Weekly Comic Reviews - 27 Jan 2016

Ratings out of 5 stars. The mainstream stuff is available at Absolute Comics (Plaza Singapura).

ODY-C #9

Story: Matt Fraction

Art: Christian Ward

Image Comics

So Matt Fraction wants to write his version of The Odyssey for his young daughter to read. I doubt that will happen anytime soon as this is some badass take on that old Homer yarn. Things are turned around as the gender of the heroes and villains are reversed and the whole odyssey thing takes place in space. I found the first few issues hard to follow if you do not have detailed knowledge of the original text, but Christian Ward's splashes more than make up for it. Fraction continues his panel layout innovations from Hawkeye. Some said it's nothing new if you have read Chris Ware and all. But if you steal from the best and bring it to a new mainstream/superhero/SF audience, that's not a bad thing.

(4 stars)

Justice League 3001 #8

Story: Keith Giffen and JM DeMatteis

Art: Scott Kolins

DC Comics

Reviewed #6 in the 25 Nov 2015 column. And what a difference 2 issues made. The tone of the book now is way more sombre. Giffen and DeMatteis seem to have decided to do away with the jokey feel and made this like a sequel to The New 52: Futures End, which Giffen was one of the writers. With an all female cast (Wonder Woman, Flash, Supergirl, Green Lantern, Batgirl, Fire and Ice), this is DC's answer to Marvel's The A-Force. Looks promising. Scott Kolins' art has a new sheen to it.

(3.5 stars)

Chai Masala

Story/Art: Christian Cailleaux

Christian Cailleaux one of the guests at last year’s Singapore Writers’ Festival. He has visited Singapore before and drew a strip called Singapore Sling back in 2013. He did not have any of his graphic novels in English for sale, so he cleverly put the translated Chai Masala on a thumb drive and sold that. I bought one from him and only had the chance to read it recently. It’s a charming travelogue told in the form of a detective story. (shades of Paul Auster and Jerome Charyn?) Christian’s alter ego, Felix Mogo, is being tasked to find a ‘lost’ captain of a ship in India. Chai Masala is filled with pages of train rides, mysterious Indian dreams and echoes of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince. The story has a dream-like quality.

Given that he had a long stay in Singapore after SWF, one wonders if Christian will do a travelogue about his time in Singapore and other parts of Southeast Asia.

(3.5 stars)

Deadpool & Cable: Split Second #2

Story: Fabian Nicieza and Reilly Brown

Art: Reilly Brown

Marvel Comics

Strictly for the fans and cashing in on the impending release of the movie. The good thing is this new series marks the return of Fabian Nicieza, the co-creator of Deadpool and it teams the ‘Merc with a Mouth’ with Cable again. Way back in The New Mutants #98 (Feb 1991), the first appearance of Deadpool had him being sent to kill Cable. The two became buddies and starred in a series together, also written by Nicieza. Not bad for a character that was created as a spoof of Deathstroke… Lots of time traveling in this story and the cover pays tribute to that Michael J Fox movie.

(3 stars)