Weekly Comic Reviews - 13 April 2016

Ratings out of 5 stars. Mainstream comics available at Absolute Comics (Plaza Singapura).

Wonder Woman: Earth One Volume One

Story: Grant Morrison

Art: Yanick Paquette

DC

This is Grant Morrison-lite as compared to The Nameless and The Multiversity, which is still sitting on a pile of books to be read. This has been in the works for years, way back in 2012. It was announced that Grant Morrison was going to put the sex back in WW, and back to the bondage and submission-is-good roots of the Marsten stories.

This is also the book that made Greg Rucka quit DC back then because he was supposed to write the WW Earth One story and JH Williams III drawing it, but DC gave it to Morrison instead. Reading this book now, one wonders how Rucka would have handled the story because his run of the Amazon Princess from 2003 – 2006 was one of the best ever. (see http://theslingsandarrows.com/wonder-woman-down-to-earth/ )

Morrison’s retelling of Wonder Woman’s origins is a pretty straight forward tale, which uses a trial as a framing device to tell the story. There are some funny moments like when pressed by the Amazons whether he has the hots for Wonder Woman, his reply was, man you chicks are way out of my league. Another fun character is Beth Candy, a hot mama who is not afraid to be plus-size and is proud of it.

The art by Yanick Paquette (who has worked with Morrison on Batman Incorporated) is great, lots of playful designs and experimenting with the panels. Since this is Volume One, let’s hope we do not have wait for another four years for Volume Two.

Read this together with The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore and Wonder Woman: Bondage and Feminism by Noah Berlatsky.

(4 stars)

Sherlock Holmes: The Seven-Per-Cent Solution

Story: Scott Tipton and David Tipton

Art: Ron Joseph

IDW

My favourite Sherlock Holmes story not written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Nicholas Meyer’s story is a re-imagining of The Final Solution and it was made into a movie in 1976. 40 years later, we have the comic book and it’s about time because this is an excellent tale worth revisiting every few years.

I won’t belabor the meeting between the Great Detective and the Great Psycho Analyst, Sigmund Freud. Reading this now and given the limited knowledge people have about the Great War, it would be prudent to know a bit about the outbreak of WWI to get into the second half of this story. But the first half that led Holmes to Vienna remains thrilling.

Not common knowledge, but Alan Quah tried out for this book. Eventually the job went to Ron Joseph and it is the editor and the publisher’s choice in what kind of look they want for the book. But if you compare this page with what Alan came up with, you wish he had done the whole book. It would have been a different feel – more atmospheric and just from this page, you could feel and smell the London fog…

(3 stars)

Guardians of the Galaxy #7

Story: Brian Michael Bendis

Art: Valerio Schiti

Marvel

Time flies. #1 was reviewed back in 14 October last year. It’s still the same creative team of Bendis and Schiti, the same fun-filled adventures of the Guardians. This issue reads like the old Marvel-Two-In-One of having The Thing teaming up with Rocket to rescue a group of alien slaves from the Badoon. The Thing got himself married and the duo got to go rescue Peter Quill, the Star-Lord next.

With all these cosmic stories flying around, you wonder when are they going to bring back the Fantastic Four…

(3 stars)

Moon Knight #1

Story: Jeff Lemire

Art: Greg Smallwood

Marvel

Jeff Lemire is everywhere these days. From writing the Batman to Hawkeye to Old Man Logan and now, Moon Knight. Recent writers like Warren Ellis, Brian Wood and Cullen Bunn have moved the Moon Knight beyond a Batman rip off. Now, the man is rich, mad and compelling as hell as a character. Lemire picks up where the previous writers have left off – Marc Spector is trapped in an insane asylum, get beaten up by the guards, and Khonshu and the visions aren’t helping.

The art by Greg Smallwood, who also drew the Brian Wood run of the series, is excellent and well suited for this series. Read this together with The Badger by Mike Baron, another schizo hero that is one of the funniest series to read now.

(3.5 stars)