Hatter M, Golem's Mighty Swing, Hench, Grand Passion

Hatter M 1-4

I never read The Looking Glass Wars novels that this is spun off from, but I imagine the nifty concept is why I picked this up - The Mad Hatter is really a badass killer who’s the bodyguard of the Princess Alyss in Wonderland.  Pair it up with Ben Templesmith’s moody, scratchy art and you’ve got a neat little story.  

The Hatter is an uber-competent soldier in the vein of Snake Eyes, Jason Bourne, and John Wick.  It’s fun watching him deploy his arsenal of blades, and Templesmith’s stylistic art means that it doesn’t have to make any kind of logical sense.  

Haven't heard this maxim before, but I buy it.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? No

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Fine

Golem’s Mighty Swing

A wonderfully crafted, told, and illustrated story by James Sturm.  It’s a slice of life look into the lives of a Jewish barnstorming baseball team in the 1920s.  There’s something very high end literature about this book, I can easily imagine it as a short story in the New Yorker or a novel.  

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? No

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Pretty good

Hench

Not the first comic to tell things from the evil henchman’s point of view, but this is a pretty good take on it.  What I have yet to see, though, is an instance where the henchman isn’t a sad sack loser who’s down on his luck. Sure, IRL it’s hard to imagine anyone being really happy about getting beat up and sent to jail two out of three times (according to this book), but it’d be a nice twist.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? No

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Nice

Grand Passion 1-5

A nice little miniseries by James Robinson and Tom Feister.  A bank robber and the local deputy sheriff fall in love while on the opposite sides of a heist.  Complications ensue when her partner is killed and everyone else in his department turns out to be on the take.  It doesn’t try to be anything more than it is, and there are no real surprises. But Robinson convincingly sells the “love at first sight” angle, and that’s really 90% of the heavy lifting in making this work.  

Oh, major continuity gripe:

Issue 3.

Issue 4.  So...why are you asking again?

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? No

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Nice