X-Men: Mutant Massacre Omnibus

I've been making way through the entire run of Uncanny X-Men (mostly through the Masterworks), and this is the first big omnibus that I've hit. To get it out of the way: Yes, this collection is a little uneven, in places, but that's pretty par for the course with any of this longer Marvel omnibus collections. This was the very first big Marvel Crossover event, with parts of the story playing out in Daredevil, Thor, and.... Power Pack? Sure. Why not? It's actually a pretty impressive feat, given that they were doing everything over the phone and by mail. This crossover is more impressive for introducing a number of significant shake-ups that actually mattered. After the attacks in the tunnels, Angel is radically changed, Nightcrawler and Kitty are so badly wounded they're eventually dropped from the book (during the later, Fall of the Mutants story arc), we introduced to the rivalry between Sabretooth and Wolverine, and Ice Man is kidnapped by Loki and has his powers messed with, and the attack on the core group by the Maurader, Malice, sets the X-Men down a path that will eventually lead them to the Australian Outback. New characters are introduced to the team (Psylocke, Dazzler, and Longshot all join the team during this event, although some of that, weirdly, happens either in other books or off panel). That's just off the top of my head.

The artwork is typical of comics at the time, which, admittedly, makes it a bit of a mixed bag, but the presentation here is beautiful. There are some sections that really reveal some of the excesses of this era (e.g. pages that are needlessly overflowing with expository text), and there are some character inconsistencies (Sabretooth's depiction in Daredevil, for example, is *wildly* different than his other appearances), and the actual motive for the massacre is never discovered (nor, for that matter, who ordered it), but, if you're interested in the X-Men, this is kind of a must-read event. It also has what is easily one of my favorite story arcs, wherein Storm gets captured by Crimson Commando, Super Sabre, and Stonewall, who mistake her for a thief/arsonist, and she has to escape, using only her wits, since she, at that point, has lost her powers.

Great stuff!

Review: The Doom Patrol Omnibus

The Doom Patrol Omnibus by Grant Morrison
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don't know anything about the guy, but, reading Doom Patrol, one gets the sense that Grant Morrison is one weird dude. Probably a lot of fun at parties, but weird.

This is an older run of comics collected in one massive tome heavy enough to brain a panda with, certainly. I mostly know the Doom Patrol as "that DC group that is always compared to the X-Men." I can understand why that comparison comes up, but the differences between them seem more significant here than the similarities.

This is definitely an interesting read. There are times where it feels like the page is overwhelmed by the sheer number of bizarre concepts Morrison is throwing at it, which leaves some of the story arcs feeling a little patchwork, but, overall, this was a pretty cool run that explores some interesting spaces. It also has some of the most memorable antagonists I've seen in a comic book. There are a few sections in the middle that go so far out into uncharted territory that I'm still not sure what actually happened, but when the book hits the mark--which is does, often--it's really something to see.

All in all, I'd say this is flawed, but groovy.


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Review: The Walking Dead, Vol. 24: Life and Death

The Walking Dead, Vol. 24: Life and Death by Robert Kirkman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

While there's nothing specifically wrong with this or the last volume, I can't help but feel like maybe I'm just burned out on tWD; I'm bored. I'm bored with Rick. I'm bored with Carl. I'm bored with whatever the new horrible group out to kill them is. While the whisperers are at least different from the other groups Rick and co have met before, they're still yet another in a long line of "people are bigger monsters than the walkers".

And can we talk about how utterly absurd the border thing was?

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Review: Noir: A Collection of Crime Comics

Noir: A Collection of Crime Comics by Diana Schutz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Noir: A Collection of Crime Comics is a very thin volume of short crime stories, written by a variety of authors, well known and less well known. As with many anthologies, the results here are a mixed bag. While several of the tales here are pretty traditional pulp stories, most of them add some kind of spin to the genre, for better or worse. Unfortunately, in too many of these tales, the twists and tropes are very easily spotted. A number of the stories contained within have a strong science-fiction bent, which isn't bad, but was decidedly not what I was looking for or expecting from a book called Noir. The end result is a book of stories that are readable, but ultimately forgettable.

While the stories are generally all pretty middle of the road, the artwork is a more varied; with so many different visual styles involved, there's almost bound to be at least one that works for a particular reader. Of course, that also means there's almost certainly a story or two that just don't work.

While this is far from the worst crime comic I've picked up, there's not very much to recommend this. If you're looking for noir or crime comics, there's a lot better fare out there than this.

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Review: The Devil's Home on Leave

The Devil's Home on Leave by Derek Raymond
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In The Devil's Home on Leave, Derek Raymond's unnamed detective sergeant in the Unexplained Deaths division takes on a cruel and twisted killer who boils a body to prevent the police from identifying the victim. As the detective closes in on a suspect and digs into the possible motives, he starts to wonder if this case isn't a lot bigger than it first appeared.

In this, the second book in the "Factory" series, readers are treated to more British slang, another sordid case, and more information about the jaded but dedicated detective.

While this entry is less introspective than the first book--the detective doesn't have hundreds of cassettes and journals from a philosophical writer to muse about this time--it's no less engaging. Raymond even manages to sneak in a quite a bit of humor. The interactions between the detective and his bosses and superiors area almost always at least chuckle-worthy; it helps when you've written a character who isn't just disinterested in promotion, but actively hostile towards the prospect.

Another solid entry from Derek Raymond.

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Review: He Died with His Eyes Open

He Died with His Eyes Open by Derek Raymond
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

He Died with His Eyes Open, by Derek Raymond, is the story of an unnamed police officer working in the small and under-funded "Unexplained Deaths" department of the British police force. In this, the first book in the series, he is brought in an apparently drunk, possibly homeless, old man is found brutally beaten to death. Over the course of the case, the narrator digs into the man's past and discovers his passions and fears. The further the detective digs into the case, the harder he finds it to maintain any professional distance from the crime.

Raymond's neo-noir mystery really captures the world-weary but driven detective character; the unnamed narrator hints at a dark or troubled past, but also displays a passion for uncovering the truth and providing justice to the people least likely to see it.

The sections dealing with the old man's writing are perhaps a little overly long at times, but this is still a really good entry.

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Review: Meteor Men

Meteor Men by Jeff Parker
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Meteor Men, by Jeff Parker, Sandy Jarrell, and Kevin Volo, is essentially a first contact/alien invasion story focusing on a lonely teen, Alden Baylor. Alden is an orphan, and when a series of strange meteors strike the planet, Alden finds one of them in a field he inherited when his parents passed away. It doesn't take long for Alden to figure out that there's more to the meteors than most people thought, and for the government to start investigating the reports of strange beings showing up across the globe.

This is mostly fun, but fairly predictable, YA sci-fi romp. The inevitable conclusion is obvious a long way off, and when the government types start butting in, it's not any big surprise how they react. Jarrell and Volo do a fine job making sure that the young characters actually look like young characters, and their approach to the aliens and alien speech works well. This is an entertaining enough read, but there's not much to make it a strong recommendation.

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