Top of the Pile 10/24/12

Journey into Mystery #645
Story by Kieron Gillen
Art by Stephanie Hans
Marvel Comics

This is the end of a long story by Kieron Gillen. Starting with a young, resurrected Loki, we follow as he tries to change the whole god of evil – must kill my half-brother Thor trope. Through a couple story arcs that had the potential of ending the universe, young Loki uses his cunning for good throughout. With varying results, he usually comes out on top and saves the nine realms from some nasty fate.

With issue 645, we are presented with the aftermath of the “Everything Burns” crossover event. Through the various plots and schemes from the previous issues, Loki has unleashed Surtur (a huge fire demon) who likes to burn things. And as everything comes apart and the outcome looks catastrophic, young Loki rewrites reality and saves the day. In this aftermath, we learn that the loose ends will require young Loki to sacrifice his essence to save (yet again) everything.

I have enjoyed this book. I have mentioned that the Norse Marvel stories have always been a fun read. And with this reinterpretation of Loki, different types of stories were told. Not good versus evil in a huge fight, but a good tricking evil at its own game. There is an interesting panel where it shows some demon getting a book from a magpie with the title “Journey into Mystery: A Comedy in Thirty Parts (Or a Tragedy in Thirty-One)”. This made me chuckle and kind of broke the fourth wall a little.

The art by Stephanie Hans is very good. Unlike the Alan Davis Norse stories, there are no huge muscle battles. Instead, we see young Loki setting up with his past and decisions. It has a melancholy feel and a palette of greens and reds. I’ll have to keep my eyes out for other works by her.

As for adding this book to a library, I would definitely do so without hesitation. Teen hero? Tough life choices? Fate of the universe? Potential love story? All make for a compelling young adult novel. And with the benefit of great art and Marvel marketing, any library would do well with this book.

Top of the Pile - 10/17/12

Chew #29
Story by John Layman

Art by Rob Guillory

There wasn’t a huge pile this week. Just 8 books. So what ended up at the top of the pile this week was Chew #29. Chew is an interesting book from John Layman and Rob Guillory about a post bird flu world where chicken is outlawed. Government agencies like the FDA, NASA and USDA have extraordinary powers police powers to maintain order.

This books been going on for a couple years now and it’s established its style. John Layman writes ridiculous plots and characters that are laugh out loud funny. And there is fun artwork by Rob Guillory with many little background elements that make you look extra-long at each page. And some weird cliff hanger that leaves you guessing until the next issue. One thing that was missing was all the damn cat pictures at the end of the book. (I’m not a cat person…)

This issue is part 4 of a 5 part story called Space Cakes. It’s not the best issue of Chew that I have read, but it was still fun. I don’t know if Space Cakes has the most concise plot and I’m sure to have fun as it wraps up. This is the type of series you would lost reading if you picked it up in the middle. So as a single issue I can’t really recommend it. But as a series, it’s been one of my favorites. Does that make sense?

As for adding Chew to public library collections, it is a good book to select. I have purchased the first two volumes of the collected volumes. They are in the adult non-fiction area for the profane language and cannibalism. They check out pretty well but unfortunately I don’t select in that area anymore.

Top of the Pile - 10/10/12

Uncanny Avengers #1
Written by Rick Remender
Art by John Cassaday
Inks by Laura Martin

Since I’ve been out of town, it’s been a couple weeks since I’ve posted. But I’m back and into my regular swing of things. This week I picked up 8 books and the big title this time is the first in the Marvel Now! Reboot, Uncanny Avengers.

Marvel is doing a huge multi-title reboot and after the last one of Avengers vs. X-Men, having them come together in some way seems the obvious direction. The book starts off at Charles Xaviers’ funeral with Cyclops in prison and Havoc asked to join the Avengers by Captain America (because “someone has to stand up and represent the mutants.”) Also some of the other highlights in the book include, Rouge and Scarlet Witch getting angry with each other, Wolverine eulogizing, and a couple of brains removed from corpses (which is really pretty gruesome).

It’s been a long time since I’ve read many X books. But it looks like Rick Remender has written for both the Uncanny X-Force and Secret Avengers titles for a while. So he knows the lay of the land when it comes to Marvel. And with this book, he is starting to lay the plans for the next story arc. We see which character is stealing brains. We see the characters begin to deal with the loss of Professor X. And we see the fallout from the previous Marvel mega storyline AvX. Remender has many different ways to go and he seems to have some good ideas.

And with John Cassaday doing the art, there is no loss of clarity in the story. Cassaday’s style is clear as always and enhances the plot wonderfully. I like that his depictions of superheroes isn’t exaggerated in any way. They look like fit normal people. (Thor is a little beefier, but he is a god after all.) I’m sure other artists would do just as fine with a book of this scope, but having Cassaday on it makes it that much more pleasurable a read.

As for picking up more of this title, I think I’ll hold off. I’m already spending a little too much of my budget on comics, so picking up a new book with the potential of having cross title storylines is more than I could handle. But if I have the opportunity and funds at my library, I would pick up the collected volume for our collection. But with the level of violence in the book I would not put it in the juvenile area. The teen shelves is where this title would go.