2022 books: 1-7

[the_siobhan]

Somebody in the 'hood was giving away a big box of comics, so we scooped them up. I haven't really been keeping up with what's going on in comics, so I was curious about some of these titles.


    

Tokyo Ghost by Rick Remender, Sean Murphy, Matt Hollingsworth The year is 2089 and nanotech has created a culture addicted to and dependant on technology. The lead characters are a cop couple in hyper-violent LA who are sent to Tokyo, the last place in the world where nature is more important than machines. Shit happens. I gave up on this one after the third issue. The art is beautiful, but the heavy emphasis on colourful explosions and splattering body parts made the text really difficult to read - I don't normally use my glasses for reading, but even with them on I had trouble making head or tail of this. There were too many upskirts of the woman cop and the White Saviour doesn't become less of a trope just because your hero is female. Giveaway pile.

    

Generation Gone by Ales Kot, Andre Lima Araujo, Chris O'Halloran, Clayton Cowles, Tom Muller, Lizzie Kay. A scientist working for an American military project figures out how to "hack" genetic code and uses his discovery to give super-powers to a trio of Millennial hackers. I loved the way this series started. Apparently there are only five issues in total and the box only had issues 1-3. My only complaint is that one of the three characters is a budding young fascist and his friendship with the other two seems pretty fucking unlikely as a result. The writer is trying to create him as traumatized by the death of his brother, but c'mon, PTSD doesn't make you start spouting "master race" bullshit out of nowhere.

    

Southern Bastards by Jason Aaron and Jason Latour The son of the former sheriff of a small town returns to his old home to pack up his father's things and gets sucked back into the local politics. The main baddie is the high school football coach, a man who controls everything and gets away with literal murder because his team wins games. Everything about this story is exaggerated, the art, the dialogue, the characters. Even the colouring is in tones of red, brown, and orange and the Alabama heat practically rises from the pages. The lone lawful man who stands up to the small-town gangster is the plot of every spaghetti western ever, and I really enjoyed this version of it.

    

East of West by Jonathan Hickman and Nick Dragotta An alternate time-line where the American civil war ended with a fracturing into seven independent nations. It's the countdown to the apocalypse and the four horseman have not only manifested but are taking an active role in ending the world. Except that there is a schism in the ranks because Death has fallen in love with a human woman - who is the granddaughter of Chairman Mao, I swear to shit I am not making this up. I have mixed feelings about this series, because on the one hand it is full of all the tropes I hate - the awfulness of the characters, the relentless grim-dark, the fascination with atrocity - but at the same time it's done so well that I ended up being completely riveted. So if apocalyptic horror is your thing you will absolutely love this.

    

Spread by Justin Jordan and Kyle Strahm The "spread" is an infectious meat monster that basically absorbs people into itself. The story takes place approximately ten years after the Spread started taking over chunks of the landscape. Not super original, to be honest and all the tired humanity-is-terrible tropes get trotted out. People turn into slavers and cannibals? Check. Stoic lone wolf hero? Check. The only main woman character is traumatized into near imbecility? Check. Giveaway pile.

    

Outcast by Robert Kirkman and Paul Azaceta The main character - the "outcast" of the title - teams up with a pastor to battle an outbreak of demonic possession. Demons are mean and make people sad. Pretty standard Exorcist fare.

    

Trees by Warren Ellis and Jason Howard Now this is more like it. The "trees" of the title are alien artifacts that landed ten years ago. They are so huge they changed local weather patterns, and buried themselves right through whatever infrastructure was in their way. Now they sit passively on the landscape ignoring what goes around them, meanwhile the entire world has changed as a result of their existence. I guess the guy who collected these doesn't share my taste because there are only a few issues of this one, but it's definitely the most interesting one in the pile.