STAR TREK / LEGION of SUPER-HEROES by by Chris Roberson (Author), Jeffrey Moy (Artist)

Published in 2013 by IDW Publishing.

Synopsis

In one universe, a team from the DC Comic's Legion of Super-Heroes are travelling through time (as they do), returning from another successful mission.

In another universe, the crew of the Enterprise NCC-1701 is safely in spacedock above Earth, looking to get in a little maintenance and shore leave. The bridge crew is beaming down to San Francisco together.

Suddenly, a space/time event happens (as it does from time to time on Star Trek) and the two groups find themselves in a different universe where Earth is the home planet for an evil galactic empire with a familiar face as its leader.

Brainiac 5 and Spock meet and come up with the science to make things right - but it will require a lot of luck and the kind of derring-do that a team of superheroes and Star Fleet officers just might be able to pull off...

My Review

Star Trek / Legion of Superheroes was a fun kind of throw away story. I didn't get the inside jokes and comments from the DC Comics side of things because I was, until I read this graphic novel, completely unaware of the Legion of Super-Heroes. I am sure I had seen their name before, but I figured they were just a repackaging of other, more well-known superheroes into yet another combination with a new name. 

I was kind of surprised that Star Trek let their first team of characters be included in a graphic novel that included less well-known characters. Let's face it, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy have been the face of Star Trek for 60 years. In their franchise, they have to be the equivalent to at least an appearance by Batman, Superman, or Wonder Woman. Maybe even Flash or Green Lantern. 

Still, it was an okay read. Not amazing, not bad.

I rate this graphic novel 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: STAR TREK / LEGION of SUPER-HEROES by by Chris Roberson (Author), Jeffrey Moy (Artist)

PLANET of the APES: VISIONARIES (graphic novel) by Rod Serling (Author), Dana Gould (Author), Pierre Boulle (Creator), Paolo Rivera Chad Lewis (Illustrator)

Published in 2018 by BOOM! Studios.

When I was a kid the local independent TV station used to show movies on the weekends. They showed lots and lots of different movies, but they had a few movies that they showed on what must have been a regular schedule. One of those was the Clint Eastwood spaghetti Western franchise that began with The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Another was the Planet of the Apes movie franchise. 

I liked the Clint Eastwood movies, but 8 year old me was enthralled at the sight of the gorilla militia soldiers on horseback with the assault rifles. They blew my mind! And the Statue of Liberty ending! Wow! Cool gorillas and a blow your mind ending! Plus, Zira and Cornelius were so smart and so funny! I was hooked!

It didn't bother me that the rest of the series failed to live up to the first movie - I watched them all whenever I could. 

The original novel has parts that are similar to the original movie except that the ape world is modern with cars, planes, televisions, and the like. In the book the astronaut is not shocked by the sight of the ruins of the Statue of Liberty. Instead, he is startled by the sight of the ruins of the Eiffel Tower.

This graphic novel follows the original script that Rod Serling wrote for the Planet of the Apes movie. The original plot to the first Planet of the Apes movie was much more like the book (but it was the still has the Statue of Liberty at the end.) They had to change the movie quite a bit due to budgetary restrictions. This was a pre-CGI world - if you wanted a modern city full of apes, you would have to make all of those expensive costumes for all of those paid actors. This was simply not going to happen in the budget for some wild science fiction movie with monkey outfits.

If you like the first and third movies in the original movie series, you will enjoy this graphic novel. I enjoyed it thoroughly. 

I rate this graphic novel 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: PLANET of the APES: VISIONARIES.

WASHINGTON'S GAY GENERAL: THE LEGENDS and LOVES of BARON von STEUBEN (graphic novel) by Josh Trujillo (Author), Levi Hastings (Illustrator)

Published in 2023 by Harry N. Abrams.

If you are a student of the American Revolution, you know who Baron von Steuben was. His complete name was Friedrich Wilhelm August Heinrich Ferdinand Freiherr von Steuben, and the title of Baron was most likely an exaggeration. 

If you are unfamiliar, he was a European military officer who was sort of bumming around Europe looking for a gig. He had been with the Prussian military for 17 years and had done well for himself, working his way up to the point where he was an aide-de-camp to Frederick the Great of Prussia. He had worked on creating a unit that might be considered a percurser to today's special forces because of its intense training.

But, court politics pushed him out.

Part of Benjamin Franklin's mission to France was to find competent military officers to come to the newly formed United States and help Washington create an army out of the volunteers. Sometimes, Franklin got swindled, but with Baron von Steuben he got an officer who was way better than anyone expected.

Baron von Steuben was the real deal. He found Washington during that horrible winter at Valley Forge and was appointed the Inspector General of the Continental Army. He went to work and helped train the men he found there into an actual respectable army. He cleaned up the camp based on what he knew from multiple campaigns as part of the Prussian army - latrines, organized cooking areas, standards for cleanliness, etc. 

Then, he trained the men how to properly handle take verbal commands, march, handle their weapons, fire artillery, and more. He wrote the actual handbook that the U.S. military used, at least in part, for the nearly 70 years.

All while not speaking a word of English. Also, all while being gay.

Yes, there have been gays in the U.S. military since the beginning. Baron von Steuben and his entourage of young men (who translated for the Baron) came in and got the U.S. army straight (pun intended.)

This graphic novel biography of the Baron does a thorough job of telling the details of his life, but does not gloss over his sexuality since it is an important part of his career in the Prussian military (there were a lot of gay leaders in what was undoubtedly the most powerful military in Europe at the time) and the reason he was released from a position he held with the tiny Principality of Hohenzollern-Hechingen (they were not so fond of homosexuality) right before he headed for America. 

The graphic novel often becomes an exploration of being gay in the 1700s and 1800s. At first, this irritated me a bit. I was wanting to get into the story of Baron von Steuben and the Continental Army much quicker. 

But, when I looked back at it, I realized that I learned about a lot of people that I had no idea were gay and that, for some of them, this was a major news to me -a a person that has actively read history for decades. For example, young Frederick the Great of Prussia and John and Abigail Adams' son Charles. In the case of Charles. I knew that he had died at the age of 30, but what I had read described Charles as just a hopeless drunk that died from alcoholism.

This graphic novel implies that Charles Adams died from a broken heart because his father forcibly ended his relationship with the son of Hercules Mulligan (featured in the musical Hamilton) when a bit of research told me that he likely died from a lung infection like TB.

I was going to rate this graphic novel 4 stars out of 5 because it kept wandering away from the topic of Baron von Steuben. But, I learned so much when the book did this that I realized that that what I thought was an annoying waste of time was actually very educational. I rate this graphic novel 5 stars out of 5.

This graphic novel can be found on Amazon.com here: Washington's Gay General: The Legends and Loves of Baron von Steuben.

BATMAN: THE CULT (graphic novel) by Jim Starlin (Author), Bernie Wrightson (Illustrator)

Originally published in 1988 by DC Comics. 
Republished in 2024 by DC Comics.

Synopsis

The homeless in Gotham are disapearing and Batman investigates in Batman: The Cult. As he moves into the sewers, he is taken captive by a mysterious man named Deacon Blackfire, a a man who was operating on the surface with a ministry designed to help the homeless and downtrodden in Gotham's worse neighborhoods.

Of course, that was a cover. It turns out that Blackfire is an ancient man who has lived in the shadows in an around Gotham for centuries.  He is powerfully charismatic. When combined with traditional brainwashing techniques, even the strongest of personalities break and fall under his sway. He has an army of the city's forgotten people eager to inflict their version of justice on Gotham City, including Batman himself!

As the city's leaders fall prey to vicious attacks it is up to Alfred and Robin to retrace Batman's steps, save Batman, and save the city...

My Review

I've read some unispired graphic novels this summer (summertime is graphic novel time for DWD's Reviews), but I found this one to be a pretty tight story that worked. It gets off to a befuddled start, but once it gets going it's well worth reading. 

Bonus: the modification of the Batmobile into a monster truck was a lot of fun - and it made sense!

I rate this graphic novel 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Batman: The Cult. 

THE MOON IS DOWN (audiobook) by John Steinbeck

Originally published in 1942.
Audiobook originally published in 1999.
Read by George Guidall
Duration: 3 hours, 42 minutes.
Unabridged.

John Steinbeck's The Moon Is Down is about the Nazi German invasion of Norway even though none of the countries involved is ever named and the names of the characters are generic names that you would find in any American town.

This is the story of a small town that is taken over by a small part of the German army led by a colonel. The town is important because it has a coal mine and a port and the colonel's job is to keep the coal moving out to Germany as fast as possible.

The book is not about the village fighting back, as in we do not see armed partisans attacking Germans in the streets (you do hear about them, though.) Instead, it is a discussion of the nature of humankind in the midst of the tragedy of war.

This sounds like it would be a boring book, but I found it to be interesting and engrossing. I recommend it highly.

I give this book a rating of 5 stars. It can be found on Amazon.com here: The Moon Is Down by John Steinbeck. 

STAR WARS LEGENDS: BOBA FETT - BLOOD TIES by multiple authors and illustrators.

Published in 2021 by Marvel.

Blood Ties is a graphic novel collection of Boba Fett stories orginally published from 1997 to 2010.

For me, the best of the collection is the title story. It is also the longest story by far. In this story, Jango Fett is hired to kill one of the clones that was created from him because it has gone AWOL and started a family. 

Jango Fett kills the clone and then discovers that he has a son. 

Much later, Boba Fett is given a job to find a man named Connor Freeman - the child of that clone when he is all grown up. It turns out that Jango Fett has been providing a stipend for the child ever since he executed his father. Boba Fett decides to protect Freeman and figure out what is going on for himself while still fulfilling the contract.

The rest of the stories pretty much fall along the line of telling a story in which Boba Fett is really cool because he is a heartless tough guy. Personally, I prefer a story more like the Disney+ Book of Boba Fett show where the heartless villain shows a bit of heart and finds himself doing the right thing in his own heartless and villainous way. 

I rate this collection 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Star Wars Legends: Boba Fett - Blood Ties.

THE LITTLE BOOK of WREXHAM AFC edited by Mark Pearson

Published by OH in 2023.

I am a fan of the Hulu/Disney+ documentary show Welcome to Wrexham. If you are not familiar with the show, Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bought a professional soccer team in Wales. 

In the U.K. there are multiple levels of pro soccer, kind of like professional baseball in the U.S. But, there is a difference - in the U.S. if your team loses or wins, they stay at their league. In the U.K., teams at the bottom of the rankings drop down a level and teams at the top of the rankings move up.

Reynolds and McElhenney bought a team that had dropped pretty low in the rankings with the determination to make the investments to push the team up as high as it would go. Meanwhile, they would document the whole thing for Americans to watch. 

This is not a review of the documentary which just concluded its fifth season, though. Instead, this a review of this little book of more than 170 quotes and facts based on the show, the team, and the town of Wrexham. The book was published after the second season, so it seems a bit dated.

It's an easy read, but not an amazing one. I rate this book 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: THE LITTLE BOOK of WREXHAM AFC edited by Mark Pearson.