It’s a big week for us at Nerdophiles. Sam read and enjoyed three series from BOOM! Studios, Giant Days, Goldie Vance, and The Woods. Kylee was less impressed by Skybourne #1 also from BOOM! Studios, but she’s still interested to see where the series is going.
Jackson covered Daredevil #11 from Marvel Comics and tackled Supergirl #1 from DC Comics.
Check out the full reviews below and tell us what you’re reading in the comments!
Sam’s Reads
Giant Days #18
Author: John Allison
Artist: Max Sarin
Publisher: BOOM! Box
Source: BOOM! Studios DRC
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It’s the end of the first year and it’s time for all of our remaining plot lines to work themselves out. Remember Ed and Esther’s problems with Dean and the plagiarized papers? Don’t you worry. It’s all sorted out this issue. They call on the help of Susan and a 24/7 discount attorney in order to figure out that actually re-writing plagiarized papers isn’t necessarily a crime or even against the honor code. Turning them in, though? That could get you in trouble.
And while Ed and Esther may be in the clear Dean gets ratted out by a school paper journalist (who may or may not also have a thing for Ed now).
Dean may not have gotten expelled but he did make a mad dash from the university leaving Ed and McGraw’s housing plans in flux. Sadly, they won’t be staying in their freshman dorm another year. They all learn that the dormitory is being knocked down and replaced with suite style student apartments. Daisy gets a little emotional but all in all everyone seems to effectively just accept the tide of progress.
This issue provides a really nice wrap up to the story lines and leaves some of them open enough to be continued on into the next school year. Plus we get a little hint that the next time we see the girls they may not be at school but at a summer music festival before the fall term starts out. That could be exciting! Here’s to a great first year, Giant Days. (Well, year and a half as far as publishing goes.) Here’s to many more to come!
Goldie Vance #5
Author: Hope Larson
Artist: Brittney Williams
Publisher: BOOM! Box
Source: BOOM! Studios DRC
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It’s the first issue of a brand new story arc for Goldie and her friends and I couldn’t be more excited. I love this series. It’s fun, quirky, and brilliantly illustrated. Hope Larson and Brittney Williams are basically my girl power dream team right now and I hope this book lasts until Goldie Vance is a little old lady solving mysteries from her nursing home. I love it. It’s just so classically endearing.
Anyway, enough gushing.
In this issue Goldie and her best friend Cheryl happen across a female astronaut passed out on the beach with no ID and no memory of what happened. Cheryl doesn’t think she’s an astronaut but when NASA (or someone claiming to be NASA) shows up to talk to them about the ‘astronaut’ she clams up and Goldie steals all the glory.
Understandably pissed off since her whole life dream is working for NASA, Cheryl shuts Goldie out. Goldie ultimately wants to apologize (and solve the mystery) but she can’t find Cheryl anywhere and even the astronaut has gone missing from the hospital! The last thing she sees in this issue is the two of them driving away together.
The plot thickens!
What is Cheryl doing? Who is this mysterious blonde woman who can’t be a NASA astronaut… can she? This book has me hooked again.
The Woods #25
Author: James Tynion IV
Artist: Michael Dialynas
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Source: BOOM! Studios DRC
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The Woods is in the final stretch, folks. If you read the synopsis for this book you’ll see that it says: “The final year of The Woods begins here…” The final year. Time does fly. The Woods has been one of my favorite books ever since I picked up the first issue and while it’s had some rough patches it’s still an incredibly enjoyable sci-fi series.
So where does the first issue of the last year of The Woods start? It starts where it all began – back on Earth. We catch up with the people left behind when Bay Point disappeared. The parents it turns out still gather in remembrance of their lost children. Some of them buy the government story that an explosion decimated the school. Others do not. Some have hope that they may see their kids again. Some buy into the crazy conspiracy theories. And a few have seen their lives ruined because they refuse to give up on their kids.
Meanwhile, far away, the Bay Point kids are celebrating two years, too. Now fully integrated into New London society, they have their very own sort of arrival ceremony. They’ve got their own representation in the Senate. They have their own fighting brigades. They’re settling in.
Sanami isn’t a big fan of the whole celebrating what was pretty much a devastating moment for all of them. But Ben is getting to know his new boyfriend’s family. And Karen is… dealing with Calder’s death. Not that well but still better than you might think. (As in she’s talking to him in his crypt and what not.)
But as everyone’s http://pharmacy-no-rx.net/cipro_generic.html lives start settling in, things get shaken up by the return of Isaac. After a year with creepy, dead, energy Adrian he’s back. And he’s got a plan to get them back home.
Hell of a start to the beginning of the end, The Woods.
Sam Wildman is a co-founder and co-editor at Nerdophiles. She would probably want to get home but maybe not so badly she’d trust an apparition vomited from an alien creature called Doctor Robot. Follow her on twitter @samaside.
Kylee’s Reads
Skybourne #1
Authors: Frank Cho
Artist: Frank Cho
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Source: BOOM! Studios DRC
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With less gratuitous violence than I think everyone was expecting from series creator Frank Cho, Skybourne spends its first issue pretending to be more like James Bond than Arthurian legend… and fails at both. We’re hoping an interesting concept and some further character development can salvage the rest of the series.
Kylee Sills is an associate editor at Nerdophiles. Indiana Jones reeled her in, fridging made her wonder if the rest of the series is worth it. Follow her on Twitter @kyleewho.
Jackson’s Reads
Daredevil #11
Authors: Charles Soule
Artist: Ron Garney
Publisher: Marvel Comics
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I’ve been up and down on the most recent run on Daredevil, which has frequently struggled with defining its identity both in the shadows of Mark Waid and Chris Samnee’s most recent, character-realigning run as well as the darker, back-to-basics take on the hero on Netflix.
The newest arc of the series, “Dark Art,” sees Matt being forced to investigate a homicidal tableau as a hero and bring down the bloody installation in his role as an ADA. It’s a smart reversal of Daredevil’s general modus operandi, which would see Matt investigating crime while figuring out how to defend someone in court. Here, he’s on the attack, even when he doesn’t want to be. He’s forced into situations he’s unfamiliar with and acting as an unwilling weapon of the District Attorney’s office.
Daredevil #11 does a solid job making its villains detestable as well. We spend a lot of time with a pair of art exhibitors trying to profit from a bloody piece and their focus on profit and art over humanity asks compelling questions that none of the issue’s characters have straight forward answers to. We also spend enough time getting to know those hurt by the piece that the reveal of the grisly piece’s artist is a suitably horrific moment.
That balancing act, between high minded moral quandaries and twisted villainy recalls Ann Nocenti and John Romita Jr.’s iconic run on Daredevil. Daredevil #11 is an issue that’s equal parts Hannibal and Enter the Dragon and that’s a fine, unexpected balance for Charles Soule and Ron Garney to walk but it’s also the most compelling story they’ve told yet.
Supergirl #1
Authors: Steve Orlando
Artist: Bernard Ching
Publisher: DC Comics
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There’s never been a better time to reintroduce Supergirl to a wider audience. Since the TV series’ debut, the character has had a higher profile than ever and DC missed out by not having the character appearing in a comic. Now, she’s back in a new book by Steve Orlando and Bernard Ching, who opt to focus on character here, stripping away much of what didn’t work about the New 52’s incarnation of Kara Zor’El and leaving one, glaring, frustrating bit of continuity.
While Supergirl Rebirth #1 focused on Kara in combat, this week’s Supergirl #1 focuses on Kara as an infiltrator. Here, she’s doing her best to blend in, pretending to be a normal high school student, a charming daughter and the perfect hero for the DEA and she’s mostly failing. Unlike Clark, Kara’s still deeply impacted by the life she lived on Krypton before the planet’s destruction and she can’t quite get around the expectations that have been placed on her.
She’s not entirely in the loop with what the DEA wants with her or what is expected of a high school student and, as many high schoolers before her, she’s frustrated that she can’t just be the person she wants to be. It’s arguably the most human Kara’s felt in years, maybe since she was a Red Lantern there for a hot minute and even that didn’t work as well as it should have.
Portraying Kara as a high school student is a smart move, reminiscent of the great, under-appreciated Cosmic Adventures in the Eighth Grade. She’s relatable without losing what makes her heroic, inspirational without feeling unobtainable. The only real issue is still a nagging problem that’s plagued the character since 2011: Cyborg Superman.
For reasons that still just don’t make sense, the New 52 revealed that Kara’s father had been transformed into the genocidal cyborg Kryptonian, a move that mostly felt like it unnecessarily complicated a simple premise. Cyborg Superman is still here, offering threats on the issue’s final pages and I don’t want to judge things too harshly based on just a cliffhanger but it’s one of those things that’s been a problem before. I’m cautiously optimistic, especially with this creative team at the helm though.
Jackson Adams is a staff writer at Nerdophiles. Yeah, Cyborg Superman and the Eradicator are awful but he still loves ’90s Superboy. Follow him on Twitter @JacksonInACup.
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