Review: Promethea, Book Three

Promethea, Book Three by Alan Moore
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The loop cracked

This books big problem is that the writer didn’t want to write about the fun stuff. The last part of this book is the writer doing what he did in volume 2 and that’s show-off his views on the occult. The actual story in this book is a forced ending to move the writer onto something they are more interested in. There isn’t a real resolution just get through the people stuff and end it on the magic stuff. The problem is not everyone wants to read more of the magic stuff. The writer didn’t care he just wanted to have his work show his views on magic. That made for a mostly boring book.

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Review: Promethea, #2

Promethea, #2 by Alan Moore
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Magic school school, sort of

This is just the writer showing off what he’s read about magic. It’s more of him trying to teach you about what he believes and less about any story. Most of it interesting but the rest of it starts to drag. By the end it has you saying, okay, I get it, you’re into wizardry. It’s fine to see but the rest of the story plays as annoying background that doesn’t seem to matter in the end.

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Review: Avengers by Jonathan Hickman, Vol. 1

Avengers by Jonathan Hickman, Vol. 1 by Jonathan Hickman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Good start

It’s just a good beginning to a new Avengers run. I wouldn’t call it anything more than good. If you’re looking for something better that comes later.

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Review: Batman: Year One

Batman: Year One by Frank Miller
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the good Frank Miller Batman story. A man on a mission is the premise of the story. This is the Batman story that you can let your friends read and they can understand why Batman is cool. This story has the drama and action that you expect from Batman. It also shows that his is not the only life affected by living in Gotham City. The art carries parts of the story that don't need words. I think of Frank Millers Daredevil work and realize that his stories with Mazzuccheli are as gripping as Year One. This is the Frank Miller that is a great writer. This is him at best when writing superhero-noir comics. I recommend this book over the Dark Knight Returns so you should give this a try for yourself.

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Review: Promethea, #1

Promethea, #1 by Alan Moore
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It’s a start to something familiar.

If you’re looking for Alan Morres best work this is not it. If you’re looking for him to write about two subjects that he doesn’t usually overload on, magic and sex, this is it. The story starts off about a girl discovering some magical goddess power but that gets brushed aside to the writer can spend the rest of the book talking about magic. Before that we get a wizard bribing the girl for sex in exchange for an intro to magic. The rest is two snake’s talk no about Tarot cards.

This ends up being the writer acting like he’s a modern Prof. Dumbledore teaching you how magic works. The problem is not everyone signed up for a magical history lesson. While it is interesting to a point it does get so esoteric that readers can easily lose interest in the characters. No one really sticks out as their only role is to get to the next lesson in the writers views on magic. There’s better stuff that you can read from him without all of the showing off.

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Review: Top 10

Top 10 by Alan Moore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Comic supercops

It's one part Law & Order and the other a nostalgia trip through comic book history. By the standard that Alan Moore is held to this is just above average. It's not great but it's better then what most writers can do. The ending is flat and you have to read the other related books to really get a better grasp on what he wanted to do. This is a fine intro into the universe of ABC (Americas Best Comics) but it wasn't the best thing that he created in this line.

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Review: The New Teen Titans, Vol. 1

The New Teen Titans, Vol. 1 by Marv Wolfman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is just the start of what ends up being one of the cornerstone runs of DC Comics. It gets better later but this volume is just a soft intro to some incredible work. If all you have seen are the animated series then this is where you get the characters and stories that you've seen on those shows. There are very few series that have the same impact as this run in any comic series.

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