Fish and Cherries Productions

Title: Transmetropolitan: Back On The Streets
Author: Warren Ellis
Artist: Darick Robertson
Type: Comic Book
Genre: Cyberpunk

One-time journalist Spider Jerusalem only wanted one thing: peace and solitude in a secluded mountain cabin away from people, media, and constraints against making his own ebola bombs. No such luck. An old publisher calls him to call in that book he’d promised, forcing Spider to return to The City, a cacophonous cavalcade of media, consumerism, and sensory assault. Unfortunately for Spider, this is where he thrives best. Armed with a new journalism job and an assistant, he aims to take The City down a peg and give its citizens a dose of what’s been absent for a long time: cold, hard truth.

Panic initially set in when I saw the forward written by Garth Ennis, giving the comic his full approval for being a tale told by a “kindred spirit.” For those who don’t know, Garth Ennis is known for writing rather mean-spirited comics. Now, in fairness, he wrote Preacher, which is one of my favorite comics. Also in fairness, he wrote The Boys, which I consider an unreadable dredge that is unpleasant on every single level. So when Garth Ennis declares someone a kindred spirit, my instinct is to run for the hills. Thankfully, my fears were unfounded: Transmetropolitan may be more cynical than the standard comic fare, but it still manages to channel that into a very twisted sense of humor that gives the book its identity.

Spider Jerusalem, who is meant to be a surrogate to the late Hunter S. Thompson, is not a nice or heroic man. He sets his three-eyed, two-faced cat to urinate on things and people that annoy him, he constantly belittles his assistant’s boyfriend, and his mouth is filthier than a sewer during a stomach flu outbreak. But as crude as he is, the city is far worse and downright offensive to the senses. The feel is set up perfectly in the first panel Spider enters The City’s print district: holographic advertisements covering just about every inch of the side of the road advertising everything from beer to trans-species surgery in the most neon way possible. Even further in the comic, there’s a sort of bazaar where people are peddling their religions, showing that literally nothing is sacred in this metropolis. I actually really like the fact that The City has no name, meaning that it could happen to any big city if left unchecked enough. Upon reflection, it kind of reminds me of the Once-ler from the original Lorax in a weird, twisted way, in that they’re both blank entities that the readers can supplant anything into where it would resonate with them.

That said, this book isn’t exactly perfect and the reason why comes down to the format. This is a collected trade paperback of the first six issues of the comic and as such, the book is two stories back to back. The first one is actually really engaging, concerning Spider’s return to the city and dealing with a boiling situation involving police brutality against transients (people who have altered their body by splicing extraterrestrial DNA into their genome). The second half of the book deals with Spider’s new assistant, Channon Yarrow, settling into her new job and dealing with Spider’s eccentricities, while Spider himself takes on the president, television, and the aforementioned religion bazaar. This half is a bit more slapdash and less coherent, making the whole affair very anticlimactic. That said, the part where Spider prank calls various TV shows is an absolute gem and the first half more than makes up for the lackluster finisher.

It’s hard to judge this particular book because it’s setting up things for the series rather than telling a full three-act story. It’s enough to color me interested, but it hasn’t exactly wowed me yet. Some people may be tempted to direct moral outrage at the character of Spider, but I see him more as a more adult version of that type of teenager that rails against anything that’s popular or mainstream, only he’s a little more justified in the story. In the end though, I find him ultimately harmless. I think the commentary is a lot more pertinent nowadays, especially in light of the recent controversies over police brutality. If you have a demented sense of humor, this will be right up your alley. If your sensibilities are a bit tamer, I would still recommend it to test the waters. As for me, I’m intrigued to see what comes next, so I guess Volume One has accomplished its mission.

Title: Path of the Warrior; Path of the Seer; Path of the Outcast
Author: Gav Thorpe
Type: Novel Trilogy
Genre: Science Fiction

Author’s Note: Even though these are three separate books, I decided to review the whole trilogy for two reasons. The first is that all three books tell of the same event, but in a Rashomon style where each story is a different perspective on the same moments, so I thought it necessary to look at the full set to understand the whole story. The second reason is that each book preceding the final one cut off at different parts during the climax, making it necessary to read the whole trilogy to know how the story ends.

In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war. The 41st millennium of humanity’s calendar is fraught with conflict and bloodshed spanning across the stars. Of the alien races (or xenos), perhaps none are more tragic than the Eldar, whose species was all but eradicated by a cataclysm eons past and are forced to live out their days in isolated craftworlds of their own creation, treacherous exodite worlds they inhabited, or lead far less scrupulous lifestyles like pirates or brutal raiders. But on this day, we shall speak of the craftworld Alaitoc, for something monumental happened there.

There are three friends from this craftworld whose tales weave together to tell an epic story. Like all of the Eldar, they walk specific Paths of life that they devote themselves to entirely until theyhave had their fill of it and move on to a different Path altogether. Korlandril walks the Path of the Artist and is a famous sculpter, Thirianna treads the Path of the Poet and keeps her work to herself, and Aradryan travels the Path of the Mariner as a steersman who detests feeling confined to the craftworld. An incident drives them apart in different directions and radically different Paths. Korlandril finds solace in the Path of the Warrior, where he fights for Alaitoc as a stealthy and deadly Striking Scorpion. In her eagerness to prevent tragedy, Thirianna seeks answers in the Path of the Seer where she can harness her psychic powers for the good of the craftworld. But Aradryan forsakes the Path of the Eldar completely, leaving Alaitoc on a ranger ship and walking the Path of the Outcast in a search for freedom.

However, each of our heroes run the risk on being too immersed in their Path and losing sight of themselves and their values. This comes at a very inopportune time as the actions of one of them (or is it all of their actions?) brings enemies to Alaitoc and risks destroying their home and the thousands, if not millions, of lives that inhabit it. Each of them plays a part in this great battle that may spell the end of Alaitoc and the Eldar.

Each of the character’s stories are parallels to one another, not just in the events of the story, but in the themes as well. Each of them starts out on a path that doesn’t suit them, transfers to the titular one when they feel its pull, falls too far down the rabbit hole on the path to the point where they’re almost unrecognizable as their former selves, and have to face the consequences of their actions at the battle of Alaitoc. But each of them goes through their journey differently. Korlandril’s fall from warrior to exarch is entirely involuntary, brought on by his own hubris and lack of willpower, which is more obvious when you look at his actions from the other characters’ perspectives. Thirianna’s transformation from warlock to farseer, on the other hand, is completely voluntary; she knows that she’s going to be trapped on this path for life if she does, but she makes that sacrifice for her desire to see the future and prevent harm from coming to those she cares about. Aradryan’s descent from ranger to piracy is different and very reminiscent of someone who is falling to peer pressure. When his crewmembers blow up an innocent ship, he knows it feels wrong, but gives his conscience false promises in order to belong. Each of these even feel natural to them, as if this could have been predicted from the beginning.

The fact that the books make these characters relatable is a marvel. The characters come from a species whose ways are so alien to us that it might be hard to fathom. They are born psychic, they shift lifestyles dramatically every so often, and they have a way of compartmentalizing their very psyches to protect it from the backlash of killing another living being. Yet through the prose, the readers can understand why they do the things they do and see other species and situations are through their eyes. Everything they do has a clear logic behind it that the reader can experience firsthand. The readers also get a look at their culture through short blurbs preceding each chapter, though the content differs in each book. In Path of the Warrior, each one is an excerpt from Eldar mythology concerning their gods and genesis. Path of the Seer tells us of different runes that the warlocks and farseers use to channel their powers. The ones in Path of the Outcast all tell of different locations throughout the galaxy that are important to the Eldar or that are simply wonderful to be around. In a way, they all paint a picture of a very old and doomed culture.

This trilogy isn’t without its drawbacks, however. If you’re an American reader like myself, the use of British spelling will throw you for a loop (i.e.: “artefact” instead of “artifact,” etc.). Another point against it comes from the fact that it is not kind to people who are not into the hobby. It throws a lot of terms at the reader and doesn’t give them much exposition for context. Casual readers will probably not know what separates Striking Scorpions from Howling Banshees or of the significance and identity of She Who Thirsts. Perhaps it’s because of my previous Warhammer knowledge that it didn’t bother me, but I don’t know that a lot of newcomers will be able to pick these things up through immersion alone. Finally, there are parts of the books that do strike a bit of the “buy all our playsets and toys” mentality, especially in the Battle of Alaitoc when talking about the Phantom Titan and the other war machines. I suppose I can’t blame Games Workshop too much for this, since the books are meant to tie into the game, but I can’t help feeling a little manipulated.

Korlandril’s story feels visceral. Thirianna’s narrative is introspective. Aradryan’s tale feels emotional and intimate. Each book tells one side of a very involved story that binds them together and changes their fate forever. It’s interesting how each side not only reveals a bit about the overall saga, but of the characters as well. The writer wrote a similar trilogy dealing with the Dark Eldar and I might consider looking at that, though that will probably be a darker experience since the Dark Eldar are unapologetic slavers and rapists. I’m not sure if you’ll get as much out of this if you’re not into Warhammer 40k, but fans will get a good insight and see that there’s more to those “sissy space elves” than arrogance and pretty models.

Title: Saga (volumes 1-3)
Author: Brian K. Vaughan
Artist: Fiona Staples
Type: Comic Book
Genre: Space opera, Fantasy, Romance

Summary: They say love is a battlefield, but in this case, the battlefield was Cupid. In the midst of an everlasting war between the winged people of Landfall and the horned folk of Wreath, two warriors from opposing sides, Alana and Marko, fall in love, run away together, and conceive a child named Hazel. And neither side is happy about this. On top of both of them being deserters, their union and offspring are considered sacrilegious by the warring people and they worry that spread of this news could damage moral of the troops. To deal with this problem, each side hires an assassin to take them out. Landfall hires Prince Robot IV, a member of mechanical aristocracy whose wife is with child herself, while Wreath contacts The Will, a stoic assassin who travels with a lie-detecting cat. The couple is always on the run, dealing with assassins, in-laws, undead nannies, and even ex-lovers to find a place where their love can be safe.

Coming from the mind that gave us Y: The Last Man and Marvel’s Runaways, Saga is a stroke of pure brilliance. The concept is fairly fresh, the dialogue is natural and snappy, and the creature and character designs are so bizarre and outlandish that they’ll never leave your head. For crying out loud, the royal family of Robot has TVs for heads. That is so surreal, it just has to be memorable. The characters are also a nice bag of complexities, each having their own baggage that makes them very distinctive. My personal favorite is Izabel, a teenage ghost with half of her body missing who becomes Hazel’s babysitter. Her design is great and there’s an irreverence about her that I just find really endearing.

While the idea of star-crossed lovers from two feuding houses isn’t exactly a new story, the science fiction and fantasy elements make it feel very new. Some spaceships happen to be living trees, which I don’t think I’ve often seen juxtaposed against laser and hard chrome. Granted, the exact limits of the magic aren’t fully explained, but I get the feeling that a clearer picture will be drawn as the series continues. The universe itself just feels so alive and diverse. It’s not just the two warring factions, there are tons of interesting aliens with their own unique cultures. Even small touches like the type of entertainment that exists in the universe acts like that subtle spice that turns good food into a culinary masterpiece.

At the end of the day, what we have is a unique epic from a man who has come out with stellar work in the past. Time will tell if this ever surpasses the quality of Y: The Last Man, which I previously thought impossible, but now I’m not so sure. Until then, all we know is that Brian K. Vaughan’s transcendent writing and Fiona Staples’ beautiful artwork have come together to form a great child of their own.

Title: Please Don’t Tell My Parents I’m a Supervillain
Author: Richard Roberts
Type: Novel
Genre: Superhero

Summary: Remember how I said that being the kid of a former superhero was tough? Well, now imagine that both of your parents were former superheroes that were well-respected in the thriving community. Now imagine that that you’re also going through the troubles of high school while your powers are slowly emerging. And to top it all off, imagine that amid various happenstances, your new alter-ego is recognized by the community… as a supervillain.

That’s the life of the young Penelope Akk, the daughter of Brian and Beatrice Akk, and her best friends Claire and Ray. After their fight with a superhero’s sidekick is caught on camera, the three of them are labeled as a supervillain team call The Inscrutable Machine. Luckily, their identities remained secret, so they must lead double lives so that (most of) their parents don’t find out until they can publically and believably turn hero. In the meantime, they fight cosmic entities, intermingle with the supervillain community, and discover that being a villain can be… fun.

And that’s the greatest strength of the book: that it’s fun. A lot of superhero fiction tries to be taken seriously by being overly grim and severe (including mine, which I’m slightly ashamed of after reading this). Penelope’s adventures relish in the inherent absurdity of a world with superpowers and they don’t rely on outrageously high stakes about the world being in mortal danger. She just has to worry about the normal stakes of her abnormal teenage life.

Consequentially, Please Don’t Tell My Parents I’m a Supervillain doesn’t go into extremely minute detail of how everything in the world works or even on the backstory. Oddly enough, the way this is written, you don’t really care that it doesn’t. You’re always given glimpses and small tastes of a larger world that leaves you wanting more, but your focus is so captivated on the rich elements that the lack of an exposition dump is just fine. Are Lucyfar and Gabriel actually incarnations of their Biblical namesakes? Who was the Conqueror and why did he/she/it/they invade Earth? What’s the story behind Apparition, Marvelous, and Generic Girl? All these questions and more will not be answered in this book because they’re not important to Penny’s immediate story and concerns, which is precisely the kind of thing the first person narrative exists for.

Even without a lot of exposition dumps, the story does throw a lot at the reader, but in fairness, pretty much all of it is memorable. I remember all the characters, like Mech, Ifrit, the Bull, Mourning Dove, Chimera, She Who Wots, The Librarian, and so on, as well as colorful places like Lost World Comics and the supervillain-run Chinatown. Everything sort of comes together to make the world feel so alive and rich. The author is writing a sequel entitled At Least I Didn’t Blow Up OUR Moon and if it’s anything like this wonderful piece, I’m really excited for it. Any chance to explore this world further is greatly appreciated. I don’t know that a lot of people know this book is out there, but they really should. It’s a fun read and a fantastic story, so if you’re reading this, you should definitely check it out. But please don’t tell my parents I’m promoting a supervillain.

Title: Starman Omnibus, Volume V
Author: James Robinson
Type: Comic Book
Genre: Superhero

Summary: The DC Universe is a tough place, and it’s even tougher when you’re the child of a former superhero. But Jack Knight, son of the Golden Age Starman Ted Knight, is having no trouble filling his father’s shoes and defending the majestic Opal City from terror and harm. But he has to put that on hold for a bit: acting on a promise from his girlfriend to find her long-lost brother, Jack is taking to the stars with a few allies to find him. While the police and a few unlikely acquaintences try and keep the city safe, Jack, Mikaal, and a computer imitating his dad go across space and even time searching for Thom Kallor, the lost Starman.

Jack Knight is one of my favorite narrative voices to listen to, alongside Harry Dresden. Both have very distinct voices that sound like real people and both have interesting insights about the powers they’ve been gifted with. These are my favorite types of characters, the ones I’d like to invite over and go a few round of X-Box with*. In this chronicle of Jack’s story, he shows a growing maturity in the face of countless odds, many of which are literally alien to him.

*Granted, Harry’s magic would destroy the X-Box just by him being near it, but that’s not the point.

But Jack isn’t the only great character in this ensemble. Starman is populated by dozens of colorful characters, some of whom’s skin tone can be found on the Roy G. Biv spectrum. My personal favorite will always be the Shade, the classiest immortal anti-hero this side of a Sephiroth fan fiction. Starman also manages to keep the rosters fresh by various guest stars from the rest of the DC Universe popping in. Captain Marvel, Adam Strange, the Legion of Superheroes, and Even Superman’s ancestors bring in their own charm to make an excellent series even moreso.

Normally, with the Starman Omnibuses, there are a few stories in one book because each one encompasses a sixth of the comic’s entire run. Volume 5 is an odd duck in that it has one arching plot throughout the whole book. As such, the thing felt like it dragged in more than a few places; the story doesn’t really develop in a relevant way until the end and everything else is more or less filler. It’s still good filler, though, and it is an absolutely minor nitpick in a very good story.

James Robinson’s Starman set the bar for quality when it came out in the 90s and few since then have managed to pass it. Beautiful artwork, intriguing characters, and a gripping story are only a few of its numerous qualities. My only regret is that I have one more omnibus before the journey is over…

Title: Green Lantern: The Wrath of the First Lantern
Author: Geoff Johns, Peter J. Tomasi, Tony Bedard, Peter Milligan
Type: Comic Book
Genre: Superhero, Space Opera

Summary: Let me tell you about a man named Geoff Johns.

Geoff Johns is a writer at DC Comics who is currently the Chief Creative Officer at the company. But back in 2004, he was just a writer who was brought on to the Green Lantern book to fix a horrible mistake made a decade prior. See, there was a story where the Green Lantern known as Hal Jordan was turned evil and killed off as a publicity stunt that went over horribly with the critics and the audiences. Geoff Johns was given the opportunity to fix this and he struck gold.

After his Rebirth story, he knocked it out of the park again with the Green Lantern story Sinestro Corps War and again in 2009 with the company-wide crossover Blackest Night. Now, with his final story in his run of Green Lantern, Wrath of the First Lantern, Johns has shown us that lightning can strike four times.

Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps had just defeated the Third Army, an attempt by their overseers the Guardians’ at creating a completely subservient force – but their destruction led to a reawakening of Volthoom, the first of the Lanterns under the Emotional Spectrum. Fueled by his anger at the Guardians for imprisoning him for eons, he strives to tear down everything they have built and presided over, which pretty much means all of reality.

But Volthoom doesn’t strike down his foes with swords, lasers, or armies, rather with their own inner demons, forcing them to relive painful memories and even twist them to have different outcomes that feel just as real, all the while draining their emotions to slowly become godlike. It’s up to Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Carol Ferris, Guy Gardner, Kyle Rayner, Simon Baz, and even their former foes Sinestro and Atrocitus to fight back and stop a mad god.

What people have to understand before going on is that this is actually a collection of four different comic lines tied together in the same story: Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, Green Lantern: New Guardians, and Red Lanterns. As such, it alternates between the titles after each issue. Unlike Rise of the Third Army, which was a far less pleasant story, this one actually makes the story seem much more grand and connects to make the narrative feel fleshed out. This is especially amazing when you consider that not a lot happens in this story, but that gives them time to give all the characters the focus they need and make their struggle truly meaningful.

Sadly, the weak link comes in the form of the Red Lanterns title. The events concerning Volthoom have to share time with a subplot involving Rankorr – the first human Red Lantern – discovering his purpose and I will freely admit, I don’t care about this character. His plight does not match the epic tone of the series or hopeful feeling at the end and feels like an unnecessary afterthought, like the writer was only half committed to the events of this title-shaking crossover. All in all, it’s a malignant tumor on what was nearly a perfect book.

Framing a good chunk of the story as a cross between a clip show and a collection of what if scenarios was a brilliant way to bring the continuity of the past ten years to the forefront to lead up to one final, gratifying hurrah. I will admit that I wish that the final epilogue of what happened to all the characters was the last thing we read in the book rather than the Red Lanterns issue, but given the way the book was structured, I understand that was impossible. While the epilogue is a feel-good masterpiece, a big part of me worries that DC will do something that contradicts it, killing or mentally scaring one of the characters to make a big story seem gritty and adult.

But what DC does in the future is not important. This is about Geoff Johns – the greatest of all the Green Lantern writers. The inspiration he left behind continues to burn bright. He was the spark that started the everlasting fire.

Title: Skin Game
Author: Jim Butcher
Type: Novel
Genre: Urban Fantasy

Summary: Harry Dresden was Chicago’s only professional wizard detective. But then he made a deal with Mab, Queen of the Winter Fae, and became her knight, murdered his lover to save their daughter Maggie, died, came back, orchestrated the death of Mab’s possessed daughter, lost his former apprentice Molly to the Winter Court as her replacement, and imposed an exile on himself to a magical, dangerous island in the middle of Lake Michigan. And that was before this book.

Mab calls upon Harry’s services to help square away one of her debts to Nicodemus Archleone of the Knights of the Blackened Denarius (holders of one of Judas’ thirty pieces of silver that each contain a fallen angel), one of Harry’s deadliest foes. Worse still, the job is to help Nichodemus break into Hades’ personal vault and steal the Holy Grail, thus potentially incurring the wrath of the Greek Underworld. The rules of the Fae bind Harry to helping Nicodemus see his plan through, but Mab reminds him in private that the gloves are off once the deed is done. In short, she wants Harry to burn Nicodemus and burn him hard.

With the help of his cop not-quite-lover Karrin Murphy, a retired Knight of the Cross and family man Michael Carpenter, his friend-coming-into-his-own-in-a-supernatural-world Waldo Butters, some unlikely allies from the past, and even some supernatural allies, Harry makes good on his promise and gives Nicodemus a burn that he will never forget. But Harry must also come to terms with not only becoming a part of his Maggie’s life, but actually give birth to another daughter that was the product of a fallen angel’s shadow inside his head. Even for Harry Dresden, this set of days is far from typical.

The Dresden Files has been my favorite series for a long time for its voice and witty dialogue, the world it builds, and the memorable characters, but even this blew my standards away. This is the first one in a while that has been pure unadulterated fun; the past few books have had rather bittersweet endings that felt rather soul-crushing, but not Skin Game. This one actually offers hope for the future of these characters and introduces some really fun ones as well. There’s plenty of action, no shortage of drama and intrigue, and plenty to make this a must-read for fans of the series. And if you haven’t started the series yet, well, what the hell are you doing with your life?

Title: William Shakespeare’s The Empire Striketh Back
Author: Ian Doescher
Type: Play
Genre: Science Fiction, Parody

Summary: On the surface, combining Shakespeare and Star Wars sounds like an idea that a lazy student would do to try and get an easy A in his literature class. However, despite its inherent silliness, there is a sort of cleverness and, dare I say, dignity with the execution. It isn’t just The Empire Strikes Back run through a Shakespeare translator, there are whole new scenes between incidental characters to match the Shakespeare style, different characters are given entire soliloquies, and there’s even a chorus that takes over when it serves the purpose. The real cleverness, though, comes with what the author did with Yoda; rather than just keep his backwards dialogue the same and make it more Shakespearian, they have him speak entirely in haiku. That’s pretty ingenious. Personally, I think it was a good read and I can’t wait for The Jedi Doth Return.