BATMAN: ONE BAD DAY - MR. FREEZE (graphic novel) by Gerry Duggan

Published in 2023 by DC Comics.

Written by Gerry Duggan

Art by Matteo Scalera and Deron Bennett.

Synopsis

Inspired by the "spirit of Christmas," Batman, Robin, and Alfred discuss the possibility that a hardened criminal can actually reform. Batman and Robin decide to reach out to Mr. Freeze and offer to fund his research. 

Mr. Freeze has always justifies his crime sprees with the rationalization that he needs the things he steals for his research. He put his wife in a frozen stasis in order to stop the progression of a fatal disease and the research to fight this disease is incredibly expensive and sometimes requires exotic materials. 

Now, Batman has provided everything Mr. Freeze needs in an old LexCorp lab. Theoretically, this should put an end to Mr. Freeze's criminal career, right?

It turns out that Mr. Freeze is far more complicated and far more creepy than anyone knew...

My Review

I read all of the graphic novels in the One Bad Day Series this summer and I think that this one was the best of a strong collection. It made me see Mr. Freeze in a completely different light and made him seem much more human - a profoundly mentally disturbed human with a lot of scientific and technical skills, but human.

The art is dark and moody, but also very clear. You can see when Robin smirks in a hopeful way at a comment Batman makes and you can feel the Batmobile fishtailing on a icy street. 

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

SLAPSTICK or LONESOME NO MORE! by Kurt Vonnegut

Originally published in 1976.

Synopsis

In the essay that serves as the prologue to Slapstick, Kurt Vonnegut writes about family, connection, and acceptance. He spends a lot of time talking about his older brother - more than he usually does in his essays. He also talks about his sister - a topic of frequent discussion in his essays. She and her husband both died with days of one another, one of an accident and the other of cancer. Kurt Vonnegut and his wife adopted three of their four children. 

In his essays Vonnegut makes frequent mention of the lack of family connection in our modern world and he thinks we are far the worse off for it. This novel is all about family connection, featuring two physically deformed twins who who are psychically connected.

The twins were kept apart from society in an old mansion on a large estate in order to protect them from society and to protect the reputations of their elite, ultra-rich parents. After all, the "right sort of people" don't have freaks for children.

It was assumed that the children would have mental disabilities. It turns out that they were geniuses, especially when they were physically close to one another...

Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007)

My Review

This is a truly bizarre novel, even by the standards of Kurt Vonnegut. I liked the book in many ways, but I really can't say that it was a great or even a particularly good novel. There are times when it just gets so weird that the story gets buried in its own absurdities.

In one of his essays, Vonnegut graded all of his books up to that point. He gave Slapstick a grade of 'D.' I will do better than that - I give it 3 stars out of 5 (a solid 'C') because it has a lot of heart. 

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut. 

SUPERMAN '78 (graphic novel) by Robert Venditti

Published in 2022 by DC Comics.

Written by Robert Venditti.

Art by Wilfredo Torres and Jordie Bellaire.

Synopsis

Superman '78 is a short series (sadly) based on the Christopher Reeves movies that were released from the late 1970s through the mid-1980s. Like the movies, the plot is pretty simple and everything follows a very traditional Superman storyline - red shorts, sassy Lois Lane, bald Lex Luthor, and so on. That's fine by me - I really like traditional Superman.

Brainiac saves the city of Superman's Kryptonian home from ultimate destruction when Krypton explodes by shrinking them and storing them safely on his ship in a glass jar. He keeps them stored away because they are the remnants of "a careless, dangerous civilization."

When Brainiac discovers that Earth has a Kryptonian (Superman), he seeks to save Earth by eradicating Superman because he is an infestation of an alien civilization that has already destroyed their own world. Kryptonians are dangerous and must be collected and stored away in their little glass jar.

Because he believes all Kryptonians are dangerous, Brainiac sends his robots to collect Superman. He is surprised when he finds that the citizens of Metropolis are more than willing to defend Superman - with arguments and weapons. One resident yells out, "ALL of us come from somewhere else" and another follows up with "Superman couldn't BE more Metropolis."

Brainiac decides that the mere presence of Superman has tainted the humans in Metropolis and they might have to be removed to one of his collection jars. Superman offers himself up willingly - as a trade in order to protect his city only to find out that Brainiac has other plans for Metropolis...

My Review

I really like the clean and simple lines of the art in this series. The spirit of the Reeves movies is obvious throughout. Quite enjoyable.

Funny note - Lex Luthor is on parole for one of his many crimes. Part of the condition of his parole is getting a job. The sight of Luthor in an unemployment office and being offered a job in a cafeteria is a hoot.

I rate this graphic novel 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Superman '78.

THE INSTINCT for COOPERATION: A GRAPHIC NOVEL CONVERSATION with NOAM CHOMSKY (graphic novel) by Noam Chomsky and Jeffrey Wilson

Published in 2018 by Seven Stories Press.
Written by Noam Chomsky and Jeffrey Wilson.
Art by Eliseu Gouveia.

Jeffrey Wilson interviewed Noam Chomsky for The Instinct for Cooperation and the results probably would have been a typical interview with Chomsky. The interview was about the Occupy Wall Street Movement and the little groups that organically formed within the protests, such as the food tent, the medical tent, and the library. 

Wilson wove in interviews that he had done with people who participated in the Occupy Movement, students and teachers who had bad interactions with education "reform" movements, and other topics like student loan debt. 

This could have easily been a mess, but Wilson does a very good job of weaving together all of the interviews so that it felt more like a natural free-flowing conversation. The illustrations helped move everything along to make this very digestible. There is a lot of food for thought.

Well done.

5 out of 5 stars.

This graphic novel can be found on Amazon.com here: The Instinct for Cooperation: A Graphic Novel Conversation with Noam Chomsky.

THE RED DRAGON (Action Adventures Short Stories Collection #10) by L. Ron Hubbard

Originally published in 1935 by the magazine "Five Novels"

Re-published in 2013 by Galaxy Press.

Long before L. Ron Hubbard (1911-1986) became the creator of Scientology, he was a pulp fiction writer. He did this for nearly 20 years, with his first writing credit coming in 1932. The Red Dragon was originally written for a monthly publication called Five Novels.

Synopsis

The Red Dragon starts out very much like an Indiana Jones movie - an American damsel in distress is in China looking for the archaeological find her father had told her about. He has left clues to its location and she is seeking someone to help her. The site is located in Manchuria - a disputed zone under Japanese control in what would eventually become the beginnings of World War II in Asia (unknown to Hubbard at the time because Pearl Harbor attack was more than six years away).

The mysterious Michael Stuart has stepped up to help. His nickname is The Red Dragon because he is audacious and because he had red hair. He is disreputable in both the Japanese and Chinese controlled areas for reasons never made clear in this 92 page novella.

So, Stuart and the damsel in distress head off into Manchuria with assassins following and the Japanese Army waiting...

My Review

This adventure story has a little bit of everything - car chases, pistol fights in hotel rooms, a pistol fight on the Great Wall of China, love, daring escapes, clever disguises. But, the story sort of peters out at about two-thirds of the way through.

Be aware that this story is 90 years old and it shows its age when it comes to racial stereotypes.

For me, the funniest scene in the book is completely unintentional. At one point The Red Dragon steals the uniform of a Japanese officer and sneaks into a hut/pub to get some information. He blacked his hair with cooking grease, rubbed yellow dust all over his skin to give it a different color (not kidding), and taped back his eyes to make them look more Asian. With all of these questionable tricks, he is concerned that the locals will notice his gray eyes - not the tape on the eyes!

I rate this novella 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: The Red Dragon by L. Ron Hubbard.

COMMEMORATIVE HISTORY of the GEORGE ROGERS CLARK BICENTENNIAL EXHIBIT by The Indiana State Museum

Published in 1976 by the Indiana State Museum Society.

1976 was the bicentennial celebration of the Declaration of Independence and if you were not alive in 1976, you have no idea how much went into that recognition. Every store had special decorations, every town had commemorations, everyone had red, white, and blue clothing and this went on for a long time - not just on the Fourth of July in 1976.

Part of this ongoing celebration took place in museums. The Indiana State Museum had a 3 year exhibit on Indiana's role in the American Revolution. People remember the original thirteen colonies and correctly note that Indiana was not one of those colonies. None of Indiana's immediate neighbors were, either.

But, the modern states of Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois were on the front line of a different kind of war zone during the American Revolution. There were no great ships, no massed armies, and precious few soldiers even wearing an actual uniform - but there were pitched battles. Commemorative History of the George Rogers Clark Bicentennial Exhibit tells one of the most dramatic parts of that story.

During the fighting, White towns and settlements were wiped out. Indian villages were burned to the ground. much of the fighting was due to the encouragement and financing of the British government. The British Lt. Governor in Detroit was ordered to finance Indian attacks on white settlements in an effort to start a wide ranging guerrilla war in the Ohio River Valley to distract the American colonies from the main fight on the Atlantic coast.

This was not hard to do since a low grade fight had been going on for more than a decade. In order to keep up their side of the fight, the Indians needed supplies to feed their families and weapons and the British could easily supply those. The supplies were shipped out of Detroit to a network of smaller forts in Illinois and Indiana.

George Rogers Clark figured that the way to shut down this fight was to take those British forts. He did some preliminary reconnaissance and found that they were lightly defended, depending mostly on the vast spaces of friendly Indian territory between them to protect them. He secured funding from Virginia Governor Patrick Henry to buy powder and supplies for 350 frontiersmen to attack two forts in Illinois near the Mississippi and Vincennes on the Wabash.

Clark got together about half the amount of men he thought he would need and launched his attack in 1778. He was so successful that Lt. Governor Hamilton personally led an expedition to retake Vincennes. From there, he planned a reconquest of the Illinois forts.

Clark decided that a bold move had to be taken before Hamilton could bring in more supplies, equipment, and men. Clark led a 180 mile march across southern Illinois in February of 1779 in order to surprise Hamilton. 

If you do not live in the midwest, you may not understand how truly miserable it can be in February. It may not snow much, but it will be very wet and very miserable - and it was in 1779. It wasn't cold enough to freeze, but it rained for days on end and the rivers came out of their banks. Imagine hiking nonstop through a sloppy mudhole in 35 degree weather with no dry land to be found for days on end with no modern clothing to keep you warm.

At one point their drummer boy had to cross a flooded area by using his drum as a flotation device while he kicked with his feet. The expedition ate all of their food because the floods drove away most of the wild game.

There was a reason that Hamilton felt secure in Vincennes - no one was crazy enough to march through this mess!

Clark's 170 man force surprised Hamilton and convinced him they were a much larger force through some trickery. Hamilton to surrender on February 25, 1779.

Clark's surprise attack cemented America's claim to what is now called the Old Northwest and was one of the factors that helped convince France to support the Colonies in the Revolutionary War. Clark described it this way: "Great things have been effected by a few men well conducted."

This book has a lot of photographs of items displayed in the exhibit. It also includes the illustrations commissioned for them. I found the illustrations to be helpful and interesting, although a bit retro. The strength of this small book does not lie in the pictures, however. The text is the real strength of the book. The story of the entire campaign is told in well-paced bite-sized bits. 

I rate this history 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Commemorative History of the George Rogers Clark Bicentennial Exhibit.

A completely horrible scan of this small book can be found here: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED139709. The text is legible, and that's about all that can be said for it.

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.