Strangers in Paradise, New comics

New comics!

Seven Secrets 14

I still don’t remember anyone’s name, but the betrayal by guy-in-mask and his bad boy boyfriend continues.  Still fun.

Batman/Catwoman 10

Tom King has a lot to do in the last two issues to salvage this incoherent tangle of timelines.  Not his best work.

Strangers in Paradise v2 14

Molly & Poo.  Terry Moore’s ill-advised erotic gothic novella…thing.  Less said the better.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Hated

Strangers in Paradise v3 1-5

Terry Moore starts volume 3 in color at Homage Studios with a Jim Lee action sequence.  (Can’t blame him.  If Jim Lee offers to do some pages for your comic…)  Then he jumps into a flashforward where Francine is trapped in a loveless marriage (but she does have an adorable kid).  Where she sees Katchoo for the first time in ten years…

What happened in the meantime?  The rewind back to present day starts off poorly, as Moore spends the first five issues putting Francine and Katchoo through the ringer.  Francine is basically Charlie Brown and Peter Parker wrapped up in one, and it’s completely unfun to read.  Katchoo is in one of her “reacts poorly to the tiniest offense” modes and blows up at David.  At this point, my faith in SiP is being sorely tested.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice

Strangers in Paradise 6-12

Things get a little bit better as Darcy Parker returns, once again dragging Katchoo into her schemes.  And contrary to my comments in my previous post, the crime stuff is way more interesting than the relationship stuff right now, which makes me sad.  

Heh, I like the PAs.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

Strangers in Paradise 13-15

The High School arc.  This is wonderful, seeing Francine and Katchoo bond from the get go.  Then things get horrible when Katchoo’s home life is revealed.  It’s heartbreaking and a phenomenal read.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Really good

Strangers in Paradise 16

The fluffy Xena issue.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Fine

Strangers in Paradise 17-22

Seeing Francine’s sobbing agony and Katchoo’s stoic pain affects me way more than the drama of their younger selves.  Maybe because I’m older as well and can relate to it more, just as younger me was far more taken by the pouring-rain-confessions of volume 2.

And then Katchoo comes back and she sees her…

All the emotions.

Back in the present, the two get into a massive fight over Katchoo’s nude paintings of Francine.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Really good

Strangers in Paradise 23-27

Wacky hijinks with our trio, Freddie, Casey, and the paintings.  David inherits Darcy’s fortune (1.4 billion dollars!).  Katchoo and Francine get into another fight, and while I understand Francine’s indecision, I’m on Team Katchoo with this one.

Then David and Katchoo survive a plane crash…

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Good

Strangers in Paradise 28-30

Katchoo’s pulled back into the power plays of the Big Six.  Again.  And pushes Francine away.  Again.  While the plotting and scheming is fun to read, Moore’s finally crossed my threshold of “how many ways can the writer artificially keep the OTP apart before I get sick of it and call bullshit?”

That said, I’m happy that after a slow start to the series, things have gotten good enough that I read thirty-one issues in the past two days.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good