Sleep-speaker

Hey guys - just checking in and letting you all know that I'm still alive, and REALLY SORRY it's been so long since I've posted. I've only been quiet because really nothing's going on much in my life right now and I'm WAY behind on almost all telly so I don't have much to say right now. Mostly my life has been consumed with what began as a casual project whereby I was going to actually clip stuff before vidding a vid I wasn't even sure I could/wanted to make and somehow spiralled into a weird completionist cataloguing project. I'M NEVER DOING IT AGAIN.

ANYWAY, I finally have something worth posting about!

( Batgirl #8 - or WOW, before I thought this comic was doing some unexpected, interesting stuff but *THIS* is what I came for. )

In addition, Batwoman is just kicking ass. It's so...rich and just all about these women with these really complicated, challenging, distinct relationships with each other. It's about power, competence, loss, betrayal, romance, ass-kicking, and supernatural noir detective work. One of my favourite things about it is that nearly everything passes the Bechdel test, and the cast is almost entirely gender reversed from the male/female split you'd expect (it's what, four or five women vs two guys in the regular/recurring roles?), but it never feels like that's what it's doing. It just feels completely natural to the point I don't even want to be mentioning it here because the comic just is. But obviously I AM going to mention it because then more of you might start reading it! :D?

Demon Knights also continues to be a hilarious and sometimes heartbreaking tale of...something or other; I'm really enjoying it. It's not Secret Six, nothing else ever will be, I don't think, but I do wonder if this book might fill part of that void. And on top of that it's got beautiful art.

Finally, two comments:

Wonder Woman: oh god, I think it broke my heart. I don't even have the desire to go into detail about why. I don't even have the energy to be angry, I'm too sad. If it were ugly or poorly written that would be easier. As it is, it's a beautifully written, visually gorgeous story that wounded me in my soul, and not in a good way. I just...I don't know dudes. I guess we'll see where it goes.

Saga: this, on the other hand, was interesting weirdness. I've read the first two now, and what I wish I could do most is sum up the type of WORLD it is, because I think if I could, I could explain what's so compelling about it. I suppose it's like...a space fairytale with a dirty mouth and a rocketship forest full of nightmares? Anyway, I'm hooked is what I'm saying.

Some Reviews Of A Sort:

( DC Universe Presents: Deadman )

( Wonder Woman )

( Blackhawks )

And we're back!

As usual, ALPHABETICAL, and spoilers follow. Also, fair warning, you may wish to start at Batwoman because my Batman & Robin review is...weird and long. Some other reviews in here are also long and some even include rants! But the first one is both weird and long and I feel it only fair to warn you all.

( Batman & Robin )

( Batwoman )

( Deathstroke )

( Demon Knights )

( Frankenstein - Agent of S.H.A.D.E. )

( Green Lantern )

( Grifter )

( Legion Lost )

( Mister Terrific )

( Red Lanterns )

( Resurrection Man )

( Suicide Squad )

( Superboy )

END WEEK TWO.

I've been meaning to write this for like...a week by this point and I just don't know how to approach it. Secret Six is a comic series featuring a bunch of D-list and originally created villains from the DC universe, written by Gail Simone. It defied all my expectations and was heartbreakingly brilliant. I want to review it. I'm not even sure where to begin, but here goes. A general, unspoilery overview is available outside the cut-tag, a more character-focused and in-depth review is available beyond the cut-tag. In it, I try not to spoil any major plot twists, but there are light spoilers and the resolutions to a few subplots are discussed, but I'm never sure how to grade spoilers, so proceed at your own risk!

The first thing to say is, I didn't originally think this would be the comic for me. I mean, I didn't doubt it was good - it was written by a writer for whom I had a lot of respect - but what I knew of it, how people sold it, was with words like "dark" and "edgy" and "twisted humour" and I know why, because I'm here, now, fumbling for different words to describe it and failing because they all apply. But I think they can also give the wrong impression. It makes it sound like one of those books where dark things happen simply because they are shocking, where the main characters are villains so that fanboyz can talk about how kewl it is that people get beheaded and how it's so much more "mature" than Superman. And if there's one thing I hate it's the fandom meme that darker = better. That you can't tell a devastating story of moral dilemmas and subtle characterisation and complex emotion with Superman, you can only do it with Batman.

But now here I am. This book is dark. This book is edgy. This book is full of delightfully twisted humour. This book is really, really good.

It's hard to explain why it doesn't succumb to the pitfalls I described above. I mean, primarily, it's because of good writing, but it's also the type of story. It's a tragedy. Like, in the classic, dramatic sense. It's about lost opportunities and bad choices. Emotional complexity is an area in which this series excels, so of course, personal pain is an element of the tale, but the story is never about single, emo tears. It doesn't feel like any kind of moral statement - it feels like six people struggling, and failing to save each other, but continuing to try anyway.

I spoke previously here about Miller's Batgirl series and how it was wildly optimistic because Stephanie Brown just kept getting up. I think that Secret Six could be described as tragic and nihilistic for the exact same reason. They just won't stop getting up.

So maybe that's it. Its darkness and edginess and twistedness is part of the architecture, but not how I would describe it. It's more like...Thelma and Louise, if they'd landed that car, and had to keep on going, somehow, forever.



Six people whose only redeeming quality is their inability to surrender, their refusal to be owned. Not out of machismo or even personal pride in the conventional sense, but because it's pretty much the last thing they have left.

( Detailed character-based review follows; light spoilers included, though I try to steer clear of anything really major. )

So, yes. Secret Six. Epic talking. I'm done now. I'm really, really going to miss this series, but, as Jeanette says, as her Dublin lullaby says;



Recommended Reading Order
Secret Six showed up in a few mini series and crossover arcs before their got their own ongoing series.

Chronologically, it goes:

Villains United (6 issues, collected as a graphic novel)
Secret Six: Six Degrees of Separation (6 issues, collected as a graphic novel)
Birds of Prey #104 - #109 (frustratingly, #104 - #108 are in one novel - "Birds of Prey: Dead of Winter" while #109 is in "Birds of Prey: Club Kids" but it's worth tracking down #109 if you can because something fairly...major happens to one of the Six).

Then we finally get the ongoing series, all of which have been collected in trade paperbacks, with the exception of the very recent issues, which I'm sure will get collected shortly, and if not are still easy to track down since the series literally only ended this month.

I do think that the mini series are worth reading and have some great stuff in them, but Secret Six #1 is also a good jumping on point and honestly I think the writing gets better as it continues, and it's really in the ongoing series that it hits its stride.

*crosses fingers this will post*

I had a couple of noncomics related things I was gonna post, but then LJ was broken and then I forgot them, and then suddenly it was the end of July and I was like, crap! I wanted to post something else! And then last night I couldn't connect to the internet at ALL because I thought my wifi card in my laptop was broken. Except now it's working again, so who knows. But I have a USB wifi adapter in case it's on the fritz so whatever, I CLAIM THAT THIS WAS POSTED AT THE END OF JULY BECAUSE IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN.

I also genuinely apologise to those of you who don't read comics or don't want to know what I think about them, but I fail at fighting it, so, you know, as always, please feel free to scroll on past and wait for the next vid/restart of the television season! I get that I'm posting stuff most of you are not interested in! :)

But! I have genuinely enjoyed Post Awesome Things Month as it's inspired me to use my LJ when otherwise I wouldn't have and I've enjoyed the other posts from other people doing it too, and yay for fighting summer LJ depression. So, since I enjoyed writing up my thoughts on Supergirl and Infinite Crisis the other week, so I figured I'd do it again for the comics I've been reading recently. (The astute among you may have noticed I haven't written anything up about Secret Six yes - that's because the final issue is coming out in a few days and I want to write something up about it when I have the whole series to consider).

Without futher ado: ILLUSTRATED REVIEWS!

( Batgirl [Volume 3; Stephanie Brown as Batgirl] )

( Batwoman [Detective Comics] )

( Batgirl: Year One )

( Power Girl )

( Detective Comics - James Gordon Jr Storyline )

REVIEWS CONCLUDED!

This is some long, hopefully not entirely incoherent meta about Wonder Woman and feminism and how I fell head over heels in love with her.

( My conversion to Wonder Woman, why she made me uncomfortable, why she makes me uncomfortable, why she's amazing. )