Reviews: Comics and manga

[rivkat]

John Francis Moore et al., Superman: The Dark Side: What if Kal-El had been raised by Darkseid to kill, conquer and destroy?  The most interesting part of the artwork for me was the backgrounds – there isn't a white panel in the book; it is literally dark, which works pretty well thematically.  If you think that Kal-El will end up on the side of darkness, however, you don't know DC all that well.  And that was my biggest complaint – the reason that he changed was that he was Kal-El, and we all know that means Superman.  So, as it turns out, Ma and Pa Kent were totally irrelevant in making Clark Kent who he is.  I am not a fan of that kind of nature-without-nurture reasoning, so this one didn't work for me.

Kurt Busiek et al., Astro City: Confession: Brian Kinney (no, not the one from QAF, more’s the pity) comes to Astro City with martial arts skills and a chip on his shoulder from a bad childhood.  He attracts the attention of the Confessor, a Batman-like figure, entering trainng as Altar Boy.  Confessor’s secret is different from Batman’s, though he seems to have a lot of resources too, and Brian eventually learns what makes the Confessor such a different type of hero.  Meanwhile, someone is committing ritual murders near Shadow Hill, causing the public to become disillusioned with the superheroes’ inability to protect them, and the mayor proposes a registration program to ensure that heroes are properly controlled.  The portrayal of the “public” as a nearly undifferentiated mass, or indifferent when they weren’t picking up pitchforks, was the weakest part of the story for me.  There were moments when that started to dissolve – references to events in history that justified some people’s distrust of superheroes, for example – and part of the problem can be explained by Brian’s resentful teenage POV, but I still wanted more nuance from the population than “easily manipulated by demagogues.”

Peter David et al., Fallen Angel: The Angel, a young woman with some suspicious scars on her back, patrols the city dealing out justice.  Justice, however, is far from the same thing as mercy, so seeking her help can be perilous, as various people in this volume find out.  The city is ruled by the corrupt and the criminal – her relationship with them is often antagonistic, but rarely uncomplicated.  It’s a suggestive beginning, and the art is nicely noir, but so far the Angel is too much of a cipher, and while I’m intrigued by her lover, it’s mostly because he has all the standard mysterious potentially-redeemable-bad-boy attributes rather than being uniquely interesting.

Death Note, vols. 1-6: Okay, this is kind of complicated.  Demons carry “death notes,” allowing them to kill humans.  But a demon can give up its death note to a human, who will gain the power of the death note, subject to a number of rules (particularly that the writer of the note has to know the name and face of the intended target).  A death note falls into the hands of a brilliant young student who decides to rid the world of evil.  Quickly enough, his activities are noticed by a competing brilliant young man.  I get the slashy antagonist vibes, but I was put off by several things: First and foremost, Light Yagami, the killer, has no redeeming qualities that I can see.  He thinks his intelligence justifies sitting in moral judgment over others, whether they’ve been sentenced by the justice system already or merely accused of crimes; he doesn’t hesitate to kill investigators to protect himself, which makes his claims to focus only on punishing evil laughable; even if, as suggested, the death note corrupts, he is all too willing to be corrupted.  I’m still having difficulty with manga art, though some of the covers are beautiful. I’m having more difficulty with the treatment of women – aside from some fungible girlfriends/sisters/mothers, the main female character is an airheaded model/actress driven entirely by her ridiculous passion for Light, lacking in both morals and common sense, which everyone important in the narrative treats as perfectly normal for a woman.  There are also “FBI Agents” whose Americanness is purely notional, in that they have bizarre made-up names and seem to exist just to be non-Japanese casualties.  For me, these problems outweigh the undeniable gusto with which Ohba makes up and exploits rules for using the death note – there are some excellent plot twists, but I just want Light stopped and I don’t care about anyone’s angst.

Free to good home: Death Note, vols. 1-6.  Testament (Douglas Rushkoff), issues 1-6.  Kurt Busiek’s The Liberty Project.  And, as part of my Powers back-issue acquisition binge, I ended up with some doubles.  Available single issues: 1, 3-6, 8-11 (Roleplay), 15-20 (Supergroup), 21-24 (Anarchy), 25-26.  Comment if you want them and send me your mailing address at rivkat at gmail; I don’t really want to break up the Powers into a lot of mailings, so preference to someone who’ll take the lot.

Comments

[raveninthewind.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the reviews. I tried vol. 1 of Death Note and it didn't capture me. I didn't spend much time thinking about why because the manga was a loan and I just handed it back. I think your comments pinpoint why it was so unsatisfying.

Kal-El as ultimately Alien and therefore Inhuman, even though he was raised by the Kents--it can be a stretch for me, too. I can go there for the sake of a brief story, but it doesn't work unless there are reasons other than Nature for a personality that is other than canon Superman or Clark Kent.

I would love to have the Powers issues. I just have four or five, out of order, because that was what thte store I go to had, and I never bothered to fill in the missing issues so I could read it.

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

I can go with a fair amount of alienness even in Clark Kent. What I have difficulty with is Kal-El developing a human morality when raised in a completely different environment. Some traits -- like a strong sense of right and wrong -- I easily see as being the same, but the definitions of "right" and "wrong" are unlikely to be the same. Koimistress has a powerful and disturbing AU about a Clark Kent raised in a slaveholding state, and she gets it right -- which is why I can't bear to reread the story.

Send me your mailing address and I will send the Powers issues.

[raveninthewind.livejournal.com]

I only read that Koimistreses story once myself. It was v. good but way dark for my tastes.

I sent my address, thank you!

[brownbetty]

I would be interested in Death Note, but I don't know if you're interested in mailing all the way to Canada.

When I read Confessor, I admit, I was very distracted by the fact that the sidekick was named Altar Boy with no apparent irony.

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Canada is fine -- just send me an address at rivkat at gmail.

Altar Boy was a bit weird, but I figured the Confessor just refused to acknowledge the implications. Kind of like Batman.

[shiba-inu.livejournal.com]

The "Death Note" idea is intriguing -- kind of like spiritual letters of marque, no?

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

It is intriguing, and there are some real twists with the rules. That just couldn't overwhelm the other flaws for me.

Free Comic Books

[jewishlibrarian.livejournal.com]

I think my home could be considered a "good home" for issues of Testament. I am working on a cyber-bibliography of comics with Jewish content and thus far, almost all of the issues of Testament apply.

I wanted to buy a bunch of back issues at once (on sale, of course) but my retailer had run out of certain ones by the time I dropped by.

Specifically, I am missing #s 2,3,5, & 6. I never did get issue #1, but I have a color printouts of the pages from the Vertigo website.

Always nice to meet a fellow librarian, even if it's across the cybersphere. :)

Re: Free Comic Books

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

I will have to check to make sure I didn't send those out as gifts with something else, but I should be able to let you know on Monday.

Re: Free Comic Books

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Okay, so I still have the issues. Send me your address at rivkat at gmail and I will send them out.