300, Xerxes, New comics

New comics!

Injustice: Year Zero 1-14

Well, new kinda.  I got the hardcover collection a couple of months ago, and just got around to reading it.

Tom Taylor.  I mean, what can I say about him anymore?  He’s so freaking good at DC Elseworlds, unafraid to kill beloved characters in service of a nail-biting story.  His Joker is calculated and terrifying, even more so when he’s given mind control abilities.  The chaos and horror he sows is legit disturbing.  

*Shiver*

Also, Taylor knows how to write character moments and humor.

This next box is more indie stuff, the books that managed to stay on my shelf the longest as the arrival of my daughter and the resultant interior decorating changes forced more and more things into boxes.  So this should be a combination of good stuff and newer books.

300 1-5

Yeah, this is good stuff.  It’s what one would call a ripping good yarn.  Not much substance, but damn does the style of Frank Miller’s later years work for this story.  This is a laser-focused tale that does exactly what it sets out to do.  Certainly not Miller’s best work (a high bar indeed), but still deserving of a spot in his higher pantheon of titles.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Good

Xerxes 1-5

This follow up comes twenty years later, and it’s clear Miller’s lost a step, both with the art (not pretty) and the plotting (an incoherent mess).  It starts off well enough with the Battle of Marathon, but then jumps around with no apparent rhyme or reason between Xerxes, Darius III, and Alexander.  The leaps between timelines make no narrative sense, and the scenes depicted don’t tie together into any kind of understandable story.  

And yet, it’s worth keeping for the spectacle of it all, for which Miller has not lost an inch of his flair.

Regret buying: Yes

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Fine

(Is this my first Yes/No/No/Fine ever?  It’s such an odd combination.)