BATMAN - ONE BAD DAY: CLAYFACE (graphic novel) by Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing

Published by DC Comics in 2023.

Written by Collin Keely and Jackson Lanzing.

Art by Xermánico and Romulo Fajardo, Jr.

Synopsis

Clayface has moved away from Gotham City and has gone to Hollywood to be a movie star. The original Clayface character from 1940 comic where he premiered was a B movie actor named Basil Karlo.

Basil Karlo is working as a waiter in Batman - One Bad Day: Clayface while trying to make it big in Hollywood. He's diligent about everything, but he does not have a light comic touch that is called for in romantic comedies. His roommate does, however. When they both read for the same part it becomes a problem when the roommate gets the part and Basil Karlo doesn't.

Being Clayface means you can make yourself look like anyone - at least for a little while. Clayface kills the roommate and then assumes his shape so he can get his big Hollywood break. And then one murder leads to another. And another. And another. And another and so on.

Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne is in town trying to sell a studio on the idea of filming a movie on location in Gotham City...

My Review

Batman in Hollywood was a little ridiculous, but I liked the way the story made a nod to the original roots of Clayface. At one point the story takes on aspects of a dark comedy as Clayface keeps on taking over the lives of more and more people while trying to keep it all hidden.

I also loved the nod to the really well-done episode of Batman: The Animated Series called Beware the Gray Ghost. Bruce Wayne is in town to discuss the filming of this movie because the Gray Ghost was a childhood favorite and one of the inspirations for Batman. 

I rate this graphic novel 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Batman - One Bad Day: Clayface.

FREE FALL (Elvis Cole #4) (audiobook) by Robert Crais

Originally published in book form in 1993.

Published as an audiobook in 2008 by Brilliance Audio.

Read by Mel Foster.

Duration: 8 hours, 13 minutes.

Unabridged.

I found the Elvis Cole novels years ago, but somehow I have been reading them as a I found them rather than trying to trying to read them in chronological order. So, here I am going back more than thirty years to book 4 out of a 20+ book series, depending on how you count some of Crais' other books.

Synopsis

Like all classic detective novels, in Free Fall we find our intrepid main character in his office when a beautiful young lady enters looking for help with a desperate problem. 

This young woman is concerned about her fiance. He is a relatively young member of LAPD and part of a rapid reaction team because he is a promising young officer. When crime pops up in a neighborhood - such as new gang activity or more drug sales or a series of home invasions, this team is sent out to supplement regular officers in the neighborhood.

She is worried that her fiance has changed. He has become secretive and closed off and he never was that way before he joined this rapid reaction team. Elvis agrees to start looking into things and it turns out that the police don't really like it when they are being investigated...

My Review

This is a good story all around. Lots of smart comments from Elvis Cole and we get to learn more about his partner Joe Pike and his background. 

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Free Fall by Robert Crais.

THE GILDED AGE: A HISTORY from BEGINNING to END (kindle) by Hourly History

Published in 2019 by Hourly History.

What is popularly known as The Gilded Age (roughly from 1870 to 1900) was more than just an era of ostentatious wealth contrasted with crushing poverty. It was mostly a time if immense cultural and technological change and could easily be considered the beginnings of the modern world.

This short e-book does a first-rate job of giving the broad strokes of the amazing breadth of changes - changes to communication with the telephone, to transportation with the increased number of trains, but also with the invention of the automobile. Steel became a common construction material and the first skyscraper was built. 

None of this industrialization came smoothly, though. The United States went from being an overwhelmingly agrarian society where people worked on family farms or plantations (free, slave, or sharecropper) to being mostly working at paid positions in factories, stores, etc. 

On top of that, a record amount of immigrants came to the United States, among them millions of people from areas of Europe that Americans weren't used to hearing or seeing with different religions. Meanwhile, out in the western states it was the time commonly known as the Old West. The Indians were being rounded up and forced on reservations so that farmers and ranchers could use the land.

The point of this book series is to provide a history that you can read in about an hour. This one packs a lot of information in one tiny volume.

I rate this e-book 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: The Gilded Age: A History from Beginning to End.

BOUND for CANAAN: THE EPIC STORY of the UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, AMERICA'S FIRST CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT (audiobook) by Fergus Bordewich

Published by Harper Audio.

Read by the author, Fergus Bordewich.

Duration: 5 hours, 29 minutes.

Abridged.

The abridged version of Bound for Canaan hits the highlights of the Underground Railroad movement, but leaves quite a bit out. This is a radically abridged audiobook - fourteen hours of a nineteen hour audiobook were cut out - more than 70% of the book. I did not realize how much it had been abridged until I had already listened to it.

What remains is solid, but more of traditional hero study. The reader learns about the Quakers, Levi Coffin and Harriet Tubman and a few other stalwarts of the movement. Frederick Douglass shows up as an example of the Underground Railroad in action. There is a nod to the importance of women in the movement and how that led to the Women's Suffrage movement. 

The book goes off track a bit when it comes to John Brown of Bleeding Kansas fame. Brown did participate in the Underground Railroad movement, but the book follows him to the Kansas and the violence that he committed there as an abolitionist. It follows with a detailed re-telling of John Brown's attempt to instigate a slave rebellion by seizing the national armory at Harper's Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia).

While these are all things that Brown did, he did them separately from the actions of the Underground Railroad. I know that the author was trying to tie the Underground Railroad to the political climate that led to the Civil War and the eventual liberation of the slaves, but this was clunky. I am going to blame it on the extreme abridgment of the book.

What was left after the abridgement wasn't bad, but it wasn't anything that was groundbreaking, either.

I rate this abridged audiobook 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Bound for Canaan: The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad, America's First Civil Rights Movement. 

BATMAN - ONE BAD DAY: RA'S al GHUL (graphic novel) by Tom Taylor

Published in 2023 by DC Comics

Written by Tom Taylor

Art by Ivan Reis, Danny Miki, and Brad Anderson

Synopsis

The One Bad Day series looks at individual top level Batman villains (If you are a fan of Bootface, sorry) and gives them a comic that focuses on just that villain. 

In Batman - One Bad Day: Ra's al Ghul we encounter a newly brought back to life Ra's al Ghul. He looks at the current state of the world - a world with just a few corporate oligarchs controlling the media, manufacturing, shipping, etc. and decides to take action. 

When Batman notices the odd string of deaths Bruce Wayne's corporate peers, he decides to start investigating (the "World's Greatest Detective" actually does some detecting!). Ra's al Ghul lashes out to deter the investigation, and he goes after what Batman values most...

My Review

As I write this review, I want to be clear that I am not a fan of the Ra's al Ghul character, but his goals in this graphic novel made for an interesting read. I know that this is a DC Comic, but I have a Marvel comment to make. I've heard it said that the MCU movie villains have a point, but their way of dealing with the situation is over-the-top. For example, Thanos notices that there aren't enough resources, but he decides to kill off half of all life rather than help create more resources. Magneto and Killmonger have similar over the top answers to actual real world problems.

Ra's al Ghul has a point about horrible billionaires running the economy, but his reaction is more than a bit twisted - it's an MCU villain response to a problem. He needs Batman to stay out of the way and he has an equally twisted plan to do that. 

I rate this graphic novel 3 stars out of 5. I don't like the villain, his plan is ridiculous (and could probably be accomplished with legal maneuvers).

This graphic novel can be found on Amazon.com here: Batman - One Bad Day: Ra's al Ghul.

STAR WARS: DARTH VADER: DARK LORD of the SITH, VOLUME 4 - FORTRESS VADER (graphic novel) by Charles Soule

Published by Licensed Publishing in 2019.

Written by Charles Soule.

Art by Guiseppe Camuncoli, Daniele Orlandini, Terry Pallot, David Curiel, Dono Sanchez-Almara, and Erick Arciniega.

Synopsis

This series tells the story of the completion of the training that turned Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader. The Emperor is, at best, an emotionally and physically abusive teacher.

In Fortress Vader, Darth Vader is granted a planet to use as a home base to complete his studies and perhaps learn how to bring his beloved Padme back from the dead.

But, he needs a temple to focus the power of the force and a relic from the Emperor promises to provide what he needs...

My Review

Soule really likes this relic. It also appears in his Lando comic where it is much creepier. In this comic the relic picks up a comic quality that I don't think was intended. The construction and reconstruction of this temple was not at all interesting to me. This collection was the worst of the series.

I rate this graphic novel 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: STAR WARS: DARTH VADER: DARK LORD of the SITH, VOLUME 4 - FORTRESS VADER.

BATMAN - ONE BAD DAY: BANE (graphic novel) by Joshua Williamson

Published by D.C. Comics in 2023.

Written by Joshua Williamson

Art by Howard Porter and Tomeu Morey

Synopsis

The One Bad Day series looks at individual top level Batman villains (If you are a fan of Johnny Karaoke, sorry) and gives them a comic that focuses on just that villain. 

In Batman - One Bad Day: Bane we find Bane working as a professional wrestler in Mexico where he reenacts the moment where be broke Batman's back in match after match to the cheers of adoring crowds. Bane has wealth and fame, but he is broken inside. This graphic novel is the story that explains that brokenness...

My Review

Up until the halfway point of this graphic novel, I was sure that this edition of the One Bad Day tales was a dud. It was initially very confusing and the drawings seemed to be all overdone muscles, veiny arms, and monstrous faces.

The moment that changed the book was a moment of great sacrifice. It changes the arc of Bane's life and makes this a surprisingly hopeful (and grisly) story. I still hated the art, but the story was quite good.

I rate this graphic novel 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Batman - One Bad Day: Bane.