Library books

Comics I borrowed from the library!

Superman: Son of Kal-El 7-15, Superman: Son of Kal-El Annual 1, Nightwing 89

I didn’t hate this when I dropped it w/ issue 5, only underwhelmed.  So I was happy to see what happened to Jon Kent in the subsequent months.  Basically a lot of battling against Henry Bendix (apparently the leader of Gamorra after his fall from grace as Weatherman of Stormfront).  I loved seeing the Revolutionaries from Taylor’s Suicide Squad, but they’re not given nearly as much of the spotlight as I would of liked.  (Not that I blame Taylor.  It’s not their book.)

I don’t regret dropping this, but it wasn’t a waste of time to come back to it like this.

It's an old joke, but Taylor always makes it funny.

...and then outdoes himself.

Reckless: Destroy All Monsters, Reckless: The Ghost in You

It’s been a while since I read an Ed Brubaker/Sean Phillips collab, and the standalone nature of their work means I didn’t have to worry about not knowing any of the continuity.  This is standard case-of-the-week fare, well executed, but completely disposable.  Good for a night of reading.

Battle Born: Lapis Lazuli

I’m always up for a good war comic.  This is a banger from Maximilian Uriarte, covering a Marine squad’s time in Afghanistan.  The protagonist, the sergeant of the group, is faced with the age-old dilemma of following orders or doing what he believes to be right.  It’s expertly told, with some bold use of repeating panels that puts Brian Michael Bendis to shame.  I’d be happy to have this in my collection, it’s certainly good enough, but I don’t really feel the need to read it again.   

Great Naval Battles of the Twentieth Century

Jean-Yes Delitte and Giuseppe Baiguera tackle the Battles of Tsushima, Jutland, and Midway.  I was hoping for Garth Ennis-quality, but that was probably never going to happen.  Instead, I got a series of stories that couldn’t quite hide their pedantic roots.  Too much dialog that sounded like college lectures, not enough action or true character development.

Still, I was glad to have read these; I didn’t know much about Tsushima or Jutland, and it was fun to learn about them.  (Midway didn’t teach me anything new.)