Heartthrob Vol 1 Never Going Back Again by Christopher Sebela, Robert Wilson 4, Nick Filardi

Rating: WARTY!

This one looked interesting from first glance but was tedious to read. It had the engaging premise that a sickly woman who got a heart transplant was now haunted and sometimes possessed by the man whose heart she gained, but she also gained his heart in a figurative sense, and she can experience him as a real person and have a physical relationship with him. The two become inseparable - so to speak.

While this was an intriguing idea and a slightly new take on this kind of story, the problem was that she talked to him regularly in the company of others and never once was she picked up by those people in white coats and carted off someplace for medical attention, so it was a bit unbelievable.

The problem for her in the story was that the man was a smooth criminal, and he wanted to continue his thievery using her as his host - and she agreed and developed a real taste for robbing banks and pulling other heists. That's pretty much the story right there, believe it or not and it really wasn't that great. It was tedious how they kept on robbing places and all that really changed was the venue, so...boring! The dialog was poor and the artwork equally bad, and I really have no desire to read any more of this and I cannot recommend this volume.

Welcome Back by Christopher Sebela, Jonathan Brandon Sawyer, Claire Row

Rating: WORTHY!

This piqued my curiosity because it as about a character who kept reliving her life through the ages, and in assorted genders, carrying on a feud which went so far back in history that no one knew any longer why it was they were feuding.

People are reincarnated and the main character Mali, reappeared this time as a woman named Mali. She is living a quiet life because her father was a serial killer. It's only when she 'wakes' and recovers memories of her past lives that she realizes her father is a reincarnator too, and his serial killing was no more than him 'doing his job' which job Mali now inherits.

Her main foe is Tessa, a kick-ass, short-haired blonde girl who was quite impressive and who was relentlessly if not manically pursing Mali for their showdown, even as Mali backs away, tiring of this endless, pointless, ridiculous war.

I enjoyed this story but it was rather wordy with endless expositional internal monologue, so i will not pursue this series, but this one I can recommend because it had a great ending.

Captain Marvel Down Vol 2 by Kelly Sue Deconnick and Christopher Sebela

Rating: WARTY!

Art work: Dexter Soy and Filipe Andrade
Colors: Dexter Soy, and Veronica Gandini Jordie Bellaire

Erratum:
"Whether the tunned collapsed...." should be "Whether the tunnel collapsed...." (no page numbers of course)

Today is the first of July. It marks the end of my year of living dangerously, wherein I published two reviews per day, 365 consecutive days, didn't miss a day! I am so glad that's over! It was a great discipline, though, which hopefully gave me a better work ethic for creative writing.

The advent of July also marks a change in that I'm through with posting book cover images with my reviews. This blog is about writing, and unless you self-publish, the cover has nothing to do with the author and typically nothing to do with the story either, so why indulge Big Publishing&Trade;? Yeah, kids books and graphic novels are perhaps exceptions, but I don't do that many of those compared with regular chapter books I review. Besides, covers change too, so as soon as you post your image, it's likely obsolete. Enough already! I'm writing about the writing from now on. If you want pretty pictures try Pinterest or DeviantArt.

So for fun, I'm starting out this month with a Smack-Down! Yeah! I was in the library a few days ago and they had a display of literature about women or written by women, and part of the display was a set of graphic novels about female super heroes or other characters, and they happened to have Captain Marvel and Ms Marvel sitting side-by-side, so I immediately thought, let's put 'em in the cage together and see who rings whose bell.

Here's Captain Marvel in précis: fight giant robot. Next day take cat to vet, and on the way, fight giant dinosaurs along-side Spider-Woman. Later, rescue subway train. Be spied upon by hawk-like humanoids who later attack and drop you thirty-three stories while your energy is low from earlier activity. Earth's mightiest super hero? Doubtful! Take home wandering child with whom you have a discussion about whether or not Captain Marvel could beat the Hulk. Get bawled out for living in apartment block and since you have no secret identity, by your presence endanger everyone who lives in that block with you. Get a visit from Captain America on a flying motorbike. Have brain growth diagnosed which could wipe your memory if it does what the doc fears it might do.

Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, is with her friend Monica Rambeaux, another super hero type, investigating some sort of Bermuda triangle event but not in the so-called Bermuda Triangle. There is all manner of sunken ships and downed, drowned airplanes in this one area. Cap'n Marvel has no cape, thank goodness. Marvel super heroes tend not to sport them, but Monica wears a long overcoat for no apparent reason, so it that might as well be a cape.

Sounds boring, huh? Well that's exactly how I felt with this completely lackluster story supported not at all by hopelessly indifferent art work. This was volume two, and I hadn't read volume one, but I don't get the impression that it mattered at all. That's what happens, though, when there's absolutely nothing whatsoever on the cover to indicate that this isn't a standalone, or that this isn't number one in a series.

For me, this comic smacked itself down and I can't recommend it.