Skip to main content

Featured

Of Embassies and Origins - Justice League International Part 2 (Eaglemoss Collection v77)

  Review: Since we are doing a series of reviews focusing on Booster Gold over his nearly 40-year history, we include this one as a collection of some of his earliest appearances, dating to late 1987. That places the original publish date of these tales while his original solo series was still going strong.  This book is a beautiful, glossy hard-cover with smooth and heavy-stock paper inside, although the sometimes-low print reproduction quality leads to blurred and hard to read word balloons on occasion. It is also a rare book here in North America, as Eaglemoss Collections targeted UK fans with this series. At this point in the history of the 1987-rebooted Justice League, they have gained official United Nations recognition and sanction. To ensure their reach truly is global, they rebrand as Justice League International (as does the title of the series!) and they open new headquarters buildings around the world: New York, Paris and Moscow are included here. As this is a product of 19
Post a Comment
Read more
Labels

Review: Y The Last Man volume 4: Safeword

   

Cover of volume 4 of Y: The Last Man

Review:

In celebration of the 20th anniversary of Y: The Last Man's debut, I'm reviewing the original 10 TPB collections. Find the other reviews here: Unmanned, Cycles, One Small Step, Safeword, Ring of Truth, Girl on Girl, Paper Dolls, Kimono Dragons, Motherland, Whys and Wherefores.

Volume 4 in the amazing Y: The Last Man TPB series is packed with all the elements that make the entire run so awesome and memorable. 

Our characters continue to develop, both as individuals and in their relationships with one another. We learn more about Yorick and his experiences, both from youth and childhood, and from the earliest hours of the plague. And these revelations bring him to a crucial turning point in the series.

Dr. Mann shows a certain death wish of her own, and reveals some of the deep secrets that are motivating her in this quest to find her backup lab and seek a cure. And the Culper Ring expands a little, with 355 introducing another agent and revealing the tiniest cracks in her severe exterior.

Brian K. Vaughan's storytelling remains top-notch. This collection of 6 issues includes two story arcs, and Vaughan unpacks each of them beautifully.

In the first, Yorick is left in the care of Agent 711, in a cabin in the Colorado hills. Using unorthodox means, 711 puts Yorick through some intense and unanticipated trials. Can she really be trusted? Or is she willing to kill the last man on Earth if she does not like his answers?

It is a sexually-charged story with bondage and threatened torture, laced with intense discussions of mature themes. Pia Guerra handles the artistic challenges very well, with a handful of titillating teases mixed in with a hazy blend of memory, perception and reality. Through parts of the first volumes of this series I have occasionally found the art overly simplistic and uninspired, but not here. Framing, pacing, hide-and-reveal teases are all spot-on perfect for this story.

Guerra's skills and approach carry over into the second story arc in this collection. Yorick, Mann and 355 have made it to Arizona, but find their way blocked by the Sons of Arizona, or at least their surviving wives and daughters. This armed militia group, while small in numbers, is having an outsized effect in throttling cross-continental trade as the nation seeks to reestablish an equilibrium post-plague.

Dr. Mann makes some foolish decisions and gets herself and 355 captured by the militia. Guerra's handling of the entire story and attention to more realistic detail, is exemplified in the bruising and other effects of the beatings suffered by 355 and Dr Mann. Where superhero comics might show a tattered uniform and some scratches, here we are treated to page after page of black eyes swollen almost shut, and other lumps and abrasions.

It's a story of contrasts, and Vaughan again shows mastery of pacing in building to the climax. The cold violence of the militia, in contrast to the kindness and hospitality of PJ. The brutally lethal and efficient killing 355 can mete out, juxtaposed with her apology to one militia-woman before blowing her brains out. The goofiness of Yorick contrasted with the harsh climate and many grim deaths in this arc.

And, significantly, the contrast of the renewed dedication, on the one hand, to truth and openness between our three central characters, and on the other hand the first step down the new path starts with a lie, as Yorick hides what really happened to PJ.

This is another excellent volume in one of the very best comic series you'll ever find. Worthy of 4.5 capes out of 5.

Read all 10 reviews of Y: The Last Man here: Volume 1 Unmanned; Volume 2 Cycles; Volume 3 One Small Step; Volume 4 Safeword; Volume 5 Ring of Truth; Volume 6 Girl on Girl; Volume 7 Paper Dolls; Volume 8 Kimono Dragons; Volume 9 Motherland; Volume 10 Whys and Wherefores.

Description:

After a devastating plague, Yorick Brown is the last man left alive in a world of women. On the run from Amazon extremists who would be happy to see him dead, his friends leave him in the care of Agent 711. But 711 is not the tragic woman she seems to be and Yorick is propelled into a drug-fueled nightmare of blood and sadism. Collects issues #18-23 of the runaway hit Vertigo series by Brian K. Vaughan (EX-MACHINA, RUNAWAYS) and Pia Guerra.

Collects: Y: The Last Man issues #18-23
Authors: Brian K. Vaughan
Artists: Pia Guerra, Jose Marzan
Published By: Vertigo
Published When: Dec 1 2004
Parental Rating: Mature
ISBN-10: 1401202322
ISBN-13: 978-1401202323
Language: English
Pages: 144 pages


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts