Review: Mister Miracle

Mister Miracle by Tom King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm literally going to get "Darkseid is." tattooed on my arm. No joke. I get a new tattoo every year, and this is going to be my next one. I already love Tom King's work so much I want to have his babies, but I do not mince words with I say Mister Miracle is a crowning achievement. Not only is it deep and emotional, but it also opens the mind to what comic books can be. It's that f%&@ing good.

Since nitpicking is my strong suit, I'll start there. If I can at least. I bounced possible complaints in my head, but there were soundly defeated by the positive vibes I feel for this book. The only one that stood up to this fairly one-sided mental battle was the bits involving Metron. It was a little too obscure and not fully fleshed out as far as explaining what he is even doing in this book. The cliffhanger at the end of issue #11 has no real resolution to it in regards to that singular plot point. I'm not saying #12 makes for a bad ending, it doesn't, but his involvement leads too much into fan theory territory. And I hate fan theories.

Besides that singular issue, the writing is God tier good. Seriously, one of the best books I've ever read. Well, the best within the last several years at least. The best comparison I can make is the movie Vertigo. Where everything is just so nuanced and layered. Grappling with issues like suicide and depression in a way that connects with whatever you call a soul. It also maintains a thorough plot with each issue laying out every point in express detail. I seriously don't know where Tom King goes from here.

The art is awesome. It matches perfectly with the story and conveys each aspect in the way comic books were meant to. Mitch Gerads and Tom King as a true dream team. I honestly think I'm running out of ways to say this book is great.

I try not to fanboy, it leads down a path of liking things that aren't genuinely good. Or worse, justifying things you would consider mediocre otherwise. Like saying Bumblebee is the best Transformers movie while ignoring how a legless pug could jump over that bar. The worst, of course, is not being able to like something that is great because some aspect of fandom tells you not to. I'm looking at you Star Wars fans. Regardless, I try not to love this book because I'm a fan of Tom King. I am a fan, but I would hate if I loved something that wasn't actually good. I still think this book is great, and you should too, but I pray to the New Gods that I never become that person.

Darkseid is.

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Review: Blacksad

Blacksad by Juan Díaz Canales
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was going to try to open this review with a cat pun of some sorts, but I couldn't come up with anything. I just didn't leave this book with enough emotional investment to try as hard as I possibly could. This book is serviceable, even likable in some parts, but doesn't really convince me that it's worth more than a single pass. Bottom line, it's okay.

I wasn't completely sold on the idea on a noir cat story walking into this, and that's on me, but the book doesn't do a super great job selling it once you're in. The writing is just a little too standard for my tastes. It isn't bad but doesn't do well enough to fully engage me. There are sparks, but no ignition. For example, the opening to issue three is clever as all hell, but it isn't that good throughout the entire book. Plus, the narration can be nonsensical at times, which might be on par for the noir genre but is still annoying.

Probably my biggest problem with the writing was the lack of world building. It just borrows too many ideas from real-world events to create its world and characters. It mostly takes generic concepts about racism and dames to blend together with anthropomorphic characters. The thing is, if so much of this book is taken from the real world, why even bother with animal-like characters? With a little more creative world building and slightly tighter writing, I probably would have enjoyed this book a lot more.

Art-wise, I will say is fan-fucking-tasic. It's perfect for what intended purpose of the comic and is just great art in general. Some of the direction and paneling is uncreative, but that criticism is coming from a guy whose favorite method is nine perfectly same rectangles. If I graded this book purely on the art, I would have given it five stars.

If I was to sum up this book in one phrase, it would be: It's almost good. Which sucks. Because, despite popular belief, I want all books to be good. Instead, what I got was only okay. It's coke zero when I wanted a coke. I can see people loving this book, and that's okay. Blacksad isn't trash, but I wouldn't read it again on purpose.

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Review: POS: Piece of Sh*t

POS: Piece of Sh*t by Pierre Paquet
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

It's difficult to rate a book that has unlikable characters. Even if the character is a jerk or just plain evil, they can still be likable in an engaging sense. It's even more difficult with this particular book because the unlikable character is unlikable by design rather than just shitty writing. So I tried to examine this book by other aspects than just the character. It was then that I discovered it wasn't just the main character that was unlikable.

Perhaps the biggest problem with this book is the plot structure. It seems to have a habit of focusing on a specific story aspect and jumps from subplot to subplot without much connection or organic flow. Basically, it reads like this: something happens then, four or five days later, something completely unrelated happens. It's not really a story but rather a sequence of scenes that aren't tied together very well. It's so bad that the epilogue is used to conclude a common story thread rather than be an afterthought side story like it should be.

Like I said before, the main character is unlikable by design, but that doesn't change the fact he is unlikable. What probably bothers me the most is that a good deal of the shit that happens to him is his own fault. If anyone says, "How hard can (pretty much anything) be?", don't get into business with them. It's not just a comment against the book, but general life advice you should take to heart.

The art is serviceable, but I didn't care much for it. It tells the story well enough, but this book was obviously done on a budget. I'm not saying only big-budget books should get noticed, but poverty isn't an excuse for a lack of talent. That being said, my biggest problems are still with the writing, so I still would have liked this book if the art was the same but had a better handle on its structural issues.

I can't really recommend this book. Obviously. I'm generally a negative person, so I'll seemly shit on a book I actually like. But, that is merely nitpicking without taking in the overwhelmingly positive nature of it. This book, however, has serious problems with its ability to tell a story. I get its point, but, like a bad joke, just because you get it doesn't mean it's funny.

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