Rapid Reviews - 14 April 2004 - Part IV

Age of Bronze #19: Oh. I was afraid of how it would work out. But anything said at all will give away an important bit of the plot... so... This is a book that requires re-reading. And I don't mean that in a bad way at all. I mean that once you've finished each issue, you feel like going back and reading the whole story again, it's so good. If you are in the mood for historical fiction, without a trace of spandex anywhere, pick this up.

Just to note: the second Age of Bronze collection, collecting this issue along with the rest of the story-arc, will be out in May. I've pre-ordered my copy from the Age of Bronze website. You can too, or wait until Amazon stocks it. And if you haven't already, go buy the first collection.

PS238 #6: Oh man. I swear this book gets funnier every issue. It's consistently good, and getting consistently better. And if I thought this book was funny when I read it, that was nothing to when hubby-Eric read some of the bits of the back-up story aloud to me. Heh. This book is great. Go get it.

Free samples HERE. Or start here or here or here or here or here or here (or you could just click on that first here and keep clicking "next" as you read the minis. The regular issues are full length with a back-up story). A trade of the first five issues is coming out soon, I like this series so much that I'm getting the trade despite already having all the issues. Yes, I plan on loaning this one out to folks. And I want MORE. I've even started reading the on-line Nodwick (starting back at the beginning) to get more of Aaron Williams artwork.

To pick one of the AIT/Planet Lar books to review turned out to be impossible. Each time I'd reach over, look at the pile, and start to pick one only to think, no, I want to read this one first. Then I'd start to pick up that one, and see another one that I wanted to try first. The third time this happened, I realized that I had no idea where to start, one of the downsides of having such a large group to choose from. So I finally flipped them all over, shuffled them the best I could and spread them out, then closed my eyes and picked one up. And that, folks, is how I am determining the order of reviewing these books. The first pick was Codeflesh.

Codeflesh by Joe Casey and Charlie Adlard: Funny, but even while I read this book, my opinion went up and down. At first I didn't like it much, then I kind of liked it, then I really liked it, then I didn't like it so much anymore. And on and on. It was very odd. I did, however, read the entire book in one sitting, which is generally a good sign. Let's see... I liked that almost everyone who saw him was confused by the mask. It's clear that while there are metahumans/superpowers in this world, people don't generally don masks to haul in the crooks skipping bail. I liked how Carl Stalin figured out who he was... the indication was that sooner or later, everyone would figure it out. Carl also asked about the mask, another mystery that I hoped would be answered in the pages, but wasn't. I liked the last issue in the trade, one in which the words and the images don't match up, because it gives a little bit of an insight into how the reader perceives comics. It took me awhile to get used to the dichotomy, and once I did I found I had to re-read the story ignoring the words to understand it fully. The book was dark and violent, and at points I got a little bored with all the fighting. Overall, however, I think I enjoyed it, and I felt there was some good stuff in it. I can't give it a hearty recommend, but I'll give it a mild recommendation, particularly if you like dark and gritty stories.

Still to review: Dodge's Bullets, 1602, Fallen Angel, and Common Grounds.