Shockrockets, Smoke and Guns

Finally done with Misc Box number 4!

Box Summary:

Time spent reading: 32 hours, 2 minutes

Issues read: 262

Issues cut: 57

Highlights (Good or better): Judenhass, Judas, Best of Ray Bradbury

Project Summary:

Time spent reading: 21 days, 5 hours, 7 minutes

Issues read: 4170

Issues cut: 572

Shockrockets 1-6

Kurt Busiek packs this with standard tropes:

1. Hotheaded youth who
1. Scrounges for tech in landfills
2. Builds his own vehicle
3. Is a self-taught pilot
4. Yearns for a better life than his current meager existence
5. Happens to be in the right place at the right time, becoming a member of an elite squad of pilots
6. Struggles to fit in with the others and earn his place on the team
7. Brings a fresh point of view that breaks from the accepted way of thinking and levels up the team
8. Explores where he isn’t supposed to, stumbling upon bad guy meetings and secrets
9. Saves the day
2. Future Earth that
1. Has recently survived an alien invasion
2. Repurposed alien tech to create their state of the art spacecraft
3. Is under attack by an evil rebel general with a surprisingly large and well funded army
3. Other plot points:
1. Traitor pilot who’s mad that the hotheaded youth took her spot on the team
2. Bad guy dies by falling down a long shaft

Still, Busiek and artist extraordinaire Stuart Immonen take these elements and create something that manages to excite and entertain.  These guys are good. Both have been better work, but this is worth reading nevertheless.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

Smoke and Guns

Fabio Moon, working without his brother Gabriel Ma, draws this slight but massively entertaining action comic by Kirsten Baldock.  A cigarette girl picks fights with other similarly employed gangs of women and wreaks havoc across the city. Bullets and fists fly with abandon.  It’s just fun.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice