Comic Review: Pretty Deadly Vol. 1

    The image on the cover is interesting.  Flipping through, it has a Weird West mixed with Sci-Fi vibe.  OK.  Let’s give it a try.  Alas, they can’t all be winners.  Kelly Sue Deconnick’s Western (there’s no Science Fiction, it turns out) is a mishmash of humdrum Anime/Manga gags, tossed into a mixing pot and…well, no.  It almost makes you think something good might have come out the other end, but it just gets worse.  It’s just tired retreads presented in a tired way.  And the cutesy crap with the butterfly and the bunny skeleton?  What is this, a 1990s Vertigo comic?

    The art ranges from blah to aggressively ugly.  Some of the coloring is interesting, but without good pencils/inks to hang it on, who cares?  It might have worked in a different comic, or one where the story really captured me.  This ain’t it.  The writing starts out fine, but becomes more, I don’t know, opaque(?), as the book progresses.  And all the ideas feel like they came out of a dozen anime TV series from the 90s.  And Deathface Ginny?  Ugh.  Why not give her an over-sized gun-sword to complete the stupid image?

    Anyway, this is another one of those series I hear a lot of people saying good things about, and I just scratch my head.  Shoddy writing, dull ideas handled in dull ways, ugly art.  I wouldn’t recommend it.  I will not be reading on.

Pretty Deadly
Author: Kelly Sue Deconnick
Artist: Emma Rios
Publisher: Image Comics
ISBN: 978-1-60706-962-1

-Matthew J. Constantine

Comic Review: Y: The Last Man Volume 5

    Dang it.  I am not, by nature, an emotional man (other than anger).  But this book kicked my emotional ass.  Maybe even harder this time than when I first read it 5 or 6 years ago.  Here are the final revelations and final resolutions.  And it’s rough.  Yorick isn’t the same he was five years earlier, when all the other men kicked it.  And the women have changed a great deal along the way as well (those who have survived).  The whole world has changed…sort of.

    I don’t feel right talking about the plot points of this volume, as this is where the various story threads all come together.  But man, Brian K. Vaughan doesn’t let you have what you want.  It’s compelling, and it works.  But it’s so danged harsh.  So danged harsh.  The last chapter/issue just destroys me.  It’s beautiful, uplifting I guess, but so, so darned sad.  Gah.  Just read it and then we can talk about it.

    I’m glad that the final volume is primarily illustrated by co-creator Pia Guerra.  I know that schedules for comics can be very grueling, and that fill-in work is often needed.  And Goran Sudzuka did an excellent job on this series, maintaining the style and tone very well.  But it felt right to have Guerra back for the end.  The last chapter/issue is especially good.  Like the rest of the series, it’s not flashy or in your face with style.  But it’s so tonally right for the wistfulness, the melancholy, the nostalgia.

    So, yeah.  There are a lot of reasons Y is among my very favorite comic series.  It’s a good story, well told.  It has a bunch of cool characters and never quite goes where you expect.  But it has something else.  It’s one of the few pieces of literature that can pull genuine tears out of me.  It makes the chunk of coal that rests where my heart should be ache almost like I had the real thing.  I am not, by nature, an emotional man.  But you wouldn’t know it as I write this, still wiping at the corner of my eye.

Y: The Last Man Deluxe Edition Book Five
Author: Brian K. Vaughan
Artist: Pia Guerra
Publisher: Vertigo
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3051-7

-Matt

Comic Review: Y: The Last Man Volume 4

    The fourth hardcover of this apocalyptic epic spends a lot of time looking into the pasts of our various players, seeing 355’s origin, Dr. M’s childhood, and even Alter’s twisted rise to power.  After years, the manless world is reaching a kind of emotional breaking point.  Some women have begun the difficult project of reestablishing civilization; trade, communication, war.  But others have lost all hope, descended into drugs, murder, sex, and illusions.

    It’s a hard world, and Yorick seems to have finally come to terms with it, with himself, with the things he’s done.  But 355 may finally be cracking, her iron exterior may have a weakness after all.  And Dr. Mann, she’s falling apart with the possibility of having to face her past, her family, and her guilt.  Japan provides a strange backdrop for Yorick’s search for his missing monkey, and there are plenty of interesting characters grasping for power.

    Pia Guerra is largely absent in this volume, with most of the art being done by Goran Sudzuka.  But he manages to keep the style established by Guerra.  Other than frequent full page panels, there is virtually none of the all too common panel over-design, where style gets in the way of story.  The art and the design simply let the story unfold.

    The story is building to its eventual climax.  The board is set, the pieces are all coming together, and soon, the moment will come when answers will be had, blood will be spilled, and the fate of the unmanned world will be decided, discovered, or created.

Y: The Last Man The Deluxe Edition Book Four
Author: Brian K. Vaughan
Artists: Goran Sudzuka, etc.
Publisher: Vertigo
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2888-0

-Matt

Comic Review: Y: The Last Man Volume 3

    Things get pretty crazy in this volume, with lots of dreams and portents, redemptions and betrayals.  And so much more death.  But there’s also hope, with major progress being made in understanding what killed all the men, and why Yorick and Ampersand didn’t bleed out with the rest of ‘em.  Yorick is still looking for his lady love, but that seems to have become like most people’s religion, something to say when people ask, but otherwise, mostly forgotten.  In the meantime, the wall he’s built around himself seems to have a few holes in it.

    With Amazons, ninjas, pirates, and gun wielding cultists, 355 and Dr. Mann have a devil of a time keeping Yorick and his monkey breathing, as their odyssey takes them finally to California.  But it’s not over, and a trip across the pacific is in the cards.  And be it to forgiveness, romance, or death, the adventure drives everyone on.

    Guerra’s art remains solid, and I think continues to improve as the series progresses.  Yet, she still avoids cluttering pages with experimental or pointlessly stylistic panel design, generally saving flashy bits for dreams, flashbacks, and the like.  The writing does provide an opportunity for some pretty crazy stuff.

    Two years into the unmanned world, and nobody is quite the same.  Everyone has faced something, survived something, seen something that has changed them irrevocably.  Death, violence, depression, starvation, guilt, and the gauntlet of human suffering has broken even the stoutest heart.  Everyone’s armor is bent and broken.  The story of these wounded people can be difficult and challenging.  But, it’s also tinged with brightness, with beauty and humor.  And I can’t help but want things to turn out well for everyone.

    Of course, I’ve read this series before.

Y: The Last Man The Deluxe Edition Book Three
Author: Brian K. Vaughan
Artists: Pia Guerra, etc.
Publisher: Vertigo
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2578-0

-Matt

Comic Review: Y: The Last Man Volume 2

    Yorick may not be alone after all.  Not exactly.  Will a pod descending from space bring two more men into the mix?  And what will the various militant factions think of it?  This volume sees blood on many hands as our heroes are tested.  And poor Yorick, he goes through a surreal gauntlet in order to come to terms with…well all the various things he’s gone through.  If the first volume is the introduction of the concept, this volume is shift in focus toward the greater story.

    Pia Guerra’s art is even better in this volume, and guest artists Paul Chadwick and Goran Parlov do a good job of keeping the style cohesive.  Again, the few strong stylistic moments serve the story; sepia for a specific childhood flashback; Polaroid pictures for a happy memory tainted with shame.  And the whole ‘Comedy & Tragedy’ chapter is a reflective eye on the series’ conflict.

    While this series could easily fall into more exploitative territory, it continually challenges expectations.  And there is a sadness in it.  Not just the sadness of a species passing on, but of the realization that all the blame heaped on men for countless generations could have been passed around to the women, too.  Humans are humans, and women have the same capability to achieve great good, but also the same capacity for terrible evil.  And watching a civilization collapse from the outside makes you so much more aware of how easy it would be to fix.  But inside, things are never so easy.

    Brian K. Vaughan is as brutal toward his characters as Robert Kirkman, introducing great characters you can’t wait to see do great things, only to see them shot in the face a few panels later.  It feels a bit like watching Lost, where every time Jeff Fahey showed up, I spent the whole episode expecting him to get killed.  Every time I like a character, I keep waiting for a bullet, an arrow, or a knife to snuff them out.

Y: The Last Man The Deluxe Edition Book Two
Author: Brian K. Vaughan
Artists: Pia Guerra, etc.
Publisher: Vertigo
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2235-2

-Matt

Comic Review: Y: The Last Man Volume 1

    The epic five volume story begins with the death of all the male mammals on Earth, except for young escape artist Yorick and his rather mischievous monkey Ampersand.  What may be the last generation the world will ever see must come to terms with loss on an unparalleled scale, while one lone man tries to find his family and the woman he loves.  Conspiracies, mad science, cults and zealots, and dangers unknown stack the deck against our hero and his companions.

    Much of this volume serves as an introduction to the world and to the major issues Yorick faces.  Amazons, an extreme feminist cult, want him dead.  An Israeli soldier wants the power he might represent.  The US government wants him to repopulate the world.  And that’s just to name a few.  Idiots have long argued that a world ruled by women would be more fair or idyllic than one ruled by men.  But Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra have created a ‘what if’ story that shows the more likely truth.  All our prejudices and injustices will persist with or without men.  Women and men may not be the same, but we’re all human with all the good and bad that entails.

    This series is rough.  People die, often ignominious deaths.  Good people get killed.  Bad people walk free.  Justice is most certainly not served.  People are more complex than one might expect.  Yorick actually reminds me a lot of myself, though I’d like to think I’d be a bit smarter and less rash when it comes to revealing myself to dangerous characters.  But his desperate attempt to remain true to his idealized woman I totally get.  Not to mention his self-defeating BS.

    The art isn’t amazing, but it’s good.  And I think the style actually works extremely well for the story.  It’s not showy at all.  Often the images are pretty basic, the people and their costumes not only realistic, but often kind of dull.  Like real people.  Not a lot of flashy panel design.  And when flashier designs are used, it’s for emphasis, like spice.  The covers, however, are often quite beautiful.

Y: The Last Man The Deluxe Edition Book One
Author: Brian K. Vaughan
Artist: Pia Guerra, etc.
Publisher: Vertigo
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1921-5

-Matt

Comic Review: Fables Volume 1

    This isn’t really a new concept.  It’s been done several times actually.  The people and creatures of fables, myths, and literature have all fled their lands and now live in New York (it always seems to be New York).  They’re trying to keep their existence secret, while attempting to deal with life as exiles.  The art is pretty good, I guess.  Though nothing special.

Remember us?

    The first arc is a murder mystery of sorts, introducing several of the major players in the series (I guess).  Bigby Wolf used to be the Big Bad Wolf, but now he lives as a sadsack cop.  Snow White is a government official.  Bluebeard is a wealthy businessman.  Prince Charming is a bed hopping, chronic mooch.  Jack is a deadbeat.  And it goes on. 

    The second arc follows a revolution among the non-human looking fables, who are forced to live on The Farm, where they can stay out of the sight of humanity.  There are echoes of Animal Farm and the Cuban revolution, among others.  And there’s lots of bloody murder.  And a couple big twists.  We also learn more about what caused the fables to flee their lands and what their hopes for the future might be.  And I suspect at least one major villain may come from this story, though I don’t know what is to come.

    There are some very clever bits, and plenty of fun dereferences.  However, I can’t help but feel it’s all been done before.  The 10th Kingdom, a bunch of the urban fantasy that was so big in the 80s, etc.  And while the writing is pretty good and the art is pretty good, I was never wowed at all.  It’s all a bit obvious.  League of Extraordinary Gentlemen this isn’t.  I’ve heard it gets better later, but for right now, I think I’m good.

Fables: The Deluxe Edition: Volume 1
Author: Bill Willingham
Artists: Lan Medina, Mark Buckingham, etc.
Publisher: DC Comics
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2427-1

-Matt