Comic Review Bites

In season 6 of Buffy, Willow delved deep into her magical abilities, becoming addicted to the power and eventually becoming “Dark Willow,” the big bad of the season. Since then, she’s been struggling with the balance of her power — suppressing her desire, while still aiding Buffy and the Scoobies in the saving of the world business. At least until season 8, when Buffy banished magic from earth. In Wonderland, Willow goes on a solo journey into dangerous, mystical dimensions in an attempt to restore it.

I haven’t been reading the Buffy comics since the beginning of season 9 and am surprised to see that Willow’s issues with magic still exist, however, it is something that needed to be addressed and I think this book did a reasonably good job of it, though some of it was a bit cliché and predictable. Willow’s self-deprecating wit occasionally popped up, but not enough for my liking.

The art was cute and did it’s job, but I would have loved it if David Mack had done more than just the gorgeous covers. His scattered imagery and painted style would have taken this story to an entirely new level, perfectly capturing the ethereal feel and the sense of loss that Willow suffers with.

Powerpuff Girls Volume 1

IDW Publishing does such a fantastic job of bringing our favourite cartoons to print, without ever losing any of the fun and amusing elements that made us love them in the cartoons in the first place.

I read Powerpuff Girls with my daughters, aged eight and five. We’re all fans of the show and had a blast reading the comic, just as we have with other IDW comics, like My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I love the opportunity to share this medium with my kids with stories that they can easily understand, bright images that they enjoy, and lots of witty writing to keep my happy too.

With thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this graphic novel in exchange for an honest review.

Noah

This is a graphic novel adaptation of the recent film, which stars Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly and Emma Watson. (Side note: the book has a distinctly indigenous peoples look and feel to it, which is not the vibe I got in watching the previews and considering the cast. But I digress….)

Based on the biblical tale of Noah and his vision from the Creator of the world’s destruction by water, Noah, after some struggles with the depraved locals, builds an ark to survive the pending storm, with the help of the Watchers, fallen angels who are seeking redemption.

As the movie trailer suggests, there is a lot of action in this reworked tale, but Darren Aronofsky gives us the added bonus of an internally conflicted Noah who wants to annihilate the human race completely. Or something like that. His digression into a raving lunatic comes across as forced and, well, not particularly of the sense making. Hopefully this is portrayed better in the film.

I did like the artwork and the minimal dialogue used to tell the story. However, when the dialogue does pop up, along with some sparse narrative boxes and the occasional bible quote to point out the obvious of what Noah is doing right now, it almost made me wish there was no text at all.

With thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this graphic novel in exchange for an honest review.