I bought this book used.

It’s here that the major flaw in switching a TV series to a comic series becomes evident; while I’ve greatly enjoyed the writing, art and story lines so far the second volume of the Angel series is a series of short reflections back to the night when Wolfram & Hart flung LA into Hell. It’s emotional and engaging, but it’s way too short and at $20 ($10 used) a pop it’s just dissatisfying that there won’t be another episode next week.

I like, love, these characters and would follow them through a whole series in a reading-way-past-my-bedtime-on-a-school-night way. In a book or TV show these little snippets would be invaluable as mood builders and character defining asides. But as this book doesn’t push the plot forward much (if at all), and is significantly slimmer than volume 1, I can’t but be left feeling frustrated. Especially since the first graphic novel left off in the middle of a fight, and this one does little more than mention it.

If you’re a fan, of course you should check this out. But make sure to pick up the third too, because this won’t be enough to sate your taste for angsty vampires and hell dimensions.

ISBN: 0345512103

I bought this book.

Jessie Shimmer is a love her or hate her addition to the urban fantasy world, between her crudeness and the dark, dark nature of her stories you’ll find very few readers taking a middle road. Shotgun Sorceress is the follow up to Lucy A. Snyder’s Spellbent and the first thing you should know is that Lucy’s a tried and true horror writer. It’s evident from her treatment of magic (which really is more like the dark and twisted, old school occult novels than the twee magical worlds you can find today) and the focus on extra dimensional devils and demons (and even the supposed worldly peace keepers who themselves are not good beings) that magic is not something to be trifled with. Just being a Talent in Snyder’s world makes you tougher and more raw than mundanes.

In the first book Jessie Shimmer had to rescue her boyfriend from an hell dimension personally cooked up for him and his family by one of their own. She took on angels, the ruling council of local magic-wielders and gave up a lot of herself (namely her eye and her arm) to get Cooper back. This book allows Jessie no rest as the ruler magic users are still after her for her actions, as are the crystaline-angel-not-really-good-guys who enforce all the magical rules. In fact the latter appear to set Jessie and her family up, sending them into a sealed pocket which imprisons a demon that has taken over a small Texas town and turned it into a post apocalyptic dystopia.

Shotgun Sorceress has a zombie-apocalypse feel, without ever hitting on the tropes of that subgenre. Instead it stands out as something entirely its own, neither its creatures or magic system mimic other books. It’s a bold, energetic, vivid and, yes, horrific, addition to the paranormal craze. Wild writing will keep readers guessing. The unique world and characters make Shotgun Sorceress a stand out wickedly enjoyable fantasy story.

ISBN: 9781600103438

I bought this book.

Buffy took season eight to the pages of the comic book world and now Angel’s done the same. The pluses—well lets face it both Angel and Spike have faces made for being drawn.

In the last televised episode of Angel the broody vampire with a soul managed to kill the inner circle of demons at the earthly head of Wolfram & Hart (a demonic law firm, as in made up of demons, run by demons and specializing in demon/supernatural based dealings) and to put it mildly the senior partners were a little peeved. So peeved that they sent all of Los Angeles to Hell, literally. After the Fall starts there, with Angel doing his superhero bit, albeit with a few surprises, like Wesley’s ghostly self being trapped in a contract with Wolfram & Hart, Illyria and Spike being lords of their own demonic territory and Gunn…well I should stop there. But the surprises don’t stop there, and the whole gang is back, having been tried by fire (and fire-breathing dragons) and found who they are, even if their physical shapes and social presences have been significantly changed.

If you hated Angel and you’ve had more than enough of the Twilight broody pretty-boy vampire, skip this one. But if you loved the show, or love noir-paranormal-action you’ll find this graphic novel to be full of great art, killer pacing and one of the best vampire heroes to be found.

I don’t think I liked Angel as much as I like Buffy, not because of the noir-mystery feel (which I adore) but because of the cast. (I never did like Cordelia and Angel’s obsession and the second to last season’s “Cordy becomes a higher being” plot annoyed me.) But I have to say I’m glad to see them all here (plus some) cast in fantastic art with the same dry, sarcastic wit and the same jumbled mess of problems. This is definitely one series I’ll be following.

ISBN: 1401203086

I bought this book.

I’m a huge fan of the cartoon series, as well as a huge fan of the superhero genre in general. I expected some changes, even major changes, between other series and this one and wasn’t disappointed. So let’s start there.

If you, too began with the popular cartoon series then you’ll find that this graphic novel is a sort of sophomore class version of your starting place. (Except that Robin, Starfire, Beast Boy, Raven and Cyborg weren’t actually the first class either, but a reboot of the Titans.) And while the cartoon does touch on darker places that one would expect (especially with new shows like Superhero Squad popping up) the graphic novel delves even deeper. Really, despite its title you probably aren’t going to want to let your younger kids read this book. (Just in case the almost nude Starfire on the front cover wasn’t enough to tell you that.)

DC and Marvel have both been throwing in kid/teen versions of superheroes into their books for a while in an effort to continue to engage with a younger audience. But in this series instead of being sidekicks or temporary plot points (or add-a-kids) the teens get to try to find their own place in the comic-verse. In A Kid’s Game Starfire (she of little clothing), Cyborg (the emo-est robot outside of Marvin) and Beast Boy (who is a complete letch, surprise surprise) set out to give the teen superheroes a place of non judgment where they don’t have to hide their identity or powers and can be with people who, like them, understand (where the adult heroes have become so focused on adult matters that they’ve forgotten much of what it was like to be a teen, or just don’t have the time to fight evil and be there for the super kids). It’s a kind of Boy Scouts for super-teens, complete with character dying juxtaposed with helping old ladies cross the street. Teen-dom is a rough time, between being an adult and not really being ready to be an adult, and the writers of Teen Titans keep this (as well as all the sulleness and brattitude teens can hand out) in mind.

The new Titans consists of Starfire, Beast Boy, Cyborg, as well as Superboy (a semi-clone of the Man of Steel), the third Robin, Impulse/Kid Flash and Wondergirl. And it starts out dark, both with the teens still shaken from the death of the first Wonder Girl (which happens before this series starts, but comes up a lot) and with Slade, perennial Titans psycho-bad guy determined to discourage the Titans from reforming—by killing one of their own to prove kids shouldn’t wear costumes.

There is a lot of stuff going on this in book, and at times it led to me feeling confused. Certainly like I’d missed out on some important threads in the hero-verse for starting here instead of…well I don’t know where one would start, which is the biggest downside of comic-reading. It’s not unlike soaps in that you can miss a lot real easily.

Also there’s no real cadence to this team yet (and a lot of complaining, both on the kid and adult side of things), since some members flip flop on whether they want to be a Titan at all, others know each other (which might not be a good thing) and some only have preconceived opinions of each other. Even by the end of A Kid’s Game the team hasn’t really gelled together into something cohesive, but that should be expected. It does lead to an off balance feel in the book ( as does the whole chock full of plot seeds that literally don’t have time to go anywhere in such a short space.)

As a reader I do want to see more of these character though, and see if they’ll manage to grow into their own as people, or just remain shadows of the superheroes they started as. Slade is without a doubt one of the most interesting bad guys, but whether that will be enough to hold a reader’s long term attention or not will remain to be seen. (Which means I’ll keep picking up the graphic novels for now, but I don’t consider myself won over as a fan yet.)

P.S. Starfire is six foot four and a hundred and forty pounds and still build like German stripper? Really DC? I mean I know comics are about as physically accurate as a Tom and Jerry cartoon, but can we at least pretend that real proportions might exist?