Green Lantern Green Arrow Volume 2 by Dennis O’Neil Art by Neil Adams YP FIC ONEIL

In 1970 and 1971 Dennis O’Neil and Neil Adams turned traditional super hero comics on their head. They used superheroes to examine major social issues in America. They wanted comics to be ‘relevant’. So instead of just fighting super villains, Green Arrow (a guy who used a bow and arrow really well) and Green Lantern (yes, the guy from the new movie) traveled America fighting super social ills. They fight racism, drug addiction, religious intolerance, pollution, and other evils that plague modern society.

Okay, admittedly the idea of superheroes addressing complex social problems seems like it may be a bad idea. And it probably is, but it is also really super fun. While the plot is occasionally cheesy and the comics tend to simplify the problems they address it makes for very fun and out there comics. I mean, Green Arrow finds out that his former sidekick Speedy is a heroin junky! You just can’t beat comics like that. More importantly, Neal Adams is like a god of comic art and the book has excellent art throughout. If you like superheroes and want great art, out there stories, and something very different then give this one a read.

Children of the Sea Volume 1 by Daisuke Igarashi YP FIC IGARASHI

Ruka was just a little girl when she saw the glowing ‘Ghost of the Sea’ at her dad’s aquarium, but nobody believed her. Now as a teen after an ‘incident’ where she ‘accidently’ broke another girl’s nose playing sports, Ruka has to spend the summer at the aquarium keeping two very odd boys company. Sora and Umi were both raised in the sea by dugongs (see picture below!). They can swim deeper and longer than normal people health and seem to be able to hear and see things about the sea no one else can…except maybe Ruka. Strange things are happening in the sea as water temperatures in Japan rise and fish from all over the world are swimming in Japanese waters, while fish mysteriously vanish from aquarium tanks all over the world.

This is an excellent beginning to a new manga. The art is super detailed and beautiful and ranks with any manga artist working today. The author really captures the feeling of adventure that summer always seems to offer but rarely seems to deliver. The characters and situations are handled in a realistic manner even though unexplainable things start happening very quickly. This made me more interested than if things were just super magical and a bunch of bizarre things happened right away. Now I am hooked and can’t wait to unravel the mystery of what is causing the Ghost in the Sea phenomenon.

Destroy All Cars by Blake Nelson

James Hoff is an angst-ridden high school student, whose environmental streak is a little radical for most. Well, it might be if he actually did anything for environmental causes instead of railing against them in his English compositions and his blog. Blake Nelson’s new book, Destroy All Cars, opens with a paper written by Hoff about cars and how they are “completely screwing over the planet.” The story is told through an epistolary format and reads quickly.

According to a recent interview with the author featured on the blog Abe Lincoln’s Hat, the lead character is loosely based on Nelson when he was in high school. Nelson went through a revolutionary phase, where he read The Communist Manifesto, drank espresso at the library, and crushed on artsy girls. However, there is more to Hoff’s character than a teen boy full of frustration. Like many teens James recognizes the flaws in the world and how adults tend to ignore them. There is a helplessness to Hoff because although he sees the problems he not necessarily in a place to provide solutions.

Instead of working to evoke change, James complains- and he is very good at it. In addition to complaining about cars and consumerism he also finds issue with his activist ex-girlfriend, Sadie, who he feels tries to evoke change by using the system. James thinks the system is broken, and offers little solution to solving problems. It’s not until Sadie gets him involved with one of her system-based do-gooder petition projects that he realizes there are proactive ways to work toward establishing environmental change. It also changes his perspective of Sadie, who seems pretty awesome.

Other books by Blake Nelson available at the Library: Girl, They Came from Below, Paranoid Park, Gender Blender, Prom Anonymous, Rock Star Superstar, and The New Rules of High School

If you like Destroy All Cars, you might want to pick up Jennifer Cowan’s first novel, Earthgirl. It is currently available in the New Books area of the library.