Planetary Brigade - Giffen & DeMatteis

Planetary Brigade - Giffen & DeMatteis [Boom]

Super-hero satire very much in the vein of their very well done JLA and JLI work, only with Boom Studio characters, nearly each one of which is a very thinly veiled pastiche of a classic JLA character.  The exception to this is the Mauve Visitor, who despite being a take on the Martian Manhunter is much more fully fleshed out and interesting than the cardboard Superman and Batman stand-ins.  This book contains two three-issue limited series, one involving a man who has unfortunately become a portal for demons and the other (much more akin to the JLA material) about the group's dealing with supervillain Mister Master and their acceptance of the repentant villain Purring Pussycat.  The snappy banter puts the book at just over the average rating.  [3.5]

Champions - Mark Waid

Champions - Mark Waid [2017]

1. Change the World - Ms. Marvel quits the Avengers, realizing their mission doesn't align with her morals.  Teaming with the young Nova and Miles Morales, she enlists Amadeus Cho's Hulk, Viv Vision, and the young Cyclops from the past to form a new sort of supergroup that doesn't "punch down" or use "unjust force" and tries to help disenfranchised and oppressed people find long-term solutions.  Applying superheroics to real-world problems like slave trafficking and systematic racism in small-town law enforcement turns out to be trickier than at first thought, but Waid does a great job envisioning what an inspired superhuman might do to combat true injustice.  It's got humor, action, and just a tiny bit of romance.  [4]
2. The Freelancer Lifestyle - The super-social justice warriors go up against a super group of sadists that proudly "punch down," the Freelancers, in the service of landlords and other corporate bad guys.  (The whole book is a thinly-veiled but well-meaning political allegory.)  This part of the book is well done, but then the volume suffers, and greatly, from both "ongoing team comic features lots of characters who have their own titles" syndrome and, worse, "big world-changing Marvel event" syndrome.  So in one story, Ms. Marvel is missing, but we never get any closure on where she was, and then she's back.  In another story, a tonal disconnect, they search for survivors in Las Vegas, which apparently Hydra has leveled in the totally ludicrous "Captain America, Agent of Hydra" storyline.  New characters come and go.  In one issue, Viv is kept prisoner by her father, Vision, for breaking curfew, but then no mention of that is made again.  And so on.  Waid's writing is fine; through not fault of his, there's just too much going on for this to be a coherent volume.  [3.5]
3. Champion For a Day - Although the blurb on the back cites a big "membership drive," that's far from the focus of the story.  The lion's share of this volume is about Viv Vision's new human form and the replacement synthetic Viv that Vision has created to replace her (which all happened in, of course, another title).  However, we also get introduced to the new Falcon (genetically infused with Redwing to be a human-bird hybrid), Red Locust (later just Locust), and see Patriot and Ironheart, Iron Man's protégée.  When the Viv storyline wraps, that's the end of Waid's fun, and intelligently progressive, run. Also included in this volume is "Champions: Monsters Unleashed," by Jeremy Whitley, in which they team up with the Freelancers against some giant monsters.  [4]
   

Emmie and Friends - Terri Libenson

Emmie and Friends - Terri Libenson

Becoming Brianna - Although brainy Brianna dislikes the spotlight, she still reluctantly allows her rather over-enthusiastic mother to talk her into going through a bat mitzvah.  This requires that she make a speech and learn the Hebrew necessary to do so.  She isn't particularly religious, and she turns to her rabbit to help her with questions.  She must also juggle school drama, liking boys, and the dynamics of divorced parents.  When her bat mitzvah somehow becomes a "hot event" with kids clamoring for invitations, Brianna knows she must somehow take control.  This is in my opinion the best of this series, taking as it does an even-handed look at stage fright, friendship dilemmas, and religion.  I really liked the way it was told in a time-skipping fashion, starting at eight months before the event and interspersing scenes from the event with the flashbacks as it gets closer.  That increased the drama and feeling of anxiety.  [4]

Truly Tyler (2021) - Tyler, previously defined only as a basketball player (especially in his absent father's eyes), is paired with Emmie on an art project.  Collaborating on their comic, they both start to change.  Tyler realizes that he has more interests than basketball, and wonders if that's something he's "supposed" to do, as his friends gently turn on him.  Emmie, meanwhile, crushes hard on Tyler, and thinks she needs to ditch her nerdy friends to impress him, specifically Sarah.  I liked how the kids' comic about ghosts neatly paralleled their own growth and interaction.  This is definitely up there with the best of this series.  [4]

Zahra's Paradise - Amir

Zahra's Paradise - Amir

A book-length black-and-white fictionalized portrayal of the aftermath of the 2009 Iranian protests.  A blogger's brother is arrested and goes missing, and he and his mother endure threats and an indifferent and contemptuous bureaucracy to find him.  A heartbreaking and wise look at the Iranian world, from its customs and poetry to the brave souls who resist the tyranny of the charlatans and hypocrites in power.  It's essentially an Iranian MAUS.  [4.5]

Baba Yaga's Assistant - Marika McCoola

Baba Yaga's Assistant - Marika McCoola

After Masha's emotionally distant father remarries, she leaves home to answer an help wanted ad placed by Baba Yaga.  Her only mother figure, her grandmother, has passed away; as a child she escaped from Baba Yaga using charms and her wits, and tells Masha the stories.  Masha soon encounters the witch, who appears ferocious and unpredictable and asks her to undergo some tests; using her grandmother's wisdom, Masha acquits herself well.  But then the old witch appears with three children she'd like cooked for dinner — including Masha's new stepsister.  It's at turns a spooky and witty tale.  Masha's family issues are meant to be poignant, but the volume is too slim for it to have much impact.  This is a fun modern fairy tale, for older kids.  [3.5]

Louisiana Purchase - John Chase

Louisiana Purchase - John Chase

The complete 1953 black and white comic strip, plus the 1982 addenda strips about Oliver Pollock.  Everyone knows the basic story (Jefferson, Napoleon, Lewis & Clark) but this vast epic is the equivalent to an advanced middle-school semester-long unit on U.S. history.  Starting with Ponce de Leon and DeSoto, it covers everything, from the Iroquois Nation to Toussaint Louverture, Robert Livingston, the XYZ Affair, etymologies of various place names (and the dollar sign!), the keelboat men, coureurs de bois, and a healthy peppering of minor historical figures.  Some of the scholarship is dated, and although the book is progressive for its time, it refers to American Indians and African Americans in some stereotypical ways.  Still, this is an amazing work of historical research, so broad that it requires several careful readings.  [4]

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Caveboy Dave - Aaron Reynolds

Caveboy Dave - Aaron Reynolds

• More Scrawny Than Brawny - Hapless, scrawny Dave must go out on the Baby-Go-Boom ritual along with the other twelve year olds of his village.  The problem is that Dave is more of a failed inventor than a fighter.  His father invented the wheel and the torch.  His grandfather invented fire.  No one is impressed with his "fork" or "underwear" ideas, so he must go out with the hunters and take down one of the big six creatures or die trying.  It's a prehistoric, less-witty Diary of a Wimpy Kid, drawn in a cartoony, not very appealing style.  The setting is sub-Flinstones in its attention to world-building, and the plot meanders back and forth among Dave's crises, the ritual, his friendships, as if trying to find a Learning Moment.  At one point Dave saves them all using a lever.  You'd think that would be a turning point for his character growth, but no one cares.  The next big idea comes from the arrogant bully, and it's a good and useful one.  Subverting expectations like that is fine, but there' isn't any accompanying character growth.  The humor is strictly kids, Captain Underwear level.  Examples: they call the fork a "forf!" At 240 pages, that grows thin.  And yet, and yet...  It's a silly, fun book with a surprise or two at the end.  Not a bad story for kids.  [3.5]  (For adults, the rating is decidedly lower.)