BATMAN: UNIVERSE by Brian Michael Bendis (Author), Nick Derington (Illustrator)

Published in 2020 by DC Comics.

Synopsis

Riddler has stolen a Faberge Egg from the local museum. It looks like it's a throwback caper - the kind of thing Batman has been dealing with since the Adam West TV show days.

But, something is off about the case from the beginning. Riddler's riddle is just basic. Alfred calls it "so disappointing." Batman determines that Riddler was "being used" to pull of this crime and now he's got two mysteries to solve - find the egg and find out what's going on with The Riddler...

My Review

I really enjoyed this graphic novel. It literally went all over the place in both space and time. Batman interacts with a number of fellow supers - both heroes and villains. Their interactions are often funny and show good insight to their characters. It's a good story and a lot of fun. Plus, the art is very clear and easy to follow.

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

BATMAN & ROBIN: BATMAN REBORN by Grant Morrison (Author), Frank Quitely (Illustrator), Philip Tan (Illustrator)

Published by DC Comics in 2011.

Goodreads Choice Award nominee.

Synopsis

Batman is dead. Nightwing (Dick Grayson) has returned to take over the role of Batman and mentoring the latest Robin, Damian Wayne. With the help of Alfred, Grayson is getting into the mindset of Batman and they are trying to gel into a team.

But, a crime wave sweeps the city in the form of new villains. While Robing and this new version of Batman struggle to counter the crime wave, Red Hood (former Robin Jason Todd) returns to Gotham to fight crime in his own over-the-top super-violent style. Red Hood has picked up a new vigilante sidekick, Scarlet, who is also a mutilated victim of the criminals Batman and Robin are hunting.

My Review

Batman Reborn is a victim of a couple gigantic missed opportunities.

Missed opportunity number one: an in-depth look at why Nightwing is taking over as Batman rather than just being Nightwing. If nothing else, it's a chance to restate the symbolic importance Batman has in Gotham.

Missed opportunity number two (and the bigger one by far): There are scenes with three Robins and a Robin stand-in. They are all interacting and somehow failing to talk about what they all have in common - being the most famous sidekick in comic history.

Red Hood's new outfit.

Red Hood's outfit was pretty nifty, with the exception of his helmet / face mask. I seriously thought that he was a new character (this graphic novel is full of them) called Red Pill when I saw him. Then I looked up the publication date and realized that "red pilled" was too new of a term  to be used in this book. To be fair to me, Red Hood is pretty danged red pilled. 

Anyway, Red Hood's helmet / face mask looks like the top half of a cold capsule. It makes no sense if you imagine someone's head actually fitting inside of this long narrow tube - unless Red Hood has the widest shoulders in the world and the helmet / mask just looks tiny in comparison (I'm talking Bane level of shoulders.)

What Red Hood's
headgear reminds me of.

The worst thing for me was that the graphic novel revels in being grotesque. Rather than having a mystery for Batman to solve, it deals in grime, grit, gruesome acts, with displays gratuitous and graphic violence. Rather than make a cohesive story line, the plan seems to be to have yet another unique character come to Gotham and commit more insane violence. 

Plus, the horrific act of violence committed by Professor Pyg is literally the same thing done by Joker in the first Michael Keaton Batman movie. No spoliers, but re-watch the movie and read the graphic novel and you will see it. Just me, but if you are going to have someone commit a series of grotesque atrocities, at least make them original grotesque atrocities. 

Note: I liked Damian Wayne in this one. Usually, I don't. 

I rate this graphic novel a generous 2 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Batman and Robin: Batman Reborn. 

SUPERMAN: AMERICAN ALIEN by Max Landis (Author), Francis Manapul (Artist), Jock (Artist), Jae Lee (Artist), Joelle Jones (Artist), Tommy Lee Edwards (Artist), Matthew Clark (Artist), Nick Dragotta (Artist), Jonathan Case (Artist)

Published by DC Comics in 2016.

Will Eisner Award Nomination – Best Writer

Synopsis

A team of different artists worked with writer Max Landis to come up with a different kind of Superman origin story in Superman: American Alien. It takes a few liberties with the traditional story and really focuses on Clark Kent and how he transitions from Smallville to Metropolis. 

Each story has a slightly different look and tells of an episode in his development, beginning with an elementary school aged Clark discovering that he can fly (but he cannot control it) and ending with Superman sporting an early version of the red trunks outfit confronting Lobo (Lobo was sent to get someone, but was pretty sloppily destroying chunks of Metropolis while doing so.)

The first draft of a
Superman outfit

My Review

Overall, I enjoyed this graphic novel. I didn't particularly enjoy the second story and the Lobo chapter for the same reason - they were disjointed and kind of hard to follow because they were trying to make the action go fast.

On the other hand, the story where young Clark Kent gets confused for young Bruce Wayne at a yacht party starts out weakly, but turns out very strong.

This story goes out of its way to get at the humanity of the man from Krypton. If you liked James Gunn's Superman movie, you will like this graphic novel.

I rate this graphic novel 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Superman: American Alien. 

BATMAN: DARK AGE by Mark Russell (Author), Michael Allred (Illustrator), Laura Allred (Illustrator)

Published in 2025 by DC Comics.

SYNOPSIS

Batman: Dark Age is a sequel of sorts to the award-nominated graphic novel Superman: Spage Age. I say of sorts because Superman: Space Age featured a multiverse problem and how a Superman in one multiverse dealt with it. I do believe that this universe is the universe of the second Superman in the original graphic novel. 

This graphic novel is told as the recollections on an elderly Bruce Wayne who is in the memory unit of an old age home.

It starts with a fairly typical Batman origin story, except that Bruce Wayne is not present when his parents die. Bruce Wayne grows up as an arrogant rich kid who ends up in jail. He is released on the condition that he joins the military during the Vietnam War. He joins an elite military unit led by colonel Ra's Al Ghul who teaches them the tactics of stealth warfare.

When Bruce Wayne returns, he finds a Gotham City ravaged by a drug epidemic and he decides to figure out what is going on...

MY REVIEW

This was a pretty intricate story and I appreciate the world building that went into it, but it simply lacked the drama and tension of Superman: Space Age. It was interesting, especially the origin story of Joker, but I will just rate this graphic novel 3 stars out of 5. 

This graphic novel can be found on Amazon.com here: Batman: Dark Age.

FREEDOM FIGHTERS: RISE of a NATION (graphic novel) by Robert Venditti (Author), Eddy Barrows (Illustrator)

Published in 2020 by DC Comics.

SYNOPSIS

Freedom Fighters takes place on Earth X - the part of the DC multiverse where the Nazis won World War II. In this case, Superman landed in 1930s Czechoslovakia and became part of the Nazi military machine. 

Not much can stand up to the might of Superman, so the Allies fell.

In the early 1960s the last bit of American resistance died when the last American superheroes were captured and later executed on live television. When Americans stop believing in freedom, Uncle Sam disappears from Earth and goes to a netherworld called The Heartland - the extradimensional realm of ideas.

The Nazis move their headquarters to the United States and use their genetically modified squad of SS men to terrorize the population. These new SS men have all taken an injection that shortens their lives but makes them into clones of the original Plasticman. They are know as PlaSSticmen. 

But, a new generation of superheroes is determined to reignite the spirit of freedom by starting a new resistance movement to push the Nazis out of America and eventually liberate the planet...

My Review

This graphic novel seems like a great idea, but the actual graphic novel leaves so many logic holes that it doesn't even make sense following its own comic book rules.

****Warning - lots and lots of spoilers.

The whole concept of Uncle Sam just fading away like a Star Wars force ghost only to return later has its own internal logic problems. He fades away on the night of the executions because the ENTIRE population of America loses its faith in the spirit of freedom. It has to be that the entire population 100% loses its faith because long after he has faded away he is stirred back to life by the belief of just a few people, much like Tinker Bell. 

Why did he ever disappear? He is powered by the people's belief in an American ideal. They can believe in these ideals even while they are under military occupation by a foreign power.

When Uncle Sam is awakened he laments that his friends have all died and been buried like he was. They are a lion (England), a bear (Russia), a fighting bull (Spain), a beaver (Canada), and so on.

Why are they all animals and if they are all animals, why isn't Uncle Sam an eagle, or at least be able to take the shape of an eagle? After all, the UK also has a human representation - John Bull.

Also, the artist's drawing of a fighting bull makes it clear that he has never laid eyes on a fighting bull. It looks more like a horse with elephant tusks coming from its head rather than the truly fierce-looking fighting bull.

Where is there no German character to take its place among Uncle Sam and the Russian bear and the Canadian beaver? Is this living avatar of a country's spirit only a thing that the Allies get? If that is the case, why would Spain have a fighting bull in this graveyard? After all, Spain was a nominal ally of the Axis powers during World War II (Spain stayed neutral because they were so weak after the Spanish Civil War that put the fascists in power that Hitler figured the Allies would invade Spain and use Spain to invade the rest of Europe. Hitler told them to lay low and join the Axis powers later.)

Why do all of the PlaSSticmen speak with a German accent? They are supposed to be American volunteers that turn into physical clones of the original Plasticman - why would they suddenly become Germans?

Why would the Nazis move their headquarters to the United States? They were turning Germany into a 1,000 year Reich to dominate the world from GERMANY. That was pretty much the point of starting World War II. 

*****End spoilers

I really was expecting a lot more from this graphic novel. The same writer wrote the Superman '78 series and I liked it quite a bit.

I rate this graphic novel 2 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Freedom Fighters: Rise of a Nation.

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. 

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.

SUPERMAN: SPACE AGE by by Mark Russell (Author), Michael Allred (Illustrator)

Published in 2023 by DC Comics.

2023 Eisner Nominee - Best Limited Series

2023 Eisner Nominee - Best Writer, Mark Russell

Synopsis

Superman: Space Age tells a slightly different Superman story. We join a late teen Superman helping his father on the farm in Smallville, Kansas in November of 1963. His father opens up about his rough experiences in World War II and talks to Clark about what a hero is. 

That same day, Kennedy is assassinated and Soviet-U.S. tensions climb so high that there is real fear that a nuclear war may start. Clark Kent takes to the air and flies to the Arctic in his overalls and work shirt to try to prevent World War III. But, his enthusiasm and inexperience nearly cause the war he is trying to prevent. Luckily, he is shot down by a pilot named Hal Jordan.

Clark Kent awakens to find the Fortress of Solitude.

This book tracks Superman from 1963 to 1985. As time goes on we add Bruce Wayne, Lex Luthor, Wonder Woman, and the rest of the Justice League. We get a lot of Lois Lane as she demonstrates heroism in a non-superhero way. 

News events that we are all familiar with come into the story, such as the Civil Rights movement. But, that all changes when Lex Luthor gets a couple of nuclear weapons and actually uses them...

Nice advice from Mr. Kent

My Review

There are a lot of clever things done in this graphic novel. The Batman/Bruce Wayne setup is very well done, with Bruce Wayne and Batman actually seemingly being on different wavelengths throughout the book (for example, Bruce Wayne funds the Hall of Justice but Batman stomps out of the group for a while.)

The solution to the major crisis of the book (surprisingly, it is not Lex Luthor's foray into nuclear weapons) is quite clever and I did not see it coming until the very end. It was a very different way for Superman to be a hero and save the world.

Nitpicking note: The book starts with Clark Kent and his father baling hay in Kansas in NOVEMBER. As a person who has put up hay (much like they were doing in the graphic novel) in Indiana, I can guarantee you that no one is baling hay in the midwest in November. It's always done in the summer and always seems to happen on the hottest day you can imagine. The heat has nothing to do with it, it's just the bad luck of everyone that is putting up hay. The only time I ever had heat stroke-type of event was when I was putting up hay on what had to be the hottest day of the year when I was in high school. It wasn't full blown heat stroke, but I was well on my way.

I rate this graphic novel 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Superman: Space Age

Nice quotes from the book: 

"As Americans we talk about being American as if we all agree on what that means. But the truth is that some judge truth and justice by how well they support the American Way while others judge the American Way by how well it stands up for truth and justice."

"The people who do the most good in this world are not the strongest, the smartest, the most prepared, but simply those who show up."

STAR WARS: LEGACY of VADER - THE REIGN of KYLO REN, VOLUME 1 by Charles Soule (Author), Luke Ross (Illustrator), Stefano Raffaele (Illustrator), Derrick Chew (Cover Art)

Published in 2025 by Marvel Universe.

Synopsis

Legacy of Vader is set between Episode VIII and Episode IX. Kylo Ren was embarrassed by Luke Skywalker at the end of Episode VIII, but he has still consolidated control of The First Order.

This collection consists of six installments, each describing the consolidation of his power or his investigation into the pre-Vader life of Anakin Skywalker. He is looking into his grandfather's life because he wants to really know what made Vader so powerful.

So, Ren travels to Mustafar, Tatooine, and Naboo with Vader's former bodyservant leading the way.

My Review

Kylo Ren's style as he takes over The First Order is ridicuously flamboyment. For example, he demands that Hux (his main rival for control of The First Order) build him a proper throne, But then, he heads off to study Darth Vader and leaves everything behind for weeks and weeks. Hux hates him with a passion and Kylo Ren should have been aware that being gone for all of that time is just asking for trouble.

Oddly, Hux just uses that time to do nothing to secure his own alternate power sources in The First Order. Instead, he just builds Kylo Ren's throne. Hux is nothing in this story but a toady, not the conniving monster shown in the movies.

The fifth installment in this series is simply bizarre. It makes no sense - just some sort of ego stroking on the part of Kylo Ren. It's completely bizarre behavior.

I rate this graphic novel 3 stars out of 5 (barely.) It can be found on Amazon.com here: Star Wars: Legacy of Vader - The Reign of Kylo Ren, Volume 1. 

LUCAS WARS: THE TRUE STORY of GEORGE LUCAS and the CREATION of STAR WARS (graphic novel) by Renaud Roche (Author), Laurent Hopman (Author), Jeremy Melloul (Translator)

Published in 2025 by 23rd Street.

Lucas Wars is the story of how the first Star Wars movie came to be made. I've read and seen videos on this story before, but I found this graphic novel to be particularly entertaining and informative. I also really enjoyed the illustrations - they are a simple style but capture the look of the real people involved in the story and the scenes from the movie(s).

It starts with George Lucas in high school and ends with the negotiations for The Empire Strikes Back. The story includes the horrible car accident that made him get serious, his film school education, the making of THX 1138 and American Graffiti, his marriage, and the many, many revisions of what would become Star Wars.

I mention the revisions because he had so many of them. His first scripts would have been so long and so complicated that if they had been made into movies they would have been trilogies. Lucas's friends and his wife encouraged him to keep trimming down the story and focusing it. 

20th Century Fox kept getting updated scripts that were radically different and they started to doubt - and they kept doubting until the movie started to fill theaters and became the phenomenon that older Star Wars fans remember. 

I rate this graphic novel 5 stars out of 5. Highly recommended for any Star Wars fan.

This graphic novel can be found here: Lucas Wars: The True Story of George Lucas and the Creation of Star Wars.

STAR WARS: DARK DROIDS (graphic novel) by Charles Soule (Author), Luke Ross (Illustrator), Leinil Yu (Cover Art)

Published by Marvel Universe in 2024.

Star Wars: Dark Droids is a collection of the first five comics in an extensive Dark Droids story arc. 

The basic story goes likes this: A group of Imperial droids and soldiers encounter a self-aware droid in the form of a tiny disc. This would be between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. The disc attaches itself to an imperial droid and takes it over. Then it takes over another droid and another and another. 

The self-aware droid is known as The Scourge. It quickly spreads through both Imperial and Rebel forces - even taking over C3PO!

As it spreads, it tries to bring together a union of droid and organics in order to truly be able to control the galaxy. When it discovers that the force exists and can only be controlled by biologics, it redoubles its efforts. Then, it discovers that there is a a force user that is already a mixture of organic and mechanical parts - Darth Vader.

My Review

I liked the idea of this story, but it has a basic problem - this threat is so big that it threatens to overthrow both the Empire and the Rebels at the same time. It is a bigger threat to each of them than they are to each other. It is like a virus that spreads quickly and could literally kill everyone. 

Yet, there is no mention of any of this immense threat and the trauma it would cause in Episode VI. 

I appreciate the difficulty of creating a story arc that fills in the middle of two movies that were made more than 40 years before that poses enough of a threat to the main characters to make it interesting, but you can't actually hurt them too much. For example, we know that The Scourge doesn't effect Princess Leia because she is alive, intact, and healthy in Episode VI. 

*****Spoiler Alert*****

The Scourge is so big and so dangerous that it actually kidnaps Darth Vader when he is out of his suit receiving medical treatment on Mustafar. If it is that much of a threat, it would have actually changed the events of Episode VI. Everyone would have scrapped their droids out of fear.

*****End Spoilers******

To sum up, nice idea, but the bad guy is overpowered and it is poorly placed in the timeline. I really liked the art, though.

I rate this graphic novel 2 stars out of 5. I am NOT reading other parts of the collection. This graphic novel can be found on Amazon.com here: Star Wars: Dark Droids.

FORT SOLITUDE (DC COMICS: SECRET HERO SOCIETY #2) by Derek Fridolfs and Dustin Nguyen

Published in 2017 by Scholastic

Synopsis

The DC Comics Secret Hero Society series s a re-imagining of the DC universe with a comic twist. 

The first book in this series featured a Hogwarts-type school where only children with special talents are invited. Young Bruce Wayne suspects that there is more going on in the school than meets the eye and his new friends Clark Kent and Diana Prince join him to investigate.

Fort Solitude is book 2 in the series. The trio are invited to a special summer camp. They notice that this camp has an off vibe. Then, campers start to disappear. And, there are constant warnings about a scarecrow that stalks the woods at night.

The trio adds in a kid that runs really, really fast, a kid that wins every target shooting contest, and a kid with robotic implants - Flash, Green Arrow, and Cyborg. Clark also finds a journal with detailed notes from a girl that attended a previous session of this same summer camp - Lois Lane.

Using the clues from Lois' notebook, the campers investigate the camp and work together to figure out what is going on.

My Review

This was a fun read, but it's basically the same plot as the first book in this series. I liked the first book pretty well, but it just seemed cheesy to do the same plot twice in a row.

I rate this graphic novel 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Fort Solitude (DC Comics Secret Hero Society #2).

K IS in TROUBLE by Gary Clement

Published in 2024 by Little, Brown Ink.

An NPR Best Book of the Year.

K is a 10-12 year old boy living in an unknown European city in what appears to be the late 1800s. K Is in Trouble is a graphic novel that tells of his misadventures. 

In a series of stories, K runs into trouble with a talking fish, he meets a talking insect, and finds an intelligent crow. But, his real difficulties are with adults who don't listen. The adults at school don't listen, the police don't listen, the mayor doesn't listen, and his parents especially don't listen. 

I liked the art, but the stories were so-so. The last story is the best by far. 

I rate this graphic novel 3 stars out of 5. Not bad, not great.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: K Is in Trouble by Gark Klement. 

WITCHY (graphic novel) by Ariel Slamet Ries

Originally published in 2019.

Witchy started out as a highly acclaimed webcomic that has since been printed as a graphic novel on high quality paper. 

Witchy is set in a world where magic exists and the length on a person's hair determines the power of the magic user. The kingdom of Hyalin uses magic users to enforce its regime. They train young users in an academy with the goal of providing magic users as soldiers in the elite Witch Guard. The Witch Guard fights external enemies and tamps down internal dissent with brutal, often lethal force.

The graphic novel has a lot of positive things:

-The drawings are clean, crisp, and very clear. The art is great.

-The characters all easy to differentiate from one another (sometimes artists makes a lot of characters that look alike).

-There are several great characters, especially the raven familiar.

But, there are negative things as well:

-The ground rules of the universe are not explained well. This graphic novel deserved an written introduction page, much like the famed scrolling text in the Star Wars movies. It would have benefitted from even a few sentences, like the three sentences at the beginning of James Gunn's Superman movie. The back cover of the book provides some necessary information, but not enough.

-Because the ground rules were not explained well, I often was somewhat confused and did not understand the actual stakes involved in some dramatic scenes.

-Interesting story lines are developed and then dropped in an effort to move the story along. In particular, I am thinking about the characters in the school and how they relate to the main character, Nyneve. It didn't help to move the story along when this reader was still trying to understand the basic rules of this world. Remaining in the school longer would have allowed more character development and let the reader learn more of the ground rules.

I rate this graphic novel 3 stars out of 5. Not bad, but it seems like it was a missed opportunity to be so much more.

This graphic novel can be found on Amazon.com here: Witchy by Ariel Slamet Ries.

WE LIVE HERE: DETROIT EVICTION DEFENSE and the BATTLE for HOUSING JUSTICE (graphic novel) by Jeffrey Wilson and Bambi Kramer

Published in 2024 by Seven Stories Press.

The 2008 Financial Crisis and the Great Recession that followed led to a myriad number of local problems all over the United States. In some places, major projects slowed or stopped. In others, manufacturing came almost to a halt. In others, there were so many subprime mortgages issued in that area that the housing market practically collapsed.

Detroit is famously home to tons of auto-related factories and they all slowed dramatically. It was so bad during the Great Recession that the American auto industry had to be bailed out by the federal government. Those job losses left the Detroit economy in a shambles.

On top of that, Detroit was one of the places with simply too many subprime mortgages. It wouldn't have been a problem if Detroit's economy didn't have any hiccups. The problem is that the Great Recession was much, much more than a hiccup - it was like a financial bomb went off in the city.

This graphic novel details the financial troubles that Detroit faced and how many of the subprime loan programs worked, including government supports that simply dried up when the property tax started to dry up. All of these led to an eviction of foreclosure crisis that snowballed across the city.

The best part of the book are the stories of neighbors banding together to prevent foreclosures. They literally blocked streets and called banks day and night urging them to negotiate with their mortgage customers. This should have been a no-brainer - the banks already had a glut of homes in the same neighborhoods. When too many homes are for sale, the prices are driven down so low that the banks may never get their money back. 

I do like the idea behind this book - using the graphic novel format to preserve local history. It was a lot more interesting than reading an article about the topic. It was quite effective in telling the story of neighbors that defended their homes because, as the title says, "We live here!"

I did have one complaint - the simple pencil illustrations are fine, but some of the characters look the same and it was hard to tell whose story we were reading about.

I rate this graphic novel 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: WE LIVE HERE: DETROIT EVICTION DEFENSE and the BATTLE for HOUSING JUSTICE by Jeffrey Wilson and Bambi Kramer.

SUPERMAN / WONDER WOMAN VOLUME 2: WAR and PEACE (graphic novel) by Charles Soule

Written by Charles Soule
Art by Tony S. Daniel

Published in 2015 by DC Comics

Synopsis

Superman has fought and defeated Doomsday, but during the fight he was infected with a Doomsday virus of some sort that is slowly merging into his genetic code and changing him into Doomsday.

Superman can hold it off simply by will and the sheer strength of being Superman, but Earth-based planetary defenses have released Kryptonite into the air around the world to drive the Superman/Doomsday hybrid away. Good enough, except that Brainiac has unleashed an attack on Earth and the Justice League really needs Superman's help...

My Review

This graphic novel was confusing and unnecessarily complicated. It seemed like it was an attempt to bring every possible character into the story and it was missing a key component - the fight with Doomsday.

The reason for that is simple - the story of that fight is not included in the Superman / Wonder Woman series. It is actually in a stand-alone volume called Superman: Doomed. The Doomed book is actually part of 3 or 4 different DC Comics story lines that all come together to meet in that story. However, there is no reference to the existence of that volume anywhere in the Superman / Wonder Woman cover art or in a prologue. They simply did not tell the reader that they should have read another story first.

That means this reader went in blind and felt like I was playing catch up the entire time. 

This quote from my review of Volume 1 of this series certainly applies to this volume in spades:

Almost everything about this story feels rushed. It's as if Soule had a 12 or 13 comic's worth of story that he had to tell in just 7 comics. Even worse, the story keeps gliding back and forth in time in a series of flashbacks that are labeled with a little blue box at the top of the first page of the current flashback. "Two hours ago." "Eight hours ago." "Now." They bounce around so much that it just confuses an already rushed story. Also, it ruins the drama because when they are in the "Now" timeline you can see how it all ends up.

I rate this graphic novel 1 star out of 5. Too many flashbacks, too rushed, and, most importantly, they should have told the reader that they were missing a key element of the story if they didn't read a stand alone volume. 

The Superman / Wonder Woman series continues on, but it continues without me.

This graphic novel can be found on Amazon.com here: Superman / Wonder Woman Volume 2: War and Peace.

SUPERMAN / WONDER WOMAN, Volume 1: Power Couple (graphic novel) by Charles Soule

Published in 2014 by DC Comics.

Written by Charles Soule.

Art by Tony S. Daniel

Synopsis

In the New 52 reboot of the DC universes we have a world where Superman and Wonder Woman are secretly dating. They are working through their relationship, dealing with cultural differences, a massive age difference, and the fact that a lot of her Greek god family basically hates him because he is a commoner, despite his extraordinary powers.

As part of larger plot to escape from the Phantom Zone, General Zod released Doomsday. Doomsday, you may remember, is the creature that killed Superman in the "Death of Superman" series back in 1992. This is one of  the first appearances of Doomsday in the New 52 reboot and he is as fearsome as ever. 

Meanwhile, Clark Kent's partner in an online publishing venture (Cat Grant) publishes an exclusive video that she received from an anonymous source. It shows Superman and Wonder Woman making out and suddenly they are the "it" couple around the world.

My Review

This summer I discovered Charles Soule and took full advantage of the library to read as much of his stuff as I could. Most of it is pretty good, but I cannot say the same of this collection. 

Almost everything about this story feels rushed. It's as if Soule had a 12 or 13 comic's worth of story that he had to tell in just 7 comics. Even worse, the story keeps gliding back and forth in time in a series of flashbacks that are labeled with a little blue box at the top of the first page of the current flashback. "Two hours ago." "Eight hours ago." "Now." They bounce around so much that it just confuses an already rushed story. Also, it ruins the drama because when they are in the "Now" timeline you can see how it all ends up. 

I rate this story 3 stars out of 5. There are moments of quality stuff here, including a scene between the Greek god Apollo and Superman that did not turn out the way that Apollo had hoped.

But, not enough.

This graphic novel can be found on Amazon.com here: Superman / Wonder Woman, Volume 1: Power Couple.