Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys: The Big Lie by Anthony Del Col and Werther Dell'Edera

  I read a few Hardy Boys books when I was a kid, but Nancy Drew the only teenage sleuth that mattered as far as I was concerned. I devoured Nancy Drew books. Of course the series had its problems. Even as a child, the racism was obvious. Non-white characters were inevitably described as swarthy and usually ended up being some sort of villain. Still, I loved the mysteries and that the fact that there was a girl who was smart and brave solving them.

The Big Lie is a spectacular noir update to both series. Nancy Drew is, of course, smart, brave and leading the trio as they try to solve the mystery of who murdered the Hardy boys' father. It's twisty and dark in all the right ways. From what I can tell, there are no sequels. The Big Lie is it which is a shame because I would totally read more Nancy Drew and her Hardy Boys sidekicks.

Injustice: Gods Among Us (Year One, Volumes 1 & 2) by Tom Taylor

Superman and Lois are in love, married, and expecting their first child. It's beautiful and short-lived. The Joker brings a quick end to Lois and Superman's happy ending, killing Lois and destroying Metropolis. Superman goes berserk. He takes swift and fatal revenge on the Joker. If it had ended there his actins might have been if not acceptable, at least understandable but it doesn't end there. Superman decides he wants to make sure no one else has to suffer the pain he is going through. He decides he will do whatever it takes to bring peace to the world. Sounds great right?

It is not great. Batman sees the situation for what it is immediately. Superman's intentions may be good but his actions are not. His peace is brought about and enforced through violence. People who disagree with Superman and his friends are labeled as terrorists. Luckily humanity has Batman on its side.

I can't remember what attracted me to this series. Maybe it was the artwork or that it was a complete series by the time I came across it, which meant no waiting to see how the story ended. (This is only Year One, there are four more years left for me to read.) Whatever it was I wasn't expecting anything more than a fun superhero story. Did I mention that this series is based on a video game?

The best stories make a reader think. Injustice made me think. Like many I've wondered why Batman never puts a permanent end to the Joker and his deadly antics. Here we get an answer. Batman is not a murderer. Batman understands that he has to stick to a moral code or he would be no better and no different than the criminals he fights. Superman doesn't get that, at least not yet. But again the series isn't over yet so maybe he will eventually. I am eager to find out.

My First Manga: Dimension W by Yuji Iwahara

  I only began reading comics and graphic novels in earnest a few years ago. The launch of the DC New 52 is what initially pulled me into the world of comics. Eventually I branched out beyond DC and superheroes, but the manga section of the bookstore remained off limits. One of the reasons it took me so long to get into comics is because I didn't know where to start. With its right-to-left format, manga was even more intimidating and confusing. But with a little help from the website Panels and the beginning of a new cartoon series, I decided it was finally time to give manga a try.

I first came across Dimension W in anime form and really liked it. A post on Panels.net taught me about the relationship between anime and manga, namely that anime cartoons are adapted from manga. I wondered if that meant Dimension W had a textual counterpart and finding that it did, decided it was time to read my first manga.

Dimension W takes place in the year of 2072. The world's energy problems have been solved with the invention of coils. The power behind coils comes from Dimension W, a recently discovered fourth dimension beyond X, Y, and Z. (I have to admit it took seeing a drawing of a Cartesian coordinate system with its X, Y, and Z axis before I fully grasped the concept of a fourth W dimension.) Kyouma Mabuchi makes a living as a Collector, retrieving illegal coils that can be dangerous. While on his latest retrieval job he comes across Mira, a very human-like robot. Their meeting starts them on a journey to learning some of the secrets behind coils, their inventor, and much more.

A little bit of mystery and heap of science fiction made Dimension W a really fun read. The characters are funny and complex, especially Kyouma who clings to old technology while making a living chasing down old versions of new technology, and Mira who seems to feel human emotions even though she's more steel than flesh. I already knew the story from having watched the anime but reading it was still great. The only thing I wish was different were the black-and white drawings. There were a few color pages and they popped off the page. I wish the whole book was in color. Overall I'd say my first attempt at manga was pretty successful.

How I Learned to Read and Love Comics and Graphic Novels

I didn’t grow up reading comics. I have been always been a reader but comics were not a genre or format that appeared on my radar too often. It was simply never really my thing. Truth to be told, for a long time I didn’t really realize that comic books and graphic novels were a thing at all. It is sort of funny considering how much I love things that are shall I say comic adjacent or related, like cartoons and superhero movies. But for whatever reason, I never got around to the source material, which again is strange considering that often if a movie is based on book I will try to read the book.

I first came across the graphic novel Watchmen when the movie came out. It was a movie based on a book, so had to read the book. At the time a fellow reader and I had a conversation about how frustrating it was reading comics and graphic novels. This will sound wrong and strange to long time fans of the format, but the pictures were the problem. The pictures were slowing us down and it wasn’t always clear who was speaking or sometimes what order one was meant to read the panels. In reading Watchmen I realized that I had to learn how to read a story told in a graphic format. It was not the same as reading a regular book.

After Watchmen the occasional graphic novel or comic made its way into my reading pile, but not too many. That changed in 2011 with The New 52, the relaunch by DC Comics of its superhero comic line. I decided it was time to learn to read comics. So I forced myself to read more slowly and dived into the New 52. They were mostly superhero stories. Some I stuck with, some I didn't. More importantly the New 52 introduced me to the world of comics. Since then I've found many superhero and non-superhero comics and graphic novels to love.

Each month my book group has a theme and we read book based on the theme. In January the them was graphic novel or comic and the book chosen by the masses was Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson. It got mixed reviews. Among other complaints, many in the book group expressed frustration with the pictures. (If you are used to ready fairly quickly, pictures really slow you down.) The January meeting got me thinking about some of the great comics and graphic novels I've read over the last few years. Here are some of my favorites:

Saga rules! I don't have the words to fully describe the epic wonderfulness of this series. It is an intergalactic love story. A man and a woman from opposite sides of a war meet when he is her prisoner. They fall love, run away, and have a child. Both sides want to end them before anyone realizes that is possible for people on opposite sides of the war to not hate each other. The series open with a woman giving birth. How many times have you seen that in comic, a novel or anywhere else? The story is amazing. The artwork is amazing. If you read just one comic or graphic novel, read Saga.   

  Friendship to the max! That's what I learned from Lumberjanes. At Miss Qiunzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet's Camp for Hardcore Lady-Types five friends encounter mysteries, crazy boys, secret caves, and all kinds of supernatural shenanigans. They respond with a kick butt attitude, resourcefulness, creativity, a sense of adventure, and above all they always remember the importance of being and having good friends. 

The back of my copy of Bitch Planet ask "Are you non-compliant? Do you fit in your box? Are you too fat, too thin, too loud, too shy, too religious, too secular, too prudish, too sexual, too queer, too black, too brown, too whatever-it-is-they'll-judge-you-for-today? You just may belong on Bitch Planet." I consider myself my feminist and this hit all my feminist buttons in a good great way. In a nutshell, women who are too whatever are sentenced to imprisonment on Bitch Planet, hello patriarchy. I have only read volume 1 and don't know how the story is going to play out, but already I love it. Almost as good as the story are the "ads" at the end of every issue. Every part of this book was well thought out. If you only read two comics or graphic novels, read Saga and Bitch Planet. 

Matt Fraction's Hawkeye is about Clint Barton and Kate Bishop when they're not being Avengers. Now I don't know Hawkeye's origin story. I don't know why there are two Hawkeyes and can't say if this is canon or whatever, but I will say that I really enjoyed Fraction's run as the author of Hawkeye. Clint and Kate get to be heroes without superpowers. It was awesome.

The premise of Sex Criminals is provocative. When Suzie has sex timr literally stops. For years she thought she was the only one who this happened to. Then she meets Jon. They hook up and think what should we do while time is standing still? Rob banks, of course. It sounds ludicrous and dumb, but it's not, I promise. Sex Criminals is about that first real adult relationship. They have issues to work through - his depression, her family, and the like. Sex Criminals is funny and not as graphic as the title might imply. It is a definite must read. 

I just started The Fade Out and am pretty impressed so far. It is a noir mystery set in 1948 Los Angeles. A man wakes up with a dead woman in the other room and little memory of how either of them got there. I love old noir movies and books like The Big Sleep and The Maltese Falcon. The Fade Out reminded me of those movies. The writing and the artwork really evokes the seediness and glamour of post-war Hollywood. I can hardly wait to read Act Two (volume 2) and see what happens next.

Hawkeye by Matt Fraction

I knew nothing about the character Hawkeye outside of the Avengers movies and cartoon series. People kept recommending Matt Fraction's Hawkeye but I ignored them. There is another character that shoots arrows that I adore and I didn't feel the need for another superhero with the same ability. But everything I read and heard said Matt Fraction's Hawkeye was awesome so I finally gave in and bought a copy of Hawkeye: My Life as a Weapon. Of course it was every bit as awesome as people said.

Fraction's Hawkeye series is all about how Clint Barton (Hawkeye) and Kate Bishop (also Hawkeye because it turns out there are two of them) spend their time when they are not out avenging with Tony Stark and the other Avengers.

On his own Clint Barton is kind of a mess. He's emotionally disconnected, has a tendency to push people away, and trouble seems to always have a way of finding him. He lives in a semi-crappy apartment in an okay building and finds himself at war with a gang that has been buying up every building in the neighborhood. So far the gang has been successful in convincing tenants in occupied building to relocate, but their run of success hits a brick wall in the form of Barton and his neighbors who balk at being asked to vacate the premises. 
The other Hawkeye, Kate Bishop, is fairing better, well slightly better. Fed up with Barton, she heads out to Los Angeles for some fun in the sun. Within minutes she gets robbed and gets kicked out of her hotel. To make things even more exciting, someone is trying to kill her. But Kate is resourceful. She makes some friends, finds a source of income, and starts digging into the mystery of the people who are after her.

I read four volumes of Matt Fraction's Hawkeye: My Life As a Weapon, Little Hits, L.A. Woman, and Rio Bravo. The end of Little Hits left me slightly confused but other than that I loved this series. I was also surprised to learn that the series incorporates deafness and deaf culture into the story line in an interesting and great way.

I think this might be the end of this particular story line. Hope the next one is just as good. Hawkeye has become a character of (my) interest.

Batgirl by Gail Simone

  After finishing Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life, I needed something light, fun, and short. As I have said elsewhere on this blog, I only started really reading comics a few years ago when DC started their New 52 series. With regard to superhero comics, there are so many alternative stories it is hard to know where to start. The New 52 gave me a place to start. Unfortunately, I fell behind primarily because I don't like buying single issue comics and then I would forget when collections were published.

Anyway, the new Batgirl series set in Brooklyn was mentioned on one of the podcasts I listened to and it sounded the life the perfect palate cleanser after the (literally and figuratively) heavy A Little Life. The only confusing thing was that I remembered reading a few Batgirl comics set in Gotham when the New 52 started. It turns out that the series got a new author and the series was...is rebooted the right word? I am baffled as to how comics are published. I tried to look for a definitive list of Batgirl comics and found among other things that there are multiple volume ones. The newest series was written by Brendan Fletcher but since I like to read things in order as much as possible, I decided to start with Gail Simone's Batgirl.

Like I said earlier, I was looking for something light, fun, and short. Batgirl was relatively short, but I'm not sure "fun" is an apt description. "Light" definitely is not. I read all five of the collected comics written by Gail Simone as part of the New 52 (well as far as I can tell, again slightly baffled by how comics are published and republished). Most of these stories are pretty dark. One character gets his leg caught in a bear trap set up in parking lot to catch car thieves. Starving people are murdered with poisoned food. A missing family member turns out to be homicidal. Not exactly light reading. Then again, the last book I read felt so real and this was over the top bloody, so while it wasn't the palate cleanser I expected it still managed to serve its purpose. And there were some light moments.

I love cartoons. Maybe because most of the cartoons I watch are aimed at kids and I tend to associate superhero stories with kids, I expected Batgirl to be light in tone. Yes, I've seen Christopher Nolan's Batman, but well, I guess I hadn't realized how much that darker version of Batman had carried over to other series.

 This isn't to say I didn't like Batgirl, I did. Simone's Barbara Gordon/Batgirl is strong, complicated, flawed, and heroic. I thoroughly enjoyed reading these comics. One of may favorite story lines is when Batgirl finds herself in a sort of utopia. Instead of being a vigilante that protects Gotham in the night when it is at its most vulnerable; she's a guardian angel that crisscrosses the city in daylight. I also loved Barbara Gordon/Batgirl as Bête Noire aka The Black Beast and the Batgirls. I would love to read a series that continues that story line!

The only time I thought it missed the mark was when vampires came into play, yes vampires. No surprise here, there is a lot I don't know about the DC universe so maybe supernatural characters are the norm in the Bat universe, but I tended to see Gotham and the Bat family of characters as dealing with human villains. They may be crazy, strange-gadget wielding villains, but human villains none the less.

All said it done, this was a great series. Looking forward to reading more of DC Comics New 52, as well as other comics and graphic novels.