yjsoon

Missed another week again. Oops.

“Batman: Broken City” (Brian Azzarello, Eduardo Risso)
First, a tangential review: Batman Begins was quite rather fuckin’ awesome, and Sir Michael Caine deserves his own movie as Alfred (Alfred Begins?). However, one thing annoyed me a little: Batman — too much focus, not enough crazy. The man dresses as a bat! He shouldn’t be halfway reasonable about the things he does! Ah well. Quite enjoyable, nonetheless.

Anyway, back to the comic. I don’t normally pick up Batman comics, but this one’s by the same creative team that brings us the Vertigo series 100 Bullets, which is some very hard-hitting crime noir, and totally suitable to the Bat-franchise. However, I was ultimately disappointed — I felt Broken City was a little underwhelming. Sure, it cut straight through Gotham’s seedy crime underbelly, but for what? The whole story seemed like an episode in pointlessness, and Batman came across as really rather silly for doing everything he did. Batman’s rambling monologues didn’t help either. Perhaps if I read the whole thing in one sitting, it’d make sense (100 Bullets felt pretty disjointed until I read every volume in sequence), or maybe I’m just not a fan of this crazy-introspective-Batman that Azzarello has written.

“Blue Monday Volume 3: Inbetween Days (Blue Monday)” (Chynna Clugston-Major) and “Blue Monday, Vol. 4: Painted Moon” (Chynna Clugston)
I don’t know why Amazon gives me different-sized images for each volume… Anyway, Blue Monday is one of my favourite guilty pleasures of comics. American teen drama with a large dollop of hilarious senselessness thrown in, riddled with innumerable 80s Britpop (mostly) references and even a suggested soundtrack to listen along to (the likes of The Cure, They Might Be Giants, New Order, The Smiths, The Who, Stone Roses are common. Also, I’m convinced I’ve used up my italics quota for the month in that one sentence). More of the same happyfun stuff in these two volumes.

“WE3” (Grant Morrison)
The story’s about three cybernetically-enhanced household pets engineered to become killing machines. Result? Escape, subsequent ultraviolence, and one of the most touching stories involving cyborg animals in recent memory. Well, fine, ever. Brilliant idea, well-executed story, and the art by Quitely is to die for (look at that cover! Aren’t they adorable? In a deadly/homicidal kind of way, that is). I don’t often buy graphic novels that I borrow to read, but I absolutely must have a copy (or five) of this.

“Ministry Of Space” (Warren Ellis)
Warren Ellis’ infectious obsession with space travel science fiction shines through in this graphic novel, essentially a “What if the British had gotten to space first?”. Mr Ellis is, of course, British (and hence, like most British comics writers who aren’t Neil Gaiman, not completely sane), though he claims the story isn’t about nationalistic fervour but about all that shining potential lost and reduced to the real-world NASA, a helpless shade of a once-great space program. And you know what? He’s so damn convincing it hurts. Great read.

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