In which these are not the droids you're looking for....
Nobody reads Friday night posts, y/y? Good. Look away now! No, rly. I hated these graphic novels. Don't say I didn't warn you. Last chance: instead of reading my post you could read this post on cracked that basically exposes dystopian post-apocalyptic fic as unrealistic libertarian propaganda (but does so with subtlety and humour):
http://www.cracked.com/article_21928_4-things-the-walking-dead-gets-wrong-about-apocalypse.html
- Reading, books 2016, 215
194. Monstress, by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda, 2016, is a fantasy horror comic set in one of those post-apocalyptic dystopias that appear to have been designed as libertarian propganda. All the characters are chaotic evil (except cannon fodder guards who are, of course, lawful evil). The worldbuilding and plot are powered entirely by handwavium, while the characters are walking tropes spouting cliches. In the first chapter readers learn that the big bad uberbitches (who all hail from pumped-up helium-breasted no-bra land) keep their armoury down in the prison cells so any escaping prisoners can help themselves on their way out, which makes me wonder how they gained their uberpower or kept it for more than five minutes. The art's for people who enjoy looking at mutilated women and the theme is mutilation porn *not* living with disability. The first two big bad uberbitches introduced are evil sadistic lesbians. Then there's the fact that the first/only prominent character with darker skin is evil and looks exactly like the most/only iconic Black woman in mainstream global comics: with straight white hair, blue eyes, and skin precisely the same shade as Ororo Munroe / Storm. The big bad uberbitches' lair is Ancient Egyptian themed and the only African referenced art in the book. Some of the art is also reaching for a nomadic Tibetans versus "civilised" Chinese contrast but I'm not qualified to judge whether that works or is cultural exploitation, either of which might make it read differently in other cultures. Oh, and the wolf queen's face is laughably badly pastede on, lol. The Freudian misogyny is epic. The uber magic symbol is supposed to be an eye but looks much more like a cµnt and the "monstress" turns into a black hole surrounded by tentacles which she describes as "motherfucker" in the first use of that term in the book. There's an atom of a hint of some potential backpedalling by chapter five out of six, which is also when the first two male characters join the cast of characters, but after four issues of libertarian wet dreams I can't see why anyone who wasn't reading for that would give a shit. (1/5 P.S. I have nothing in general against "I have scary things inside me and feel sooo alooone" teen-fic, indeed it's tropey because it's necessary for many teens)
• Classic lolworthily terrible pulp dialogue balloon from a big bad uberbitch: "Impossible. No archanic is immune to lilium. Unless..." [/literally the bestest bit in the whole book]
• Next big bad uberbitch shows up: "What a fool I was." Followed by an entire page of her clunky plot exposition.
• The action stops for a whole page lecture by a white cat on a melting pot culture based on unregulated capitalist globalisation being the bestest thing evah. I'm guessing the cat's name is Reincarnated Ayn Rand, lol.
• Then the Monkey King exposits to a woman about something she did herself. Good grief make it stop.
• And at the end of chapter six the Black Knight Sir Corvin D'oro says, "None shall pass." LOLOLZOMGLOLOL.
Unwritten series: I read the earlier volumes up to 2012 and stopped around the time the Fables crossover inevitable trash fire was announced. I've now read the remainder of the series and was at best underwhelmed.
196. Unwritten, vol.7, The Wound, by Mike Carey and Peter Gross, 2013.
198. Unwritten, vol.8, Orpheus in the Underworld, by Mike Carey and Peter Gross, 2014.
Hanging Rock in Victoria seems a rather long way to travel overland from Brisbane in Queensland with a unicorn, y/y? Hmm, t'interwebz claims it's 1655km driving distance in under 18hrs. I'm guessing whoever fact-checked this mistook Hanging Rock the settlement in New South Wales for HR aka Mount Diogenes in Victoria (629km @ 7.5hrs).
199. Unwritten, vol.9, Orpheus in the Underworld, by Mike Carey and Peter Gross and Willingham, 2014, is a Fables (EW) crossover which does nothing for Unwritten whatsoever. In the first comic Willingham's (EW) contribution is three pages of non-stop right-wing misogynist hate memes, and then in the last Carey writes as a hero a typical abusive ex-husband murdering his ex-wife and children while claiming he "loves" them. (0/5 nothing for Unwritten readers in this tedious Fables-a-thon)
203. Unwritten, vol.10, War Stories, by Mike Carey and Peter Gross, 2014.
A woman literally puts her head in a noose and relies on mercy from the men who intended to hang her, and a woman forces a man to murder her so she can be reborn as something better, and the next page features a woman's ghost as a vampire's lover. This whole volume reads as if it's been infected with Willingham's crap.
215. Unwritten, vol.11, Apocalypse, by Mike Carey and Peter Gross, 2015.
Richie slut-shames Lizzie for expressing a desire to be kissed on the lips. And then an enchantress makes a false rape accusation against "our hero" which Lizzie immediately accepts without question and then later claims she was following a script and begs his forgiveness, ugh. And this whole thing reads as if Carey had relationship problems and became an MRA sometime around volume 9.
This entry was originally posted at http://spiralsheep.dreamwidth.org/607555.html and has
comments Please comment there using OpenID.
http://www.cracked.com/article_21928_4-things-the-walking-dead-gets-wrong-about-apocalypse.html
- Reading, books 2016, 215
194. Monstress, by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda, 2016, is a fantasy horror comic set in one of those post-apocalyptic dystopias that appear to have been designed as libertarian propganda. All the characters are chaotic evil (except cannon fodder guards who are, of course, lawful evil). The worldbuilding and plot are powered entirely by handwavium, while the characters are walking tropes spouting cliches. In the first chapter readers learn that the big bad uberbitches (who all hail from pumped-up helium-breasted no-bra land) keep their armoury down in the prison cells so any escaping prisoners can help themselves on their way out, which makes me wonder how they gained their uberpower or kept it for more than five minutes. The art's for people who enjoy looking at mutilated women and the theme is mutilation porn *not* living with disability. The first two big bad uberbitches introduced are evil sadistic lesbians. Then there's the fact that the first/only prominent character with darker skin is evil and looks exactly like the most/only iconic Black woman in mainstream global comics: with straight white hair, blue eyes, and skin precisely the same shade as Ororo Munroe / Storm. The big bad uberbitches' lair is Ancient Egyptian themed and the only African referenced art in the book. Some of the art is also reaching for a nomadic Tibetans versus "civilised" Chinese contrast but I'm not qualified to judge whether that works or is cultural exploitation, either of which might make it read differently in other cultures. Oh, and the wolf queen's face is laughably badly pastede on, lol. The Freudian misogyny is epic. The uber magic symbol is supposed to be an eye but looks much more like a cµnt and the "monstress" turns into a black hole surrounded by tentacles which she describes as "motherfucker" in the first use of that term in the book. There's an atom of a hint of some potential backpedalling by chapter five out of six, which is also when the first two male characters join the cast of characters, but after four issues of libertarian wet dreams I can't see why anyone who wasn't reading for that would give a shit. (1/5 P.S. I have nothing in general against "I have scary things inside me and feel sooo alooone" teen-fic, indeed it's tropey because it's necessary for many teens)
• Classic lolworthily terrible pulp dialogue balloon from a big bad uberbitch: "Impossible. No archanic is immune to lilium. Unless..." [/literally the bestest bit in the whole book]
• Next big bad uberbitch shows up: "What a fool I was." Followed by an entire page of her clunky plot exposition.
• The action stops for a whole page lecture by a white cat on a melting pot culture based on unregulated capitalist globalisation being the bestest thing evah. I'm guessing the cat's name is Reincarnated Ayn Rand, lol.
• Then the Monkey King exposits to a woman about something she did herself. Good grief make it stop.
• And at the end of chapter six the Black Knight Sir Corvin D'oro says, "None shall pass." LOLOLZOMGLOLOL.
Unwritten series: I read the earlier volumes up to 2012 and stopped around the time the Fables crossover inevitable trash fire was announced. I've now read the remainder of the series and was at best underwhelmed.
196. Unwritten, vol.7, The Wound, by Mike Carey and Peter Gross, 2013.
198. Unwritten, vol.8, Orpheus in the Underworld, by Mike Carey and Peter Gross, 2014.
Hanging Rock in Victoria seems a rather long way to travel overland from Brisbane in Queensland with a unicorn, y/y? Hmm, t'interwebz claims it's 1655km driving distance in under 18hrs. I'm guessing whoever fact-checked this mistook Hanging Rock the settlement in New South Wales for HR aka Mount Diogenes in Victoria (629km @ 7.5hrs).
199. Unwritten, vol.9, Orpheus in the Underworld, by Mike Carey and Peter Gross and Willingham, 2014, is a Fables (EW) crossover which does nothing for Unwritten whatsoever. In the first comic Willingham's (EW) contribution is three pages of non-stop right-wing misogynist hate memes, and then in the last Carey writes as a hero a typical abusive ex-husband murdering his ex-wife and children while claiming he "loves" them. (0/5 nothing for Unwritten readers in this tedious Fables-a-thon)
203. Unwritten, vol.10, War Stories, by Mike Carey and Peter Gross, 2014.
A woman literally puts her head in a noose and relies on mercy from the men who intended to hang her, and a woman forces a man to murder her so she can be reborn as something better, and the next page features a woman's ghost as a vampire's lover. This whole volume reads as if it's been infected with Willingham's crap.
215. Unwritten, vol.11, Apocalypse, by Mike Carey and Peter Gross, 2015.
Richie slut-shames Lizzie for expressing a desire to be kissed on the lips. And then an enchantress makes a false rape accusation against "our hero" which Lizzie immediately accepts without question and then later claims she was following a script and begs his forgiveness, ugh. And this whole thing reads as if Carey had relationship problems and became an MRA sometime around volume 9.
This entry was originally posted at http://spiralsheep.dreamwidth.org/607555.html and has
comments Please comment there using OpenID.