MOCKINGBIRD: I Can Explain and My Feminist Agenda by Chelsea Cain and various scripters strikes me as yet another attempt to do an irreverent comic book — sure, there are zombie plagues, the Hellfire Club, malevolent ghosts and such but come on, we don’t want to take this stuff too seriously do we? Like most such efforts, it doesn’t work for me. For example jokes about the absurdity of parapsychology as a degree field make no sense in the MU where it’s a recognized thing (Mockingbird herself having started out as a psychic)
The second volume is worse, partly because it’s only three issues (abrupt cancellation blues) plus an added story by Brian Michael Bendis (I can only stomach Bendis on Alias). Also it makes a rather awkward retcon to Mockingbird having been mind-controlled and raped during a time-travel trip, asserting it was a consensual affair but not explaining why she let the guy die.
Nate Powell’s FALL THROUGH about a rock band that becomes a punk sensation when they’re thrown back from the 1990s to the 1970s. This couldn’t hold my interest past thirty pages, so not much to say about it.
According to the editor of THE DURHAM COMICS PROJECT (an idea by my local library), any comic strip the reader can follow is a good one, even if amateurish. This collection of reader-submitted comics shows that’s not true, though a number of them are good.
MADE IN KOREA by Jeremy Holt and George Schall turns out to be more ambitious than the creators can pull off. In a future where medical problems make it difficult to conceive a child, a frustrated couple order Jesse, a “proxy” android from Korea. Despite “artificial life learns to be human” being such a cliche, watching Jesse adjust to her new life is fascinating. The part where her creator tries to re-establish his rights to her is okay. But there’s a huuuge chunk of the story devoted to naive Jesse getting tricked into participating in the Columbine shooting and it does not work at all. Disappointing.
#SFWApro. Covers by Joelle Jones and Schall, all rights to images remain with current holders.
