Garlic And the Vampire - Bree Paulsen

Garlic And the Vampire - Bree Paulsen

A small anthropomorphic garlic lives with a king witch and all her sentient vegetable helpers.  Gralic is kind-hearted but clumsy and unsure of herself.  When a vampire moves into the castle across the valley, she is nominated to go confront him in case he proves to be a threat.  Mustering up all her courage, she goes, despite her fears.  The resolution is rather unexpected and gentle.  Some might dislike the lack of traditional conflict in the plot, but the story is so sweet and silly and gentle, and the drawings are so cute, that I found it a thoroughly charming, quick read.  [4]

The Way of the Hive - Jay Hosler

The Way of the Hive - Jay Hosler

The life of a bee, Nyuki (Swahili for "bee;" all the bee characters are named after words for "bee" in various languages), from larva to her death.  Nyuki is at first afraid to venture outside the hide, preferring to build the hexagon cells.  But after her mentor is fatally wounded, she learns to go forth and adventure.  The author, a biology professor, masterfully blends good science (there is a short bibliography at the en, mostly articles from peer-reviewed journals) with charming drawings, humor, and drama.  With shades of Pogo and Bone influencing his dialogue, he breathes life into the bees, flowers, and other insects while providing a thorough education on how bees life, eat, swarm, defend the colony, and more.  It's rare to see someone who is so talented at two different fields, biology and cartooning, but Hosler does it all in this book.  [4.5]

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, and 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]
   

The Owl - J.T. Krul

The Owl - J.T. Krul [Dynamite]

A Project Superpowers offshoot.  The Owl, former police officer Nick Terry, finds himself transplanted to the modern world form the 1940s as a result of being trapped in the Urn, yadda yadda.  Anyhoo, mooning over the loss of his old flame Belle, the former Owl Girl, he comes upon a new, tech-enhanced Owl Girl, all shiny armor and cutting edges.  He wants to know more about this person who has a link to his past, but is repelled by her wanton cruelty.  This is a very basic superhero story, with rough art and rudimentary, by-the-numbers storytelling.  No twists, no ambiguity, and no surprises.  [3]

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Scene of the Crime - Ed Brubaker

Scene of the Crime - Ed Brubaker

P.I. Jack Herriman, son of a slain cop hero and nephew of a crime photographer, is asked by a woman to find her sister.  He tracks her down easily enough and finds her apparently connected to a cult.  The next day, she's been murdered.  Jack goes looking for answers, and finds out some creepy similarities between this cult and a decades-old sex cult house that ended in deadly arson.  With the help of another friendly P.I., he looks into the cult and finds even more old secrets than he bargained for.  This is one of Brubaker's earliest works, and in my opinion one of his best; he is fortunate to be teamed with Michael Lark early on, whose angular drawing style fits his dark noir stories.  Some people critique that the book is a bit wordy, but I didn't think it was overly so.  I loved the pacing, the twists, and the smoldering anger that drives Jack, slowly revealed over the course of the story.  It first appeared as a four-issue limited realistic detective story that, sadly, never got a sequel.  (However, this volume does include a short and rather depressing short story featuring Jack that appeared elsewhere.)  [5]