Dungeons & Dragons: Frost Giant's Fury #1

Greetings, citizens! It is I, your one and only Comfortable Couchman! Today, we’re talking about the first issue in the latest D&D mini-series, Frost Giant’s Fury.

D&D has a special place in my heart, and always will. It introduced me to the world of tabletop gaming, which has been my primary means of socialising since I was in middle school. It was what forged so many wonderful friendships, many of which I still cherish to this day. You can say that it’s just a game, but it really is more than that. It’s a bonding experience, a collaborative effort between you and others to tell a story. A way to just unwind and de-stress from the bleakness of the world we live in, and do some derring do while earning piles of gold that would wreck economies in the real world.

I got introduced to the first mini-series by the writer himself, Jim Zub, at Gen Con 2014. The short little preview that he handed out (and signed for me) was immensely entertaining for only being a couple of pages. I didn’t recognize the character of Minsc, but one of my friends who I was at the con with was more than happy to explain who he was, with many an enthusiastic “Go for the eyes, Boo!” I was unemployed at the time, but I still managed to pick up the entire series. It was a bright spot in what was a mostly otherwise dark time.

So, with all that out of the way, let’s get into the comic itself. This is the first issue in the third series with these characters. Right away, that’s a frustration of mine. While I don’t dislike the stories themselves, I do kinda wish they were longer. I’ve seen a lot of complaints about decompressed storytelling in comics, but I have to say that I’m quite fond of it, when it’s done properly at least. Limiting the stories to only being five issues is a frustration, especially when the stories are ones that I would love to see explored more. The first series was about a dragon cult, and being a huge dragon lover, I really wanted to see that continue. But ultimately, this is a minor complaint, and one that can only be directed at people paying for the work, and not the creative team themselves.

The writer, as I mentioned earlier, is Jim Zub. He’s been the only consistent member of the creative team throughout all of the series, which is good. Keeping the same writer means that the characters will be portrayed consistently, which is a necessity when you’re trying to keep people reading from one mini-series to the next. Zub’s writing is efficient, moving the plot along at a steady pace, but also managing to get in some good character moments and good one liners/jokes. This series is something of a departure from the previous ones though. There is a decidedly dour note to much of the dialogue, and the situation the heroes find themselves in. Which does make sense, considering how things are for our heroes. The last series did not end on a high note, and this one picks up almost immediately thereafter. Minsc is the one most affected by this. In the previous series, he was positively jovial and energetic, eager to leap into adventure regardless of what it was. That optimism served them well on Ravenloft, but it seems that the Plane of Dread took its toll on our brave ranger. I was actually sad, seeing Minsc like that. There is a real sense of tension in the issue

For the artwork, we’ve got Netho Diaz as the artist, and colors by Thiago Ribeiro, and they do an excellent job. I was thrown at first, because the artwork is very different from the previous two series. They each had different artists, but they did have a similar sort of feel to them. Max Dunbar on the first series had very tight, detailed linework, with some bright, diverse colors from John-Paul Bove (and Joana Lafuente as well on issue #2). On the second series, Nelson Daniel provided some very energetic panels, as well as colors which were toned-down and muted to reflect the bleakness of Ravenloft. For Frost Giant’s Fury, the lines are dynamic and heavy, along with the shadows. The colors are dark and moody, meshing with the tone of the issue exquisitely. More than a few panels have a sort of baroque feel to them, and I adore it. You can feel the weariness of the characters, the sense of sorrow and bitterness that’s enfolding them. When the characters get hit, you can almost feel it. I legitimately winced when I saw a particular strike, something I don’t think I’ve ever done with a comic before.

Overall, this is a fantastic start to the series, and I am eagerly awaiting the next installment.

December 2016 update

Greetings, citizens! It uh… it’s been awhile since I’ve updated, huh? Well, that’s the subject which I wanted to address today. I have a long, long list of things I want to review, as well as about a half-dozen or so reviews that I’ve started and haven’t finished yet. So, why haven’t I finished them or started one of the other reviews instead? Well, that’s not so simple a question to answer. There’s a myriad of reasons and explanations, and I felt that it would be prudent to discuss them with those of you who actually remember when I was trying to keep to a weekly reviewing schedule. I also thought that it would be a good idea to discuss why I want to get back into doing reviews, partly for my own benefit. I’ll start with the problems first, and then get into my motivations.

Depression and anxiety

Depression sucks. Anxiety also sucks. Both of them together are some sort of gestalt mech of horribleness rampaging through a metaphorical city. And I’ve been unsuccessfully trying to fight them for the past few years. I could try and come up with a clever explanation for how difficult it is to try and get anything meaningful done while dealing with that bullshit, but I’m going to be blunt. It is really, really fucking difficult and utterly frustrating. Even getting out of bed and going to buy groceries is a difficult task. I’m certain that those of you who also struggle with this stuff are able to sympathize.

Fear of judgement/failure

While I will argue that I am my own worst critic, I am not immune to the criticism of others. My reviews have not gotten any negative reception (save for my Man of Steel review), but they also haven’t received a lot of praise either. We all like being told that something we’ve done is worthwhile, regardless of the source. Being told that something you’ve put a lot of effort into sucks, or if it’s not up to your own personal standards, is monumentally disheartening. That fear is paralyzing to me.

Lack of confidence

This kinda ties in with the above paragraph. Confidence is an important part in anything that you do, even if all you’re doing is making yourself a PB&J sandwich. I am not, nor have I ever been, a confident person. I am my own worst critic when it comes to any of my creative endeavors. I feel like my writing is dry, long-winded, tedious, pretentious, and meanders a lot. I also have a tendency to overuse ellipses, commas, and colons/semi-colons which results in runon sentences. I feel that my analytical skills are rusty as all hell as well. Then we get into the problems associated with switching up to doing videos; I dislike how I look, I dislike my voice, my delivery needs work, I’m not comfortable with how the sample videos I’ve done have been framed, I dislike the design of my Couchman outfit, etc.. This lack of confidence ends up putting me in a self-defeating mindset. Why should I bother writing a review if it’s going to be crap that nobody cares about anyway?

Subject matter

Most of my reviews have been about Superior Spider-Man. That series is actually what made me want to start doing reviews. I love that series, and I had seen very little talk about it, beyond a few snide criticisms. But now I’ve talked about it in its entirety, save for the final issue. The other things I touched on were a mix of new things and some older. Honestly, I’m not sure what subjects I want to give a critical look at. On the one hand, doing contemporary stuff makes sense because most of the older works have already been dissected endlessly by people far more qualified than I. Contemporary stuff is also more likely to be found and read, since people are likely looking it up online. However, part of my desire to review is also because I am a newbie to this world. Sure, I’ve been interested in superheroes and the comic medium for almost my entire life, but I hadn’t actually started reading things from it until about 2010, and really not even getting heavily into it until about 2013. There are dozens of iconic and seminal works of the medium. I’ve never read Watchmen or V for Vendetta or most of the rest of Alan Moore’s work. I’ve not read The Dark Knight Returns or any other major Batman story. About the only work that I’ve seen people reference as a great work of the medium that I have read is Kingdom Come, and that I only read in the last few weeks. I want to look at these works and give thoughts on them from someone who hasn’t been reading comics for years. Someone who’s looking at these things and thinking “does this live up to the hype?” or “oh, this clearly influenced this other thing.” I feel like I need to make some definitive decisions on this front if I want to continue with doing reviews.

Review style

Up until now, most of my reviews have followed the same sort of formula as Nostalgia Critic and Linkara follow. Recap of the events of the material, providing commentary along the way, with some final overall thoughts at the end. The reason for this is pretty simple; those two guys are the ones who inspired me to start doing my own reviews. Lately, however, I’ve been giving that reviewing style a lot of thought, and I’ve seen it criticized by others. I feel like I want to find a different style, something that is less focused on the events, and more on the artistic merit of the work itself. Things like characterization, themes, pacing, and the technical aspects. However, I don’t have as much exposure to that sort of reviewing (or reviews in general, if I’m being honest). I am getting more exposure thanks in large part to the book club I joined, but it’s something I would do well to research on my own. But finding the will to do that research is hard, as I’ve touched on already.

Medium

As I’ve mentioned before (I think) doing blog entries was always just a temporary thing. I’ve always wanted to do videos for a number of reasons. First, the reviews are supposed to be a form of entertainment, and I honestly feel I’m more entertaining when I’m speaking and gesticulating rather than writing. Second, they’re more accessible. Reading a blog takes a lot of time (especially when you’re as long winded as I am) and requires more focus. Videos are quicker, and can be put on in the background while still being consumed. Not to mention that YouTube, while flawed, still allows a greater amount of traffic from random people than a blog would.

There’s also the fact that… well, I want to do skits. I’m a complete dork, so of course I couldn’t just come up with the Couchman persona and leave it be. No, I’ve come up with the beginnings of a mythos for my superhero alter-ego. Things like allies, enemies, powers and weapons, even getting into things like laws regarding superheroes in this world. Plus there’s also a number of skits I’d want to do making fun of certain superheroes (Batman and Iron Man stand out) that wouldn’t lend themselves to to my reviews. I’d include those as little post review jokes to end on.

But filming and editing videos requires developing a completely new set of skills. Or, alternatively, finding someone I can collaborate with who does possess such skills. The first option runs into the same motivation/energy issues I’ve brought up before. The second option is certainly an attractive one (I’m a big fan of collaborative efforts), but runs into the problem of not actually knowing such an individual. I’m also quite terrible at meeting new people and forming new relationships, so that adds another layer of difficulty.

So, that’s all the difficulties of my trying to get back into reviewing things. I cannot stress enough that while all of this is daunting, it’s not making me want to quit. But why don’t I want to quit? Well, here’s a few reasons:

Creative outlet

Writing, even analytical writing, is a creative endeavor for me. It takes a creative mind to be able to look at something, and find the best way to describe and analyze it. I am a creative person at heart, although I fully admit to seriously neglecting my creative side as of late. I still want to resume my other creative pursuits, but I am of the opinion that you can’t have too many. Some days, you’re just not going to be able to get anything done in a certain area. Back when I was in school, I’d have days where I just couldn’t draw. Everything turned out terrible, regardless of how many tries I took at it. When that happened, I would instead do some painting, or writing, or work on my D&D campaign. Different creative activities stimulate different parts of the mind, and that stimulus can help deal with blocks in the others.

Exercise analytical muscles

This is tied in with the previous reason to a degree. I think it’s important to be able to look at a given work critically, especially if it’s something you’re working on. Sure, a personal work is going to have a certain bias about it, but being able to notice the flaws and strengths is vital in order to improve, not just that particular work but your overall body of work. One of the things I sincerely miss about college is doing critiques with my classmates and professors. Noticing flaws and strengths in the works of others benefitted my own work substantially, and I feel that it can do so again.

Highlight things I love, criticize things that need criticized

This is pretty straightforward. There are plenty of things I love, and I want to share that love with others. There are also things that need to be criticized in order for the mediums and industries that I care about to improve. Those thoughts are not necessarily exclusive either. I’ve read critiques of books I love that were rather harsh on them, because the author of the critique has a very different viewpoint than mine. I still love the books, and feel that they’re great, but I was also able to understand the writer’s criticisms and see that they were legitimate.

Connect with people

This one is also pretty straightforward. I’ve never really been much of a member of any fandoms. Sure, I’m a fan of plenty of things, but I mostly just enjoy things on my own and sometimes with my close friends. But lately, that’s been feeling pretty hollow. I want to be able to connect with other people about the things I love, and bond over that love. I know that there are other ways of trying to go about doing that, but I don’t really feel that those are quite right for me. Aside from going to conventions that is, but I have a mixed relationship with those (not to mention limited funds for attending such events).

Fun

This is pretty simple; I like talking about comics. I have fun talking about what my favorite characters are doing/have done, and making fun of incredibly stupid things that happen. I like coming up with my own headcanon, and sharing that strangeness with others. I watch other people doing this kind of stuff, and I think to myself “they look like they’re having such a good time. I want to do that!”

So, that’s the whole deal. I am putting forth the effort to get back into the swing of things. I’m actively trying to get past all of the things holding me back, but it’s not easy and it’s taking time, much more time than I’m happy with. I am tentatively planning on doing an unboxing video of the final Marvel Collector Corps box of the year, but things may change. Thank you for sitting through this whole thing, as well as your patience and support.

Youmacon 2015!

Greetings, citizens! My apologies for the long absence, but things have been rather hectic the last several months. However, things are finally normalizing and I should be getting back into reviewing things in the next couple weeks. But that's not the subject of this post.

This weekend is Youmacon, a convention that has a special place in my heart. Youmacon's an anime convention that takes place in downtown Detroit at the Renaissance Center and Cobo Hall. Back in 2009, it was the first major convention that I'd ever been to, and where I first got to experience the wonderfulness that was Team Four Star live. In 2010, I returned in my very first public appearance as Couchman! So, because of my history with it, I always make it a point to try and attend, and this year is no different. Well... slightly different.

For those of you who keep up with my goings on, you'll recall that a couple months ago, I spent a large chunk of Gen Con doing demos of one of my favorite games, The Red Dragon Inn. Well, this year, I'll be running demos at Youmacon! If you've never heard of the game, go ahead and check out my review of the game I did several months back. If you like the sound of it (or have played before), and are going to be attending Youmacon, please stop by and play a round or two with me! I've even got the recently released Red Dragon Inn 5: The Character Trove in my possession, so you can play with four new characters before many people will even be seeing the set in stores! I'll be doing demos at the following times:

Friday 4pm-10pm
Saturday 10am-2pm & 5pm-7pm
Sunday 9am-1pm

I hope to see some of you there!

Couchman Vs. Giant Stack of Comics!

Greetings citizens! Today is something special. For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you may have seen a few tweets from me with the #CouchmanVSGiantStackOfComics label. Well, I haven’t been able to get up to the comic shop since the beginning of May, so my pull box was quite full. In addition, I found several issues on the shelves that I wanted to pick up for one reason or another. All in all, I ended up with a stack of around twenty-five comics or so. I decided that a fun thing for me to do, in order to try and get back into the rhythm of reviewing comics, would be to go through the whole thing as quickly as I could and give some brief thoughts on each one. Well, almost each one. I cut the stack down to about seventeen comics for the review, but hey, that’s still a big pile. So, let’s dive in and conquer this stack!

First up in the stack is Ms. Marvel #16. This is the beginning of the Secret Wars tie-ins, both for the issue, and for me personally, which makes me groan. I’m not a fan of Secret Wars. The concept has potential, excising stuff from various worlds that just doesn’t work, and trying to bring everything into the main continuity. But I detest that they’re “ending” everything. Sure, I can buy that the Ultimate Universe is dead. Hell, it was mostly dead already, so it’s not like they’re losing much, especially since Ultimate Spidey is now the main Spidey. But the 616 universe? Sure, they –might- kill that, but only if they keep the vast majority of stuff from it, which means it will only be technically dead. I also hate all the freaking drama about it. This goes back to what I wrote about the Death of Wolverine story; there is no tension to it, so stop trying to make us feel tension! We’ve already gotten some announcements of things that are going to be around in the NewMU, so trying to tell us that “everything ends” is just dumb. Also, NewMU is a terrible name. If it’s intentionally trying to rip-off the New52, I only have to ask why? While there was good stuff in the New52, it was pretty widely panned, so why are you trying to make people think about it? If it’s unintentional, then how far up your asses are your heads, Marvel?

Ugh, okay, rant over. Ms. Marvel #16 is pretty solid. People fleeing from Manhattan have traveled to Jersey City, and all hell has broken loose in the city. Kamala tries to make sure her loved ones are taken care of, but is still reeling from having her heart broken. The writing is, as always, good with G. Willow Wilson making Kamala very relatable in both word and deed.

Red Sonja #16 is next, and like with Ms. Marvel, it’s solid as usual. Sonja is dying, and as people are wont to do in fiction, she sees the Goddess of Death. Death offers Sonja the opportunity to be one of her personal guards, but Sonja decides to just try and kill death. Which works out for her, as she ends up living. Admittedly, that all could’ve just been a dream, since Sonja was saved by a miracle elixir concocted by a dead alchemist, but I like to think Sonja’s just that badass. Walter Giovanni’s artwork is beautiful as always, and Gail Simone’s writing hits all the right notes. It saddens me that I recall hearing she was no longer going to be writing the series.

Next up on the block is Thors #1, written by Jason Aaron. I was interested in this series, because I am a big fan of Aaron’s writing on Thor and Star Wars, and it was an intriguing idea. Thors serve as a police force on Battleworld, crossing between the domains and reporting to Doom. I’m not fond of the idea of them serving Doom (before Secret Wars #2, I thought that they kept order for the sake of keeping order), but it is what it is. The writing is good, which is to be expected, and the artwork is also solid. All the Thors have a different outfit, making them all stand out from one another, but with enough commonality to them to identify them as part of the same group. However, what irks me is that Aaron killed off Beta Ray Bill. Considering Bill isn’t exactly a big name character, his death may be a permanent one to come from this whole mess. So, yeah, not pleased with the issue, and not sure I want to pick up the following ones.

On to something less aggravating; Sensation Comics featuring Wonder Woman #10. I’ve been reading the series for awhile now, and it is always a delight. Wonder Woman is a great super hero, and before picking up these, I hadn’t gotten any exposure to her in the comics. I did pick up a couple of issues of the main Wonder Woman title, but… it just didn’t pull me in and didn’t show off how awesome Diana is. The stories in Sensation Comics though are all about showing off how awesome she is, instead of things like pathos or character development. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy those things quite a bit, but sometimes you just want something fun and light. Issue 10’s stories focus on a singer/actress who’s branching into a less “feminine” kind of image, and Diana is brought on as extra security from a creep who’s threatening her. The second one is about a dragon who attacks a city to get revenge on Diana’s mother for killing all of his people. My love for dragons could easily fill up an entire review on it’s own, but suffice to say that seeing Diana take down a dragon is simultaneously awesome, but also a little sad.

Captain Marvel #15 is a solemn issue. Carol finally returns home from her grand space adventure to find out that her friend Tracy passed away not too long ago. Carol had known it was coming, but it was still a shock. The issue is spent hearing bits of her life, and mourning her. It’s a very well written issue, and spoke to me on an emotional level like little else has in a long while. I teared up a little, not gonna lie.

Alright, back to the Secret Wars, this time with Captain Marvel and the Carol Corps. We get introduced to Banshee Squadron, AKA the Carol Corps. The Corps serves as a fighter squadron for Hala Fields, one of the many domains of Battleworld, under the leadership of Captain Marvel. The Corps begin to question whether all of the “facts” of the world as told by Doom are truth or not. They get sent on a mission, ostensibly to take out some invading Ultron robots, but the ship they’re sent to destroy instead has people on it, though the revelation comes too late to save most of the people. Carol attempts to save them though, but she fails and is presumed dead. She later turns up at the squad’s barracks with the lone survivor. She declares that she’s going to find out the truth, and asks for her squad’s aid. It feels like a shorter issue than it is, but it’s well written and sets up the series well. I think I like this more than any of the other Secret Wars things I’ve read because it actually shows one of the heroes actually in opposition to Doom, questioning if he really is God or not. The writing by Kelly Sue DeConnick is good as always, and it makes me sad she’s not going to be writing Captain Marvel anymore. The artwork is also solid, evoking the same kind of feel as reels from World War Two and American propaganda posters. All in all, a good read, and so far the only Secret Wars title I want to follow.

Star Wars #5 and #6 continue to make me smile. Jason Aaron is great at capturing the voices of the characters, to the point where I hear them speaking in my head like the actors. The pacing feels a little on the slower side, but I tend to prefer that as it gives more time for everything to sink in and for the characters to interact. My only disappointment is that there’s no Chewie. I always liked Chewie, and am hoping to get more about him from these comics. Luke goes back to Tattoine to search Obi-Wan’s place for something – anything – to help guide him. Boba Fett is also on Tattoine looking for Luke, and the two find each other. Meanwhile, Han and Leia are scouting out possible new locations for the Rebel base, but end up having to lay low on a planet that Han’s used for such things before. Unfortunately, they get visited by a very unexpected guest; Han’s wife.

In the same galaxy far away, we’ve got Darth Vader issues 5 and 6 as well. These issues are more fast-paced, with some really nice action. It’s hard for me to describe what’s going on in these issues beyond that. It’s mostly about Vader trying to prove to the Emperor that he’s still a competent lieutenant, and him gaining a greater understanding of their relationship. I really like this series because it shows more of Vader than we’ve seen before. We see him as being more cunning, more devious, and all around more interesting than he was in the original trilogy. Don’t get me wrong, I freaking love Vader, but in the movies he doesn’t have much of a repertoire. This takes what we’ve seen before and expands it, accentuates it. The artwork is really nice as well. There are a few panels of flashback to the events of Revenge of the Sith, and damn do they look good. They practically look like screenshots, they’re that good.

I’ve been trying to get into more independent comics lately, and whilst perusing that section at my comic shop, I found one that caught my eye; Lady Mechanika #3. They sadly didn’t have any prior issues, but I figured what the hell and grabbed it, flipping through it briefly. The artwork caught my eye immediately, with a high level of detail  in the pencils, along with well modeled everything. The colors, likewise, are excellent, capturing the mood of the scenes perfectly allowing everything to stand out as being distinct. Another neat touch is that some (but understandably not all) of the panel borders have neat flourishes, mainly being made of clockwork looking pieces. It’s a neat little touch to the pages to give them a little distinctiveness. The writing is also solid, with a feel not far off of Indiana Jones, but steampunk. The beginning is a bit slow, but it picks up quickly enough. A pair of archaeologists are searching for something in Sumerian ruins called the Tablet of Destiny. One of them is being coerced into searching because the villains (the German Empire) have his daughter. But the titular Lady Mechanika, along with a fringe acquaintance of the girl’s father, rescues his daughter, Winifred. Afterwards, they head off to Africa to find him, but they’re followed by the Germans, and the issue ends with Winifred and Lady Mechanika stranded in the Sahara. I really want to try and track down prior issues in order to find out what the deal is with Lady Mechanika. She says that she has metal limbs and ghoulish eyes, so I want to get the full story.

Next is Wonder Woman #41. Like I said, I tried reading the main Wonder Woman title before, but just couldn’t get into it. However, I am a firm believer in second chances, and since the cover was showing off her awesome new costume, I figured I’d give it another shot. Not a whole lot happens in the issue, but that’s fine. The previous issues I had seen featured a bunch of stuff going on with no explanation, which made me confused and disinclined to pick up future issues. That’s one thing that really bugs me about DC’s comics in comparison to Marvel’s. Marvel gives a recap page at the beginning of each issue, allowing new readers to get caught up on general plot details that are important to the issue, and to refresh the minds of those who need it. DC lacks such a thing, so if you pick up an issue, it’s very easy to get lost. For example, last time I had picked up Wonder Woman, she mentions being the God of War, and her mother has been turned into a statue. How and when did that happen? Not to mention I had no idea who some of the other people were in said issue, including the person who created Donna Troy. Is a recap page really such a hassle to include? Or is DC saying “If you want the full story, you’ll have to buy it to find out!”? Because if that’s the case, I’m more inclined to just try and find the issues online to spite them. But, whatever, let’s talk about this issue. Diana briefly visits with the incarcerated Donna, then goes to see… some woman with a baby who I guess is Zeus? Seriously DC, recap page! Then she goes to see Hephaestus who has her sweet new outfit, and then heads off to stop a tragedy. A kid has threatened to blow himself up if he doesn’t get to meet Wonder Woman, but it turns out he was just luring her there… to meet her I guess and get a few hits in. He escapes back to his layer, where’s he’s given a Pegasus, a bow and some arrows by a magical green pool in his floor. Overall, I’m still iffy on the series. It has elements I like, but on the whole it just feels a bit lacking. Not bad, but not good either. It just sort of exists, which is a shame considering how awesome Wonder Woman is. Wonder if there’s any chance of getting Gail Simone to write the series again. Or maybe Kelly Sue DeConnick.

Starfire #1. The vast majority of my exposure to Starfire has been from the Teen Titans animated series that used to run on Cartoon Network. The only other thing I’ve seen with her, was Linkara’s review of Red Hood and the Outlaws #1, which was… much less flattering. However, this seems to be more in line with the animated series, so I’m pleased. Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti, writers who I’m somewhat familiar with because of the writing on Harley Quinn, are writing the series, and I couldn’t be happier. Starfire is in Key West, with no money or place to live. The local sheriff helps her out with those two things, and the issue ends with a big storm hitting the area, and Starfire exclaiming “X’hal!” All in all, it’s a cute and fun issue, and I’ll be adding it to my pull list next time I get to the comic shop.

Continuing the parade of new stuff, we’ve got Black Canary #1. Black Canary is one of those characters I haven’t seen much of, but I’ve liked what I’ve seen. My primary exposure to her has been in the Justice League Unlimited and Young Justice cartoons, as well as a supporting cast member of Batgirl. Her solo book has her as part of a band also called Black Canary. For some reason, she’s going by D.D, and I’m wondering what that stands for (I know her name is Dinah, which is one of them, but what’s the other?). Anyway, the band is on tour, and has been plagued by problems, mostly involving Dinah busting some heads. Their show in Detroit is different though, because it’s attacked by aliens who are after the youngest member of the band, a girl called Ditto. The band all agree to stand by Ditto, in spite of not knowing why the aliens are after her. It’s an interesting opening to the series, with some solid writing. The artwork has a nice style to it, very gestural with lots of energy. It’s got kind of a punk feel to it, though I’m hard-pressed to explain why it feels that way. I’ll be picking up the next issue, and deciding if the title is worth adding to the ol’ pull list.

Last up is Doctor Fate #1. I have a soft spot for characters like Doctors Fate and Strange. The idea of a supreme sorcerer really speaks to the nerd in me, so when I saw this, I had to pick it up. There’s apparently a lead up to the issue on DC’s website, but I’m just going with this based on its own merits. It does surprisingly well. It’s established that Anubis is causing a great flood in the Brooklyn area. Khalid Nelson has been chosen to be the wielder of the Helm of Thoth to oppose Anubis. After some denying that this is happening, Khalid accepts his fate and dons the helm. There’s a bit more to it than that, but those are the basics. The writing is decent, though being a lover of mythology, I was picking apart some of the Egyptian deity stuff, like why Anubis is the villain. If Doctor Fate is supposed to be the supreme force of order, shouldn’t he be opposing Apep? Why does Bastet give him the Helm of Thoth? Shouldn’t Thoth do that? Also, I thought it was called the Helm of Nabu, but I may be wrong about that. The artwork is good, with no major hiccups, except for one instance where the panel layout is randomly different, which threw off my reading of it. Overall, a good beginning to the series, and another one I’ll be picking up the second issue of.

Well, that’s it for Couchman VS Giant Stack of Comics. Will I do this again? Maybe, depends on if I get behind on picking up my comics again, and how well this is received. Let me know what you guys think.

Ms. Marvel issues #1 and 2

Greetings, citizens! My apologies for the lateness of this review, but between job interviews, starting my new job, and some personal issues, the words just weren’t flowing. I also had a hard time figuring out what I wanted to say about Ms. Marvel without sounding like I was talking out of my ass. I’m not, by any stretch of the imagination, an expert on things like racism or sexism. That being said though, Kamala is an oddity among the mainstream comic world, being not only a young woman, but also a Muslim. Maybe I’ve just been over-exposed to Fox News lately (thanks Dad), but it feels like positive depictions of Muslims in the media are all too rare. So Kamala is a bit of a departure from most mainstream comic heroes, and I am pleased that she’s been so warmly accepted, but it’s not unexpected after reading the series. So, with that out of the way, let’s dive right in.

The cover is one that in many respects is not good, but because it feels like they were going for iconography, it works. Iconographic images have a different set of standards than other ones, especially when it comes to composition. Kamala is centered in the image, wearing a shirt with the iconic Ms. Marvel lightning bolt on it. (Side note: why did she have a lightning bolt on her outfit? She didn’t have lightning powers or anything like that.) She’s also holding a few text books, making it clear she’s a student. Amusingly, it looks like she has a book about illustration (amusing to me at least, since that was what I was majoring in at school). The most noteworthy thing about the cover is that the upper half of Kamala’s face is off of the cover. There was a sort of meme going around when the book launched of people completing the face with their own. I missed out on that chance, but here’s my contribution;

Truly, I have never looked better. Anyway, let’s get started on the issue itself.

The issue opens with Kamla and two of her friends, Nakia and Bruno, at the Circle Q convenience store. The artwork is a different style than I normally like, but it fits the writing really well. The characters are very expressive in both their facial features as well as their motions, giving it a more gestural quality. The lines are sketchier and less precise as well, which normally bothers me, but it just adds to the sense of energy in the book in this case. There are times when smaller details, most notably faces, are drawn in hyper-simplistic style. That’s another detail that would normally bother me, but it manages to work with the quirky nature of the book overall. There are also a ton of little gags buried in the background that I love, like humorous brand names. The colors tend more towards earthy tones, but there are spots of brighter color present in most panels, usually articles of clothing.

Anyway, Kamala is staring at a BLT and insisting that she just wants to smell the bacon (or “infidel meat” as she calls it), and Bruno and Nakia both think she’s being silly. The trio are joined by Zoe and Josh, who invite the trio to a party. Zoe comes off as a clueless, privileged white girl, exemplified by these panels;

Nakia declines going to the party, since there’s going to be alcohol. I don’t know why she can’t just go to the party and not drink, but hey, her choice. Bruno is vague about whether he’s going or not, and Kamala wants to go, but knows her parents would never let her.

We cut away to… Y’know,  I’m not even going to try and describe it. Here’s the first panel in all its glory;

This is apparently a fanfic that Kamala has written, which has gotten 1,000 upvotes. She’s called away to dinner though, and we get introduced to Kamala’s family. Like with Bruno and Nakia, they’re introduced fairly quickly, but we’re given a good sense of what they’re like. Kamala’s mother doesn’t really get her, her brother, Aamir, is deeply religious, and her father is a stern, patriarchal sort. Kamala asks her father about going to the party tonight, and of course he tells her no. To be honest, I’m hard-pressed to disagree with his reasoning. Lots of high school and college aged guys with liquor, not to mention Kamala being somewhat naïve, I’d worry for her safety too. But Kamala thinks he’s being paranoid, things get a bit heated, and she storms off to her room and sneaks out, lamenting how she’s always the different/weird one.

Once she gets to the party, she immediately meets up with Josh and Zoe and their circle of friends. Josh, being a dick, gives Kamala a screwdriver even though he knows she can’t have alcohol. She spits it out, and Bruno intercedes, guiding Kamala away from the group. He tells her she needs to leave, but she thinks that he’s being just like her dad, and storms off. We also get our first hint that Bruno has feelings for her. No time to dwell on that though, as a truly ominously enormous fog bank descends upon the city.

Now, when I first read this, I didn’t really know about the Inhumans or the Terrigen Mist, so this mist was a big mystery to me. One which went a long time without getting resolved. That in itself isn’t necessarily a problem. What is a problem is that Kamala doesn’t even question the mist after she gets her powers. She gets her powers, is freaked out by them, but doesn’t bother trying to figure out how she got them, or connecting that it might have something to do with that weird mist.

Speaking of her getting her powers, she’s wandering around the city in the mist and collapses. While passed out, she receives a vision. Again, nuts to trying to describe it, here’s the page;

Captain Marvel is apparently speaking Urdu according to Kamala (though I can’t seem to get a translation for what she’s saying). She talks with her visions, saying that she doesn’t know who she is, but that she wants to be like Carol, including the classic costume.

Before the vision ends, Captain Marvel tells her that she’s going to get a chance at a reboot, but it won’t turn out how she expects. Kamala then wakes up inside a cocoon, and furiously tries to break free. When she does so, she finds herself getting her wish, closing out the issue.

The cover for issue two doesn’t work quite as well as the one for issue one, and ends up just being somewhat bland. It’s just Kamala standing in front of the Captain Marvel logo, with all the lighting coming from said logo, meaning there’s little detail to see about her appearance. We do get to the see Kamala’s costume though, which is simple yet stylish. The only problem is that she doesn’t have the costume yet. Nor does she get it in this issue.

The issue opens right where the last one left off, with Kamala in the form of the classic Ms. Marvel. However, she immediately feels like she’s going to puke, and reverts back to her normal form. Her form shifts a bit more as she understandably freaks the hell out and wanders to the water (not sure which body of water it is specifically, I’m guessing the Hudson River since it looks like New York on the other side). Anyway, Kamala attempts to shapeshift on her own, but with no luck. However, she hears Zoe and Josh approaching and immediately shifts back to Ms. Marvel on reflex. While we follow her stream of consciousness, she once again shifts, this time becoming really small, and then runs away from a “giant” cockroach. While that’s going on, Josh is clearly drunk and is… trying to dance with Zoe on a little dock. Huh. I kind of had less of an opinion of him, and was expecting something worse. Turns out that drunken dock dancing is a bad idea though, as he knocks Zoe into the water, and naturally she can’t swim. Kamala sees all of this, and does some quick thinking, realizing that Josh jumping in will just mean there’s two people drowning. Thus Kamala jumps into action, once again reflexively assuming Ms. Marvel form, and quoting an ayah from the Quran that her father always quoted.

She makes her hand grow giant sized and scoops up Zoe, along with some of the riverbank. Josh’s shouting has attracted a small crowd of people though, and they of course start taking pictures/videos and asking questions. Naturally, Kamala runs off. She’s able to get some control of her body and shrinks her hand back down, but is still stuck as Ms. Marvel. She wanders around, musing about everything that’s happened tonight, and realizing that being a hero isn’t quite what she thought it’d be before heading home. She sneaks back in, but unfortunately for Kamala, her brother hears her getting back in and her parents knew she was out. At least she shifts back to her normal form before Aamir or her parents see her though. Her mother is pissed, and quite vocal about it. Her father goes the whole “not mad, just disappointed” route. Her father wants to know what happened tonight, but Kamala decides to keep quiet about suddenly having superpowers. She gets grounded, but the issue does end on a positive note, as Kamala looks at a poster of Captain Marvel, and decides to keep going down the path of a hero.

Kamala is probably the most relatable superhero I’ve ever read, and part of that is because she is a giant nerd. She writes Avengers and My Little Pony crossover fics! She’s also been called a spiritual successor to Spider-Man, and I wholeheartedly agree to that. While the two are very different characters in a lot of ways, their story begins in much the same way; young people who don’t fit in with the hip crowd who feel the burden of responsibility that comes with their power. The main difference is that Kamala didn’t need some sort of tragedy to spur her into action; she saw someone in trouble and tried to help immediately, because that’s how she was raised. I also like that she feels like an outsider. This is by far something new in comcis, but it feels more real from her than it has in any of the X-Men books or the like that I’ve read. I’m not saying it’s better, but it connected with me more, and developing a connection with the characters is important with any work of fiction. Maybe it’s because she’s different for some of the same reasons I was, I don’t know.

This series is one that I’ve wanted to look at for quite a while, and part of the reason is because I’m pleased to see a positive depiction of Muslims in the media. Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve been inundated by very negative depictions of Muslims (One of the downsides of staying with my dad for a month and a half or so; LOTS of Fox News). Part of the reason I’ve wanted to look at it is also just because of how fun it is as a series. The first two issues you get a hint of that (especially with all the little gags hidden in the artwork), but it really shines in later issues. If you haven’t checked out the series yet… well, my endorsement probably isn’t going to sway you, since people have been talking about this thing for over a year now. In all seriousness though, the series is great and I’m glad to hear that it’s going to be continuing even after Secret Wars.

Thanks for your patience with me these past couple months. I’m trying to get back on track with a normal schedule, as well as the video finale for Superior Spider-Man, but things happen. More than likely, reviews will be posted on Fridays from now on instead of Thursdays. That’s all for this week, so until next time, citizens!