Batman VS Superman: Batman: Year One by Frank Miller art by David Mazzuchelli YP FIC MILLER

In celebration of our Batman VS Superman election, I'll be reviewing MY favorite Superman and Batman books Of All Time! I'll try not to reveal any Bat-Bias or Super-Subjectiveness that could unduly influence this election. 

One night changed Bruce Wayne's life forever. A random act of violence took away his parents and gave him something new: a mission.  Now, after year of training his body and mind he is ready to com home.  He is ready to take back Gotham.  A city of crime, sin, and corruption at the highest levels.  Can one man save a city? No, but maybe a bat can.

This one book, even more than Miller's also excellent the Dark Knight Returns, changed the course of Batman forever.  It is as if Miller completely rewrote his DNA and brought Batman in all his dark glory into the real world. This is a young and inexperienced Bruce Wayne, that barely survives his first disastrous outings. It allows the reader to see the Batman form over time and have a real understanding and investment in what makes Bruce into Batman. In starting Batman over from scratch, Miler gets to the core of what makes Batman so fascinating: an obsessive drive to make sure that no one else has to watch their loved ones die by crime and a fanatical devotion to a code of honor.  

Miller also greatly enlarges the importance of characters that were underutilized at the time, like Catwoman and Jim Gordon. Placing a young and principled Jim Gordon on the incredibly corrupt Gotham police force made Gordon into a whole new character as vital to the Batman story as any character.  

Mazzuchelli's art is perfect for the book.  He has Batman as a menacing figure using shadows and his cape to look larger than life, but gives Bruce the realistic body of a superb athlete.  This isn't the highly muscled Batman that is seen in most comics and this makes the Batman even more impressive, because he seems so much more human.  The reality makes the idea of a man taking on crime single handed all the more impressive.

Miller is able to make Batman's war with the mob that owns the city as compelling as any Two-Face or Joker story ever written.  If you are a fan of the Christopher Nolan Batman films, then you owe a debt of thanks to Year One.  This is a perfect book for both those that are already batty for Batman or total Bat-beginners.

You can find Batman: Year One in our catalog here.

Batman VS Superman: All Star Superman by Grant Morrison Art by Frank Quitely YP FIC MORRISON

In celebration of our Batman VS Superman election, I'll be reviewing MY favorite Superman and Batman books Of All Time! I'll try not to reveal any Bat-Bias or Super-Subjectiveness that could unduly influence this election. A coin flip decided that this time Superman goes first (but YOU will decide who laughs last!)

Superman is dying.  A fiendish plot by the archest of fiends, Lex Luthor has overdosed Superman on solar radiation.  Superman has to decide how to best spend his last days while also uncovering Lex's final plan to Take over the World!  Will Superman be able to save the day one last time? Or will the Last Son of Krypton fizzle out too soon?

This is my all time favorite Superman story by miles and miles.  It is a two volume masterwork that pays homage to over 70 years of Superman comics.  Morrison is a huge fan of the entire run of Superman, including the often wacky and bizarre storylines of the 1940s and 50s that saw Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen getting weird powers as well as all sorts of other zaniness.  Morrison melds these wacky plots with a serious and at times sad and uplifting story of a dying Superman.  By taking silliness seriously he is able to look at Superman as a man and a myth at the same time.  There is an overabundance of big ideas that Morrison explores and the plot careens between one odd adventure to the next leaving the reader reeling.  There is a mix of science fiction, comedy, two-fisted combat, horror, philosophy, and loads of other influences. Fortunately, the books many plots all end up making sense together and pay off incredibly well.  

The art by Frank Quitely is quite breathtaking in places.  It has a fine level of detail, but remains unrealistic enough to have the garish costumes of superheroes not look silly. The beautiful art and daring design work make reading and rereading a consummate pleasure even when the plot threatens to go (way) over the reader's head.  

This is a treasure trove for long time Superfans with an almost uncountable in-continuity references to the entire Superhistory and a wonderful place for new fans to jump in and learn everything that makes Superman so super.


You can find All Star Superman in our catalog here

Thor, God of thunder : The God Butcher by Jason Aaron art by Esad Ribic YP FIC AARON

Thor is a brash young god (just a few 100 years old!) in the age of vikings who lives for adventure and conquest, but is not yet ready to wield Mjolnir*, on of the mightiest weapons of all gods.  Thor is the God of Thunder, possessor of Mjolnir, Avenger, protector of Earth.  Thor is king of all of Asgard and the last living God in the universe thousands of years into the future.  In all these times Thor must face an enemy like he has never conceived of: the God Butcher.  A being that is so powerful he searches the cosmos to methodically, slowly, ruthlessly torture and kill entire pantheons of gods.  If he fails in this task then all of creation is threatened.

This comic is absolutely epic.  It tells three unique stories in Thor's youth, maturity, and old age and all three work to build the tension and make the story larger than life.  The three separate arcs all meet up in very interesting ways, so it isn't just pointless flashbacks to convey character. It also harkens back to good ole' Jack Kirby Thor comics that often had back up stories of young Thor.  In this case it makes the story one beyond the limits of time itself, which makes it seem a tale fit for mythology and the gods!  Plotting, dialogue, and character are all top notch, but it's the absolutely gorgeous
painted art that makes it's something really special.  Esad Ribic is a true talent and his full and beautiful images make this seem like an instant classic.  He can convey beauty and grisly horror equally well, and really brings back the awe in reading about gods and monsters. This is easily the best new book in the Marvel Comics line and a great place for new fans to start. So if you are a long time super hero fan or just want to know who the blond dude in The Avengers was, check out Thor, God of Thunder: The God Butcher!


You can find Thor, God of Thunder: The God Butcher in our catalog here.




*Which translates to "That which smashes".  AWESOME!

Adaptation by Malinda Lo YP FIC LO (Sadly Nic Cage doesn't play twins that are writing the very book you are reading)

Something is wrongs with the birds. Great flocks of birds are diving into airplanes crashing dozens, killing thousands.  Reese thought it was just something on the news, weird, scary, but far away.  Then a bird flies through her windshield and when she and her (secret) crush David wake up they’re in a military hospital.  After a seemingly miraculous recovery she returns home and nothing is the same.  She feels eyes watching her everywhere.  Her search for the truth sends her headlong into a mysterious and beautiful stranger, Amber Grey.  As Reese struggles with feelings she’s never expected she falls deeper into a dangerous conspiracy with GLOBAL implications.  Feelings aren’t the only thing that’s changing in Reese, she’s changing…adapting, but to what and FOR what?

Malinda Lo has me hooked.  This start of a series has me NEEDING to know what happens next, which honestly surprised me.  The book starts well and then sort of seems to lose direction when Amber and Reese meet.  Since it is a fairly realistic (and well written) look at intense infatuation that actually sort of works for the overall narrative.  Reese is distracted form her main goals and the story follows that, but as much as I liked the romance elements I kept wanting to jump back into the conspiracy stuff. Fortunately, the book acquits itself nicely when it gets back on track.  The sense of tension and dread is well developed.  Lo makes the environmental catastrophe and widening conspiracy super chilling.  I love a good WHO CAN YOU TRUST!!!? book, and this one pays off in spades.  The characterization, dialogue, and scene building are all top notch too.  Reese is a great head strong protagonist with a likeable wit, Amber is an alluring enigma, and David is smart, funny, and relatable.  Also, mad props for Lo including a male Asian hero!  Sci-fi can always use more non-sidekick characters from diverse groups.  Last but not least the special powers that Reese and David start to develop and interesting and Lo does a great job of revealing them slowly and leaving you wanting more, which is what sequels are for!  Adaptation is a great contemporary sci-fi novel with some darned good writing and clever ideas.

You can check our catalog for Adaptation here.

Morning Glories Volume 1 by Nick Spencer art by Joe Eisma by Ian McDonald YP FIC SPENCER

Morning Glory Academy is the most prestigious and secretive prep school in the country.  Students are dying to get in, but the students at Morning Glory are just plain dying. The newest crop of students soon discovers that the school has dark secrets, murderous teachers, and tests that are pass/die.  

This is an intriguing new mystery.  Spencer does an excellent job of putting a slew of twists and turns to confound the reader ate every turn.  Every couple of pages we are introduced to a new freaky character, someone is brutally murdered, characters hint at mysterious unrevealed secrets, or other insanity pops up.  There are mysterious artifacts with unexplained power, doppelgangers (Clones? Evil twins? We don’t know yet!), psychic ghost like murderers, and secrets galore.  The plot moves fast and furiously and keeps the reader off balance through each page.  My only real complaint is that a lot of the dialogue sounds like Joss Whedon (Writer/Creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Dollhouse, etc.) light.  Modern teenagers do not make super detailed Star Wars jokes.  Sorry, they just plain don’t and they won’t and your nerd fixations are not his generation’s nerd fixations, Mr. Spencer.  That being said, there is loads of humor that does not feel like it was written by 30-somethings for teenagers and the book is one of the genuinely surprising comics I have read in years. 

You can check our catalog for Morning Glories here.

Run: A Subject Seven Novel by James A. Moore YP FIC MOORE

The Failures are top secret mutant soldiers.  They’re unbelievably fast, strong, and vicious.  And they’re hiding inside the bodies of normal teenagers.  Now the Failures are on the run and running out of time.  The Successes (all the strengths of the Failures, none of the weaknesses, and trained to kill) are on their trail, their mutant other selves are weakening and may eventually destroy their human sides, and their one Hope is evelyn hope: the woman that made them and wants them captured, dissected, and erased from all human memory.  

Like, Subject Seven before it, this book is a fun twist on the Jekyll and Hyde dynamic. Run is a gritty, grimy, pulpy, fun time for older teens looking for a great cheesy action movie in book form.  It’s faster paced than Subject Seven, but anyone who hasn’t read the first book will have a tough time telling all the characters apart and relating at all to them.    The characters still don’t have a lot of depth or feel very ‘real’, but they work very well for the book.  The use of constantly shifting perspective works well as a way to keep you guessing who knows what and who’s really calling the shots.  It reminds me of a more rated R Maximum Ride series, which is a pretty awesome thing for teens that like gritty action and fast reads.  It may not change the way you look at the fragile humanity of humankind in a hostile universe, but it will entertain and have you looking forward to the next ride.

MILD QUIBBLE:  Gillikers is that cover atrocious!  They don't even use the SAME poorly-shaded-in-Photoshop models as the last terrible cover.

Check out Run in our catalog here and read my Subject Seven review here.

Maoh: Juvenile Remix by Megumi Osuga YP FIC OSUGA

Ando blends in.  He learned at a very young age the Japanese idiom “the hammer that sticks up, gets nailed down first,” was true.  Thus, he relies on his not popular/not unpopular enough for daily beatings status and tries to always have the same exact views and interests as his friends.  Everything changes when the Grasshoppers show up.  A group of young vigilantes pledged to saving the city led by a charismatic leader named Inukai, the Grasshoppers have a dark side that scares Ando.  This fear and admiration lead Ando to start standing up for himself and others and using his long secret gift: the power to make others say whatever he is thinking.  Unfortunately, his new found resolve and long hidden power also put him directly in the sight of the Grasshoppers and in the line of fire!

This is an exciting new series.  It has very dynamic and exciting art (however some of the female designs are gratuitously fan service to a degree that birders on self-parody) and I quite like the character design.  The art is nicely detailed and it feels like a premium title.  The story has a very Deathnote feel, special powers, mysterious deaths, teen violence just under the surface of a normal city, etc., but that’s not a bad thing.  This manga may not be the most unique I’ve read, but it moves fast, has excellent art, and has a truly intriguing mystery. The main character is a very believable coward.  I certainly wouldn’t want to get brutally beaten for sticking up for fellow classmates and I DEFINITELY wouldn’t tell my high school chums that I have Special Secret Powers!  It was one of the better examples of reluctant hero that I’ve seen in manga in a while and I hope the series can keep up the realistic character growth, because it really helps ground the more fantastic elements.  Check it out otaku, it might become your new favorite series!