrific comedy, pathos, adventure, and absolutely gorgeous art.  [4.5]

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Youth - Curt Pires

Youth - Curt Pires

1. Season One - A mixed-race teenage gay couple, Frank and River, angrily leave the dead-end situations in their bigoted small town and go on the road.  The meet up with three other youths in a van, and get fucked up.  Then a meteor hits, and they gain super powers.  It's a tale that's been told a million times, but this is in a sense a fresh take on the idea.  It's set in the "real world," and these troubled youths act in a way that you might expect super powered youths to do.  They mope, do drugs, question themselves, steal money, party, hook up, get jealous, and lash out.  People are killed, and there are some explicit sex scenes.  I never really connected with the characters because they're all so distasteful and unsympathetic, at least from my aged vantage point, but maybe more will happen in the next "season."  [3]

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Irredeemable - Mark Waid

Irredeemable - Mark Waid

• Vol. One - The Plutonian, a straightforward Superman analogue, has turned bad, and not just bad, but genocidally murderous, ruining entire cities and killing his former teammates.  What made him lose his faith and good heart?  And how can the other heroes and villains, who are all dramatically less powerful than he is, stop him?  In this volume, which only collects four issues, the first question is hinted at, a bit, although it's not clear yet, as it's not likely that mere ingratitude and learned helplessness by the people of Earth could turn a saint into a murderer of millions.  The answer to the second question seems to be: they can't.  This is by-the-numbers comic book trope inversion that has been done before, as early as Miracleman, but Waid's machine gun story telling had my pulse pounding.  [4.5]
• Vol. 2 - The Paradigm, or what's left of them, race to find out what happened to Plutonian's deadliest enemy, Modeus.  Meanwhile, more fragments of Plutonian's past come to light: he was having an affair with a teammate's wife; and far worse, his accidental inaction was behind one of the worst events to happen before his turning.  This series just keeps on thrilling me, with twists and reveals that keep me reading.  Waid takes the Samaritan and Miracleman and combines them into a much more flawed character.  If I have a complaint, it's that Waid stuck too closely to his JLA pastiche for me; I'd like a little more originality in the characters.  [4.5]
• Vol. 3 - Dang, son!  What if Superman had never been adopted by a loving family, but bounced from foster home to foster home?  And then he tried to do right but everyone was scared of him anyway?  We also learn what happened to Modeus, and it isn't good.  The quality of this dystopian super world doesn't diminish.  However, I do think after the big reveal of what Bette Noir did and how she blames herself is a bit over the top, and, from what we know so far, it still doesn't explain such a drastic change in Plutonian's personality.  [4.5]
• Vol. 4 - This volume contains a few standalone stories about Max Power, of whom this is the first we've seen, Hornet, and Kaidan. Then it continues with the main story, where Plutonian fights the Paradigm and a demon along with his resurrected and highly sus sidekick.  They have him where they want him, but Qubit plays his own hand, ruining their shot.  So many twists!  [4]
• Vol. 5 - Plutonian and his resurrected sidekick, actually Modeus, try to make things right by using a magic gem, while Qubit reveals what he alone knew: Hornet, the first hero Plutonian killed, had years earlier set up a plan in case Plutonian ever snapped.  Unfortunately, it involved making unsavory deals with vicious alien invaders.  Two things on finishing this volume: one, the pace of the story is still whirlwind, but the revelations aren't as shocking and fresh, simply because that kind of intensity can't last as things become familiar; and Hornet's deal with the aliens seems to be a big plot hole since there doesn't seem to be a cover explanation for how he got the fleet to leave Earth.  [4]
• Vol. 6 - Oh snap!  With Plutonian in a coma-like state in the hands of alien tyrants, back on Earth the egotistical Survivor steps in to replace him.  Qubit wonders if his intentions aren't as suspect as Plutonion's, and what they're going to do with all these supervillains.  Meanwhile, Plutonian seems to be getting psychic help, in some way, from Modeus.  The Plutonian plot had me rolling my eyes a bit, as Waid obviously can't off his big bad, reason-for-the-whole-story so easily, but "mental asylum on a sun" is a bit out there even for comics.  I enjoyed being surprised by the story on Earth more.  [4]  
• Vol. 7 - With the help of a motley crew of powerful aliens (shades of Planet Hulk), Plutonian escapes the Sun Asylum, through a helpful McGuffin Hole (there's a guard station at the core?  Why oh why would there ever be one?).  Oh, and it wasn't Modeus helping him after all, I was wrong about that.  Meanwhile Qubit and Modeus work together to track down Plutonian, using the teleportation tech Hornet gave to the aliens.  What ensues is lots of bad news all around for everyone on Earth.  [4]
• Vol. 8 - Some big reveals take place in this exciting volume, setting up expectations and then dashing them to the ground.  The people and governments of Earth just got finished celebrating the defeat and exile of Plutonian when he comes zipping back, making his mark literally in North America in a big way.  Faced with the total destruction of anything resembling law and order, the new president (who inherited the job when everyone else died) makes the huge decision to rouse a couple of nuclear-powered monsters whose powers apparently dwarf Plutonian's.  Meanwhile, Survivor goes to get help from another source of power, who refuses to cooperate.  Bette Noir remains a pawn of Plutonian, but things are not what they appear to be.  And Kaidan and Gil apparently destroy any hope of getting Survivor's power increased.  Truly thrilling twists and turns here; I particularly enjoyed Bette's analysis of Plutonian, and how deep rooted his self hatred is.  This is grim but very well put together material.  [4.5]
• Vol. 9 - The radioactive aliens take Plutonian through a series of flashbacks, showing his true origins, then effortlessly imprison him at the heat death of the universe and depart.  And that's a wrap for this series, as the world begins to hea — ha ha, no, not really.  At the last moments a helping hand reaches out!  Then it's the origin story of Max Power, last seen in volume 4, who knew Plutonian when they were both boys and wants to destroy him.  [4]
• Vol. 10 - After a glimpse at Plutonian's superhero (as opposed to birth) origin, the saga comes to an end, with Modeus' plans coming to a point and Qubit manipulating things as befits a super-genius.  Is Plutonian redeemed?  As an idea, he is.  And that's the miracle of storytelling.  [4.5] 

Jack Of Fables - Bill Willingham

Jack of Fables - Bill Willingham, Lilah Sturges

1. The (Nearly) Great Escape - Flung out of Fabletown after flaunting his identity for money, Jack hits the road, only to be captured by Mr. Revise, who is trying to lessen the presence of magic in the world by shutting away the Fables.  So he plans an escape.  Jack is a terrific character, full of bombast and ego, and it's a joy to see him repeatedly smashed and thrown around, though of course as the hero he always triumphs.  [4.5]
2. Jack of Hearts - Jack wakes up in Vegas married to an heiress, but some Belgian terrorists on behalf of Lady Luck are after him because she wants all the luck for herself, and Jack doesn't share.  Also, a flashback to how he became Jack Frost.  [4]
3. The Bad Prince - Jack and Gary the Pathetic Fallacy, along with some other escapees, get scooped up by Revise's librarians, but immediately crash in the Grand Canyon.  Jack gets stabbed through the heart with Excalibur, because he's the stone, the center of every story.  Then he learns he's a copy of Wicked John, the original Jack of all stories.  [4]
4. Americana - Jack, Raven, Gary, and Humpty Dumpty set off through the lore of America (gangsters, musicals, Puritans) to find the secret city of lost gold, only to fall afoul of another librarian, this one of the book-burning variety.  Babe the (miniature) Blue Ox's one-page absurdist fantasies are a highlight, but there's laughs aplenty throughout.  [4]
5. Turning Pages - Jack's years as a bandit in 1883 are put to an end by Bigby, causing their rivalry from then on.  We hear from the fourth Wall sister (get it?!) about the early lives of the Page sisters, even as Bookburner marches on Revise with his army of Forgotten Fables. This series remains consistently funny, grandiose, and over the top fun.  [4.5]
6. The Big Book of War - Revise and Bookburner battle it out, while Jack imagines himself a great general, beds the Page sisters, and eats tacos.  Jack's total idiocy and egotism keep things fun and lighthearted.  We learn more about Jack's origins, and boy does he as well.  [4.5]
7. The New Adventures of Jack and Jack - This book comes after the Fables crossover, so some scenes are missing.  It's not as bad as usual, though, because we go straight into the tale of Jack's son Jack Frost II, who is a brave and valiant hero.  Meanwhile, Jack of Fables starts turning into a dragon because he's been hoarding treasure for the last three books.  Fun, fresh, and always reinventing to be original.  [4]
8. The Fulminate Blade - No Jack of Fables in this one; it's all about his son, Jack II, who strives to become a hero, accompanied by MacDuff, his magical wooden owl.  He finds a quest in a kingdom featuring an intriguing mix of magic and technology.  Despite being naive and not seeing obvious threats around him, his nobility carries him through, especially once he befriends a fairly nice witch.  This new take on the beanstalk fable is well done, humorous, and fun.  [4]

Fantastic Four - Dan Slott

1. Fourever [2018] - Reed, Sue, and the rest of the Future Foundation are off creating universes to restore the multiverse (with Franklin and the Molecule Man).  Ben and Johnny, back in New York, despair of them ever coming back.  But when a cosmic entity calling herself The Griever At the End of All Things starts tearing down what they've built, Reed summons everyone who's ever associated with the FF to take her down.  It's a fun read with some bits of good characterization, such as Reed's daughter flirting with one of the alien warriors, but for drama it's flat and empty.  The Griever flicks away Franklin and destroys Molecule Man with a touch, but is stymied somehow by a couple dozen street-level heroes?  I couldn't get past that part, despite the ostensible explanation.  I liked the extras in the volume, like the Fantastix and wedding planning stuff.  [3.5]

 

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