Musings of a Hugo voter: Graphic Stories
It's been a while since I actually buried my face in a pile of comics or graphic novels. About all I read in that format are webcomics, so I'm a bit out of touch with comics / graphic novels culture as it stands these days. Still, I can read stuff and decide whether I like it or not. Herewith, the four Graphic Story Nominees:
Ms Marvel, Vol 1:
Watching and listening from the outside, Marvel seems to be doing a lot of reboots these days. In this case, Ms Marvel gets rebooted as a Pakistani-American teenager, who keeps getting grounded for going out and superheroing. As "origin stories" go, this one is pretty lame. Girl has crisis, announces that she wishes she could do something. Bunch of Avengers or some such do a supernatural-ish pop-up appearance, and Poof-- you're a superhero. Then, she has to figure out what to do with the damn powers. The plot is ok, there's some humor as she has some bull-in-a-china-shop moments, but they try way too hard to push all the buttons and check all the boxes. Plus, the entire doc is watermarked with a big "HUGO VOTERS PACKET" stamp that makes the frigging thing all-but-illegible. Meh. I'm going to exercise my voter's prerogative, be a pissy little bitch about the watermark, and put it down near the bottom of the ballot.
Rat Queens, Vol 1:
Now, THIS is more like it. Warning: Not your childhood's comic book. Not unless your kids were reading Playboy at age 6. D&D Quest-style fantasy, with quests being sabotaged right and left by a Sinister Background Plot(tm). Sex is mostly off-camera, violence is in your face. The Rat Queens are one of several [adventurer bands / criminal gangs / hard to tell which] who get sent on a quest, with the incentive being to get themselves out of trouble. The quest goes from bad, to worse, to "F@#$ this, we're hauling ass back to town". That's when they find that the other groups have been getting screwed over as well. Interesting, and top choice.
Saga, Vol 3:
There's some continuity puzzles, due to missing backstory. Still, it's decipherable, more or less. You have bad guys and good guys, only "bad" and "good" depend on which side you're on in an interspecies war. Plot's complicated by the main viewpoint characters being a fugitive couple, their interspeciated kid, and some friends. In other words, BOTH sides want their asses, preferably dead. The artwork, adult-vs-kid level of story, and the somewhat chaotic plot are reminiscent of reading issues of "Heavy Metal" back during my Army days. Or, maybe, seeing the "Heavy Metal" movie, on acid, during my college days. Second to Rat Queens.
Sex Criminals, Vol 1:
BLARGH. Start with a lame and far-fetched premise: A girl finds out that time stops around her, whenever she has an orgasm. She meets a boyfriend, finds he has the same power. In other words, they get their rocks off, everything around them stops, and they get to play infinite-speed-super-Flash. So, they decide to turn to crime. In an attempt to be "noble", they go to rob the bank that is foreclosing on the library where the girl works. They get interrupted by other orgasm-Flash-powered people who are playing cop, and hilarity ensues. Bottom of the barrel, saving Ms Marvel from that dismal fate.
[DW Original]