Trade Waiting: Spider-man One More Day

Spider-man: One More Day

Writers: J. Michael Straczynski and Joe Quesada

Artist: Joe Quesada

Issues:  Amazing Spider-man #544-545, Sensational Spider-man #41, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man #24

Here it is, one of the most controversial comic arcs in the past year.  I had complained at great length about this story without having read it myself.  Shame on me.  Coverage of this story was so widespread, I knew everything that happened.  I went in with my preconceived notions of what was going to happen, and how much I was going to rant and rave about for many months to come.  I felt most sorry for my coworkers, who would invariable have to endure more of my complaining about Spider-man.

Now that I’ve read the story, and am a couple months away from the hype and all the opinions on the Internet, I’ve formulated a new opinion.  For those that don’t know, Aunt May is in mortal peril yet again, having been shot during an assassination attempt on Peter.  Peter is all kinds of depressed, and searches the Marvel Universe for some kind of cure, knowing that he would give anything to have just one more day with her.  This is emotional tripe at its finest.  Aunt May seems to be always at death’s door, so I cared little for the situation.  Peter’s reaction was what could be expected, he felt very guilty because the bullet was meant for him.  But help finally comes to Peter’s aid.

Evil Genius

Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks

Imagine what Harry Potter would have been like if he had discovered that instead of being born to loving, though dead, parents, he was instead the son of Voldemort.  Harry would be heir to his entire evil empire, and sent not to Hogwarts, but to a school teaching all aspects of evil.  Essentially, that is Evil Genius.  Cadel Piggott gets into some trouble because he is too smart for his own good.  His adoptive parents are encouraged by the police to take Cadel to a therapist after he breaks into several different websites.  His therapist informs him that his biological father is the nefarious Dr. Darkkon, a supervillain currently in prison.  Cadel’s evil father begins to take an active role in Cadel’s education, teaching him the ways of the Force, as it were.  After graduating high school at 13, he is enrolled in the Axis Institute, a school to train future supervillains founded by Dr. Darkkon.

While the setup is very much like Harry Potter, with a poor little orphan boy with horrible surrogate parents being swept off to a school that embraces everything about him, Evil Genius is a very different beast.  Cadel Piggott/Darkkon is a hard character.  He’s not necessarily evil, he’s just super intelligent with no proper outlet for his ideas and interests.  He’s obsessed with systems, like traffic systems and the more complex system of human social interactions.  He learns about them by experimenting with them, and causing problems so that he can learn more.  If that’s by causing a traffic jam or setting off a chain of events that all of his classmates in his high school fail their final exams, it’s all in the interest of expanding his knowledge.  Again, he’s not evil or malicious, his intent is truly to learn, but it’s hard to empathize with him.  He’s almost so smart, he’s another species.

The True Meaning of Smekday

The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex

Earth has been invaded by aliens.  Under the command of Captain Smek, the aliens called the Boov have taken control of the planet, renamed everything after their great leader, and forced humans to move to remote locations.  In America, humans are given Florida, until the Boov discover they like oranges, so they are relocated to Arizona.  The main character, Gratuity Tucci, decides to drive to Florida and Arizona, and hopes to find her mother who had been abducted by the aliens shortly before the invasion.  Along the way, she gets a flat tire and a Boov by the name of J.Lo helps her by repairing her car, making it hover.  They set out on a cross-country adventure and wackiness ensues.

Essentially, this is The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy for kids.  It’s a mix of science-fiction, humor, and some light social commentary.  I’m not always the biggest fan of humor in science-fiction, however when it works, it’s great.  This book has moments that are just ludicrous, and it is very funny.  As J.Lo, our main alien character, discovers new things about Earth, and the English language, funny things just tend to happen.  He loves urinal cakes for a snack and thinks armadillos are awesome, and he finds it difficult to use American restrooms because the Boov have seven genders, not just two.  The book is long, over 400 pages, and the humor seems to fizzle out towards the end.  The author may have just run out of steam, or he was trying to make it more serious in the end.

There are more serious aspects to the book, with social commentary that is never heavy-handed.  My favorite moments were towards the end when Tip (Gratuity’s nickname) finally reaches Arizona and discovers how Americans are rebuilding.  Each city is run differently.  Phoenix is a military dictatorship.  The president is running a small farming community.  There are some fine citizens who think there should be clear lines dividing where each race can live.  “We need to start the new America out right” they say.  Seeing a culture rebuild itself after a major catastrophe always fascinates me.  What I love about this book is that the rebuilding is not the focus, so it never becomes overwrought and complicated.  It’s subtle.

The True Meaning of Smekday is a great, funny sci-fi book in the vein of Douglas Adams’ books.  It is essentially a road trip story involving a girl trying to find her mother.  Helping her along the way is an alien sidekick.  The humor is fun, never vulgar, but seems to run out towards the end, where it is replaced by a compelling vision of America compressed, against its will, into the state of Arizona.  The length could be too much for some younger kids, but the illustrations keep it accessible.  I would recommend it to fans of humor and sci-fi.

Airborn

Airborn by Kenneth Oppel

Matt Cruse is a cabin boy aboard the airship Aurora, a dirigible filled with the lighter then air gas, hydrium. He yearns to move up in rank and become an assistant sailmaker, a person who attends and repairs the giant gas cells that keep the ship afloat, just like his deceased father. Matt’s adventure starts when he encounters an elderly balloonist in a dramatic midair rescue attempt. The balloonist eventually dies soon after confiding in Matt about strange creatures hereto undiscovered; creatures that live their whole lives in the open air. Six months later Matt encounters the balloonists granddaughter, Kate de Vries, on a trip to Australia, and discovers that not only does she share his curiosity about the mysterious creatures but plans on finding evidence of their existence. In the meantime Matt discovers he won’t get promoted because a young man of wealth and connection, Bruce Lunardi, has been placed as the new junior sailmaker. To top it off Matt and the airship encounter pirates and are eventually shipwrecked on a uncharted island that may hold the proof of the airborn creatures they’ve been looking for. But the island holds many dangers that will test their ingenuity, courage, and may hasten the end of their mortality.

This was an enjoyable novel that is in the tradition of old swashbuckler movies, and the works of Robert Louis Stevenson. The novel keeps a good balance between its action scenes and character development. The reader not only becomes invested in the plot, the predicaments (of which there are many) that the characters find themselves in, but also in the characters themselves, how they grow and change because of the situations they face. The only defect is that the novel slows down a bit in the middle, but it’s redeemed by a rousing, action packed conclusion.

I’d recommend it for anyone 12 and up, especially those who are interested in pirates and classic adventure yarns.

Trade Waiting: Sinestro Corps War Volume 1

Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps War Volume 1

Writer:  Geoff Johns, Dave Gibbons

Artist: Ethan Van Sciver

I know next to nothing about DC.  I know vaguely each of the major players, but beyond the Superman and Batman movies, I’m ignorant.  I was told by several people to read the Sinestro Corps storyline in Green Lantern.  There were a lot subtleties that I probably didn’t pick up on, but I have to say that I enjoyed the book more than I thought I would.  It was clearly built on a solid history, and there were points that I had no idea what the characters were talking about, but the current story was strong enough to hold my interest, and got me wanting to read more about Green Lantern.

The bad guy Sinestro has found a Yellow Power Ring and is amassing an army of followers, giving them all rings.  This army stands in opposition to the Green Lantern Corps, and they are called, ironically enough, the Sinestro Corps.  Their goal is to spread fear throughout the universe, to bring all worlds under Sinestro’s rule, and impose order on a chaotic universe.  They kill a lot of Green Lanterns, the Lanterns fight back.  That’s basically the story.

Trade Waiting Retrospective: New Avengers

New Avengers Volume 1: Breakout

New Avengers Volume 2: Sentry

New Avengers Volume 3: Secrets and Lies

New Avengers Volume 4: Collective

New Avengers Volume 5: Civil War

New Avengers Volume 6: Revolution

The past weekend I decided to reread all of Brian Michael Bendis’s New Avengers, the six trades that are out.  This was to prepare for the forthcoming seventh trade and to prepare myself for the Secret Invasion.  Clues abound in the series on the extent of the Skrull infiltration.   New Avengers truly is Marvel’s flagship title.  It touches on every major Marvel event in the past three years and ties them all together, leading the universe to the inevitable showdown between Earth’s heroes and the Skrull invaders.

The make-up of the team is interesting.  Marvel clearly gathered some of their most powerful and popular characters and united them in a single book.  Wolverine and Spider-man are both well placed in the public eye because of their highly successful movies.  Iron Man and Captain America are both standards in the Marvel Universe so they get in.  The inclusion of the little known Jessica Drew as Spider-woman was interesting.  I had never heard of her before New Avengers, but her role as a triple agent, lying to everyone about what her true motivations are, make her one of the best characters in the series.

Black Tattoo

The Black Tattoo by Sam Enthoven

I hate to admit it but I picked this up based mostly on its cover. It just screamed too cool for school. And then I started reading it and couldn’t put it down. It’s a very quick and engrossing read, with plenty of action and a fresh take on the demon/hell subgenre.

Black Tattoo is the story of three teens and their attempts to thwart the evil Scourge, a demon intent on destroying all of reality. Esme is the young heroine who has magical abilities, such as flight, but can also kick major bootie with a sword and hand to hand combat. Then there is Charlie, whose parents recently divorced. He is pretty angry at his parents and the world. Then all of a sudden he is given magical abilities because of a mysterious black tattoo that appears on his body. Having unlimited power and being angry is not the best situation a young man could find himself in. Fortunately for Charlie he has his best friend for the ride, Jack. After Esme and Charlie, Jack is just a normal everyday teen. Through out the journey he proves time again that despite not having powers, and being pretty much scared witless all the time even a normal boy can become a hero.

What I really liked about this book though is where the second half of the book occurs, Hell. Although it resembles a fire and brimstone hell, it really is its own world, full of different monsters, gladiator battles, and a mysterious dragon at the heart of reality.

I’d highly recommend this book. It’s the perfect distraction on a winter afternoon.