I think X-Force is my favorite mutant team evah. Maybe I've just been really lucky, but I have yet to read a bad title about these guys. X-Force, Vol. I think X-Force is my favorite mutant team evah. Maybe I've just been really lucky, but I have yet to read a bad title about these guys. X-Force, Vol. 1: Angels And Demons was my first introduction to this team, and I loved it! But without X-23 in the line-up, I was wondering if this would pack the same punch. She was by far my favorite character, and part of me thought that without her this probably wouldn't be as good. I was wrong.
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Deadpool? Yeah, he made a big impact on this one. I'm not so much a fan of Deadpool in his own titles, but I do love it when he's mixed in with teams. He can be the difference between Meh and Awesome when it comes to a title. So, when in doubt...throw Wade in.
Then there was this guy, who claims he's only in it for...
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This is my second introduction to Fantomex, and I really like this character. On the outside, he seems like such a dick and only out for himself. But then you start to notice that he does an awful lot of good stuff for a self-centered asshole.
Alrighty, toss in Wolverine, Psylocke, and Archangel, and you've got the rest of the team. X-force used to be sanctioned by Cyclops, in order to do all the dirrrty little jobs that he didn't want traced back to the X-men. More bad P.R. isn't exactly what those guys need, you know? However, at this point, Scott's decided that their services are no longer needed. Except they are. Angel has been trying to track any reappearances of Apocalypse for the past year, hoping that nothing would actually crop up. Betsy has been helping keep his Archangel persona in the background, but if he has to face Apocalypse again, there's no telling what could happen. Unfortunately, Deadpool finds the other Horsemen's hidey-hole, along with a new incarnation of Apocalypse. Nightmare scenario? He's just a kid. Extreme prejudice is their standard M.O., but not even Wolverine is cold enough to kill a child. So...how far are they actually willing to go to save the day?
Excellent start to a series! Can't wait to get my hands on the rest of these!...more
Do you, Mr. Moon Knight? Do you really? Because I don't think you do. I think you're a jackass mental patient with a pI know what I'm doing.
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Do you, Mr. Moon Knight? Do you really? Because I don't think you do. I think you're a jackass mental patient with a penchant for getting your ass handed to you by everyone you meet. While wearing a white outfit. Why? Why are you wearing white?! Idiot! Dirt, road grease, and all of the random gore (from your multiple ass-kickings) will be impossible to get out! I don't give a shit what the Oxyclean guy says, nothing gets copious amounts of blood out of fabric. And, to top it off, you suck with the ladies.
So 'supposedly' the Egyptian moon god Khonshu raised you from the dead. And...what? Was that it? *insert Khonshu doing mythical/magical stuff* And Rama Lima Ding Dong, bitch! You're alive! Ok. So if this moon god took the time to keep your sorry ass from dying, there must have been a reason. He must have expected you to do something important, and given you special abilities to go with your new lease on life, right? Well, as far as I can tell, the only thing Khonshu gave you was a trio of imaginary friends. Or maybe you already had that *cough* ability.
I'm not sure how I feel about this title. In all fairness, it didn't suck. I guess I just expected...more? Especially after reading Jeff, 'kris, and Mike's reviews. Also, every time I talked to Jeff, he was like, "Hulk loves Bendis' Moon Knight! Hulkity, Hulkity, Hulk. Hulk. Hulk. Moon Knight yummy! Hulkity, Hulk, Hulk.". Swear to God, that's what he sounds like.
*gak* KIDDING! *gak* [image]
My point is fuck you! I have a point! that I can see why nobody knows who this guy is, but I'm also going into volume two with hope that Bendis can make me care about this whack-a-doodle. I mean, there were moments in this where I was so into it that I was sure I was going to love it and then the love just slid through my fingers like all of the unrealized dreams from my youth. Plus, there were plenty of chuckles along the way. So. Definitely not a total loss, or a garbage comic. But something was missing for me. At the end of it, I felt too much of a disconnect with the characters for it to be a true winner. Much like Marc Spector, I'm a bit conflicted.
I still really liked this! Maybe not quite as much as the first time around, but it was still a solid 4 star listen for me.
[Re-read audio version 2021
I still really liked this! Maybe not quite as much as the first time around, but it was still a solid 4 star listen for me.
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Emily Rankin - Narrator Ryan Gesell - Narrator Kim Mai Guest - Narrator Kirby Heyborne - Narrator Ann Marie Lee - Narrator
2014 4.5 stars
Man, I loved this one! You know a book is good when the first thing you do after you finish is go check out the release date for the next book. Nooooooo! 2015?! *sobs quietly* So this may be labeled Young Adult, but I think it's one of those books that is more of a story about a young adult. Does that make sense? Also, the blurb? It really doesn't capture the scope of what's inside that cover. In fact, I put off reading this for quite a while because it didn't sound very interesting. Well. That, and my eyeballs don't always work exactly right. Every time I looked at the title, my brain kept telling me that this was Book One of the Revenant Chronicles. So, yeah. I'm looking at a cover with a girl with flowers in her hair, and I'm thinking that it's some sort of Zombie Romance for teens. *cough, cough* It's not.
Lia's a feisty little princess who doesn't want to marry the son of a crusty old king. Best guess (since she's never actually met her fiance) is that he's only half as old and crusty as his father. Which would still make him pretty darn old...and crusty. She's had time to chew the situation over for a while and decides that since her parents don't give a damn about what she wants, the only sensible thing to do is make a run for it. So with the help of her BFF/Lady-in-waiting, she goes on the lam...instead of showing up for her wedding. And that's pretty much the start of the adventure for everyone concerned.
As far as the two mysterious strangers from the blurb go, it isn't really the conventional love triangle. What I mean by that, is that Lia isn't torn between her love of two men. She only has the hots for one of the guys, but both of them are smitten with her. Smitten!. So sad that I never really get a chance to use that word in real life.
The majority of the story is told from Lia's perspective, even though she's not the narrator. Every now and then, though, the author throws in a chapter told from either the prince or the assassin's point of view. I don't think it always works well when you switch viewpoints, but I really enjoyed it this time around. Another thing I liked was that even though this is Fantasy and there's a bit of an Epic Journey to the book, it didn't feel like it. I guess what I mean is, I'm not a huge fan of some of those stories, because they tend to drag on and on and on. This one worked for me, mainly because the author didn't bother to describe every shrub or feel the need to go into detail about how the sunshine smelled. And if you happen to be a reader who enjoys lots 'n lots of descriptive prose? Well, I'm not trying to belittle those books. I just don't like to read them. At all. "The water was blue." Period. I don't need two paragraphs describing the blue water.
Anyway. Even though the main storyline is character driven, there's an overall feeling that you're also reading a sweeping tale of kingdoms at war. You're just not sure what the underlying cause is...yet. There's also a bit of magic and prophecy, but they always seem to sit in the background. Sort of like they're just waiting to reveal themselves as major players in this story. And of course, there's romance, but it doesn't overwhelm the book or the characters. As an added bonus, there are even a few hints that perhaps this world is ours, set in some distant future. Oooooooh!
By the end, I was so caught up in what was happening that I didn't want to put it down. And when it was over, I felt like I hadn't even scratched the surface of what the author is planning for this series.
Highly recommended! Also reviewed for Addicted2Heroines Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a digital arc in exchange for an honest review....more
Whew! That was fun! Morrison may be better known for his work with Batman, but the guy has a real talent for the X-Men, too. I'm hoping the other voluWhew! That was fun! Morrison may be better known for his work with Batman, but the guy has a real talent for the X-Men, too. I'm hoping the other volumes are at least half this good! ...more
Wow! I'm going to go ahead, be a nerd, and say it... This was Astonishing! I haven't read much by Whedon, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but this waWow! I'm going to go ahead, be a nerd, and say it... This was Astonishing! I haven't read much by Whedon, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but this was great. The X-men comics are some of (in my opinion) the hardest to break into, because there are so many characters, and they've been around for so long. Whedon put me at ease by dedicating a few pages at the beginning of the book to highlight some of the important things that had happened over the years in the X-universe. This was a HUGE help to me, so I suggest newbies seek out this edition. The story itself was really good, but it's too long to go into everything in a review. It is however, an epic tale that is not to be missed. ...more
Ok, I'm a little surprised that I liked this as much as I did, because...well, it's Thor. Now, I've always liked him in the Avengers, but I wasn't suOk, I'm a little surprised that I liked this as much as I did, because...well, it's Thor. Now, I've always liked him in the Avengers, but I wasn't sure how well that would translate into his own comic (for me, anyway). I mean, he wears a helmet with wings on it, for God's sake. Not teeny-tiny wings, either. Huge I-Believe-I-Can-Fly wings. Wings. On. His. Helmet. Alright, I'm getting off the subject. The story line was actually really good! I'm sure I didn't catch every subtle reference in the story, because (as I mentioned before) I am not well versed in this particular character. However, even though this isn't an Origin story, it is a Starting-Over story, so it's easy enough to follow that you don't need to be an expert in Thor to get the gist of it. (And really, how many of us are experts when it comes to Thor?) Side note: I still don't know how in the world they plan on selling Thor to the general public when this movie comes out. Pssst! Ix-nay on the ings-way, Hollywood!...more
I finished my re-read of this one last night and felt pretty much the same about it as I did when I read it over a decade ago. It's ok.
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Year I finished my re-read of this one last night and felt pretty much the same about it as I did when I read it over a decade ago. It's ok.
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Year One takes us back to Jim Gordon & Bruce Wayne's first year in Gotham as crime fighters, and it does so in a realistic way. <--for a comic I understand why it would be such a big deal back in the day to portray Batman in a real-life setting and I can appreciate Miller's contribution to the Batman mythos. Mission accomplished. But I just can't say that I was all that interested in the actual story. Very dry & bland.
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I think I would probably dig this more if I were a bigger fan of gritty crime stories.
Original review 2009 Meh. It was alright. It was sort of cool to see things from Gordon's perspective. I still would have liked to see a little more Bruce. I don't feel like I gained any new insight into his origins or his character. It wasn't awful, I was just hoping for more....more
I originally thought that Watchmen didn't initially impress me because it was the first graphic novel I'd read as an adult. May2020 Coronavirus Review
I originally thought that Watchmen didn't initially impress me because it was the first graphic novel I'd read as an adult. Maybe I didn't have enough experience with all the actual garbage out there and couldn't yet appreciate Moore's genius. Now, after slogging through his masterpiece with more than a few comics under my belt, I feel confident when I say that I don't like this all that much. The art is horrible and almost every panel is crammed with words. Most of them meaningless ramblings that sound like something your drunk uncle spouts at the family reunion when he's trying to sound deep and thoughtful. Everyone else heads back to the kitchen to get more potato salad, leaving Uncle Alan with whatever poor nephew he's cornered to be harrassed with reminisces of back in the day and observations on why the world has gone to shit.
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But worse than the panels of art packed with wordy musings are the straight-up book pages. Page after page of a bio about the 'comic' that the kid at the newsstand is reading? Why? Why is there a backstory about the writer of a fake pirate comic that is being read inside another comic? Then 3 pages on some guy (Dan?) waxing poetic about getting scared in a parking lot when an owl screeched? Getthefuckoutofhere. Moore is bordering on abusive with this sort of thing. Some of it was mildly interesting, however, none of it ultimately pushed the plot forward. I didn't mind the stuff about Sally Jupiter but it could have been cut in half. I didn't need all of that nonsense.
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The last 100 pages pick up the pace a little. Which means that it's almost as interesting as any decent comic you pick up today. Not a good one. A decent one. And the conclusion is so unbelievably underwhelming. It had been so many years since I'd read it that I couldn't quite remember how it all went down, so there was still an element of surprise. And yet... That was it? Yes, I'm 100% sure this was absolutely groundbreaking when it first came out, but looking at it now more than 10 years after I first read it? I don't think it has aged well. <--my personal opinion And unfortunately, since I didn't read it when it first came out, I don't have the benefit of rose-colored nostalgia goggles to put on when I try to read this massive bastard, so I'm at a loss to explain why this is so revered.
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Part of the problem for me was that the characters in this were all weirdly anemic and/or horrible. Yes, people can be awful. But there's no one in this story who wasn't gross or pathetic. That's not any more realistic than a story that has only sunshine and unicorn farts. People are not as bad as all this.
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But beyond this unrealistically gloomy look at humanity, my main issue with the comic was just simple boredom. Not much actually happens that would support this book being so long. The pirate story was a weird filler that didn't ultimately add anything to the overall story, all of the reprinted excerpts from fake books/bios/notes and whatthefuckevers were a tedious time-suck that also added very little to the plot, and the characters themselves were mostly so repulsive & dull that I couldn't really muster up any fucks for them. Ok, now before anyone gets their panties in a twist, this is just my experience reading (rereading) this book. That doesn't mean I think anyone who loves this is silly or stupid. It just wasn't my cuppa.
Original Review 2009(view spoiler)[ Ok, first let me say that I have never read a graphic novel. I apologize in advance to all those who will be offended when I make this next statement. I thought it would be a nice easy read that I could finish in a few hours. Oops! What can I say, I figured it was just an adult version of some comic book. Boy, was I wrong. This thing took me days to finish! It was an in-depth, gritty, dark, mostly sad look at an alternate world a lot like ours. The "superheroes" were just dysfunctional guys (and gals) running around in tights. None of them seemed very heroic when it came down to it, and the only one of them with actual superpowers didn't care about anything at all. I still don't know if I like it, and it certainly wasn't enjoyable to read. Most of the time it made me feel slightly nauseous, but I think that was what the writer and artist were going for. I am, however, glad that I read it. It was different and I can see why this thing has been talked about so much for all of these years. I think it stands the test of time as something unique. (hide spoiler)]...more
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