Rapid Reviews - 16 June 2004 - Part III

Hedge Knight TPB: As you may know, this is the comic book adaptation of a story from the first Legends anthology. It also happens to be a quite excellent adaptation, and a great choice of story to adapt. The visuals in the original story were compelling, it's wonderful to see them here. The art is by Mike S Miller, who does a wonderful job throughout. Not only are the characters each distinctive, but they are nicely consistent. There is a lot of action, including a series of jousts. The action is clear, which is no small feat in this tale. I don't even have to say how great the writing is, the more I read by George R. R. Martin, the more I like his writing. Anyway... Add in the four pages of coats of arms in the back, along with a short bit from the story in Legends II, and you've got a very cool package.

Amazing Adventures From Zoom's Academy: I was expecting a comic book, so what I got instead was a bit of a surprise. A lightly illustrated children's book. It's good, but it wasn't what I was expecting, and that threw me off. I'm having to fight the urge to compare it to the Sidekicks series, because the only thing they really have in common is young superheroes and a narrator with a lot of common sense thrown into an uncommon world. The main character in Zoom's is Summer, who doesn't know about superheroes at all, and has a remarkably low self-esteem. The realization of who and what she is makes up the focus of this story, and it's a pretty good one for younger readers. A fun little book, good for light reading.

Still to review: Birds of Prey, Another Nail, JSA, and Outsiders. I also still get to review Hench, and True Story, Swear to God: 100 Stories.