Mount TBR 2022 discussion

To me, my Sherpas!

#76 - Super Sons: The Foxglove Mission by Ridley Pearson

I was slow getting to this second volume in Pearson’s Super Sons trilogy, mainly because the first volume was so scattered. Well…this one’s even *more* scattered, adding wild abilities for Candace as well as the Four Fingers antagonists. The names continue to jar, and for no apparent reason Pearson has Tilly adopt the costumed ID of Puppet Girl…who does nothing that Tilly doesn’t do normally. Also, Bruce Wayne’s assistant Patience leaps into action midway…and does nothing. So, it’s a mess. I have no idea if this appeals to the younger kids; certainly I doubt it’s interesting to teens. The art’s cute, mind you.

#77 - Oh My Goddess!, Volume 1 by Kosuke Fujishima

I remember reading some of this long ago and being charmed, and I’m happy to report that I’m still charmed by this. Fujishima’s characters are mostly (with a few exceptions) good people who misunderstand things, or just have a threatening look to them — like protagonist Keiichi’s dorm mates who look like gang members but reveal very non-threatening sides as they go along.

The main attraction, of course, is the Goddess (Second Class) Belldandy, an entity manning a cosmic helpline that Keiichi accidentally dials. She plummets into his world, offers him a wish, and of course he Monkey’s Paws it, leading to Belldandy being permanently connected to him — cue the comedy and slapstick as both Bell and Keiichi learn to deal with this bind.

#78 - Callan Volume 2 by James Mitchell, Peter Mitchell

Good expansions of several Callan short stories, with Ben Miles doing well as the tightly wound troubleshooter working, often against his conscience, for the ultra-secret “Section”, a division of the British security services with its headquarters in a junkyard.

#79 - Law and Disorder by Charles Soule, Javier Pulido
#80 - Disorderly Conduct by Charles Soule, Javier Pulido

Charles Soul’s short run in She-Hulk, with some solid humour work (and one giant tragedy.) Soule’s story of Steve Rogers being sued for wrongful death is excellent.

The two books are available combined as She-Hulk by Soule & Pulido: The Complete Collection.

#81 - Callan Uncovered by James Mitchell
#82 - Callan Uncovered 2 by James Mitchell

Collects a number of short stories James Mitchell wrote about his world-weary secret operative Callan, a man fully able to kill as needed despite his conscience often causing him problems — his bursts of humanity often cause his bosses a degree of frustration (over the course of the series “Hunter” changed several times.)

The short stories are somewhat different than the TV series — Hunter is pretty much the same man from story to story, while there’s more often a violent solution where the episodes often skipped the violent closure and instead twisted back and forth to a conclusion.

To round out the first volume there’s an unused treatment and an unrecorded script — probably meant for the first series, before Callan rejoined the Section. The second book has two production/technical scripts for episodes that have been lost for decades, formatted for easier reading…given the intensity of many of the surviving episodes, losing the recorded versions is a tragedy.

#83 - The Dancer at the Gai-Moulin by Georges Simenon

#10 of the series, originally published in 1931 — the Roaring Twenties are over, the Depression has struck, and there’s a murder in Liege, Belgium, one that will reveal deep secrets and petty crimes.

Maigret himself is hardly in this one — we get enough clues to realize Maigret was present briefly at the start, and is showing up here and there - but he’s there for the solution and denouement, and that’s the twisty part. Much of the time is spent with the dancer, Adéle, two teenage boys from very different backgrounds, and the plodding but rather charming Liege police.

It’s a very quick read, unless you spend time going back and forth to rationalize what happened.

#84 - The Grand Banks Café by Georges Simenon

A rather more slight Maigret than usual. Maigret answers the request of an old schoolmate and, Madame Maigret in town, switches his holiday from Alsace to Fėcamp. A trawler captain has been murdered at the end of a very fraught trip to the Grand Banks, and the radio operator is accused. But did he do it?

Maigret plods and ponders, following his own lines of inquiry, until the mystery is more or less solved. It’s an adequate enough mystery, but not very exciting.

#85 - Superman/Batman, Vol. 12: Sorcerer Kings by Cullen Bunn, ChrissCross, etc.

The twelfth collection in the pre-Flashpoint Superman/Batman series. Originally, the series had a continuity of sorts, but this eventually got abandoned and the focus changed to an anthology series, in which the stories may or may not actually be in continuity. This particular volume ranges from a "Who'd win in a fight" story to one featuring the 853rd Century versions of Superman and Batman (and various iterations of the main characters through various points in time) to the title story, where the two go up against a magical threat in two different time periods. It's no great shakes, but it's fairly entertaining stuff.

#86 - Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro, Vol. 1 by Nanashi

It’s actually hard to find a hook to talk about this manga, given that it rather goes in several directions at once — YA rom-com, high school dramedy, bullying and abuse…yeah.

The premise, basically: Senpai is a quiet, reclusive high school student with a talent for art. Nagatoro is a year below him. Senpai has been bullied over the years, and reluctant to deal with anyone…but then Nagatoro takes a shine to him. Unfortunately, she launches into a bullying campaign to get through to him. This makes most of the chapters here painful for sone, and generally not thst amusing.

Things do improve towards the end, though, but by then many might be reluctant to continue the series.

#87 - What's Michael?, Vol. 9: The Ideal Cat by Makoto Kobayashi

One of the original Dark Horse editions of the series. This collects a group of stories about the cat Michael, who in any given tale can be found in entirely different circumstances than the one before or the one after — he’s his own multiverse, I think. Sometimes he’s astray, sometimes he lives alone with a childless family, sometimes with two other cats and a kitten. Occasionally he shows up in an outlandish setting — as a cat tasked with revenge for the murder of a samurai, for instance. In one story he’s only mentioned in passing. In two others Bear the Dog is the protagonist.

Generally quietly amusing, occasionally hilarious, well worth dipping into when smiles are in short supply.

#88 - Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro, Vol. 2 by Nanashi

An improvement over the first volume, as it becomes clear what Nagatoro is up to, and Senpai develops more characteristics. It’s also occasionally quite funny.

#89 - Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro, Vol. 3 by Nanashi

The series continues to develop, with Nagatoro’s two buxom friends pushing their way in to torment Senpai — and finding Nagatoro getting in the way. While Nagatoro continues to behave atrociously, she’s softening a *lot* and Senpai, despite himself is drawing towards her. It’s a very dysfunctional relationship, but getting interesting.

#90 - Maigret's Pickpocket by Georges Simenon

Maigret #66, a latter day entry that is very much less about the mystery than the people. The mystery is finally wrapped up in a half-hearted way, with Maigret reciting a ridiculously complicated plan.

#91 - America, Vol. 1: The Life and Times of America Chavez by Gabby Riviera, Joe Quinones, Ramon Villalobos

America Chavez, Inter-dimensional refugee, steps into her first solo series here and…well, it’s not good. The character is suddenly all over the place, uncertain of herself even while she’s as headstrong as ever. The stories themselves lack focus and nuance, and the throughline about her Abuela, Madrimar, is irritating because the character does the whole tired mystery guardian thing — when it does come out, it’s a slip, and there’s little room for the two to discuss and deal with this.

Also, another Hogwarts derivative?

#92 - JSA: The Golden Age: Deluxe Edition by James Robinson, Paul Smith, etc

I’m amused that this “deluxe edition” is pretty much just the regular edition slightly remastered.

All the same, it remains an interesting read, a take on the idea that the JSA and other WWII era mystery men simply vanished rather than expose themselves to the House Unamerican Activities Committee. In this alternate world take, these heroes essentially retired, feeling unnecessary in the wake of WWII, and going back to lives that needed to be rebuilt. It’s an uneasy time for some of them — a few feel they never reached their full potential.

Now, though, it’s time for people such as Tex Thompson, former Americommando and undercover fighter. Now he’s climbing politically, his eye on the presidency eventually. He launches a program to create a new superhero — the impossibly powerful Dynaman. There’s a wrinkle, though…Tex Thompson is both who he seems…and something else entirely. And there’s only one man who can reveal the secret…and he’s lost his memory and barely surviving attempts to kill him.

The ultimate revelation about Dynaman is a bit laughable, but getting there is an interesting trip through a noir mosaic. Robinson leaves out certain Golden Age characters (Doctor Fate, Spectre, Wonder Woman) but includes the original Green Lantern and Starman. Most of all it’s a look at the heroic fantasy crashing into the dark machinations the American political reality of the time.

#93 - Elseworlds: Justice League Vol. 1 by John Francis Moore, Kieron Dwyer, Chuck Dixon, William Messier-Loeb’s, and others

A collection of various of DC’s “Elseworlds” series where alternate versions of DC characters are dropped into different realities. This means we get Superman and Batman in 1928 with Russian air pirate Alexei Luthor, a Victorian-era Wonder Woman in a setting that twists that era brutally, rendered in period detail with a period art style, a truly terrible Titans thing that doesn’t actually feature the titans, teen or otherwise, a western epic, a garbled fantasy, and an alternate Supergirl and Batgirl in a world where Batgirl has walled Gotham off and there was never a Superman.

I like alternate reality tales, frankly, and loved the Elseworlds release. It’s nice to have them compiled into thick trade paperbacks, even though they do tend to be curate’s eggs — here, the Titans story is a thorough miss, and the stodgy, stumbling “League Of Justice” is just mediocre. “Amazonia” is, meanwhile, a brutal tale, part horror story, part anti-misogynist commentary. I loved the art and the theme, but the story is hard to get through.

#94 - The Wine-Dark Deep by Jackson Lanzing and others

A mixed bag for me, again, with this Star Trek series. On the one hand it’s nice to see the storyline fairly casually dealing with gender, with the non-binary I’qos (and Sulu’s romance with Ayla of that species) and Bright Eyes apparently being ungendered — very alien species, you know — but at the same time I *hate* what was done with Gary Seven and Isis in this series, something not helped by the re-establishment of the Supervisors and Agents as benevolent guardians working for the Travelers. Having Seven become a cold, vicious killer willing to commit genocide is stupid and lazy. The same goes for the war between branches of the I’qos, with the land-bound group being willing to annihilate the planet because, I don’t know, torching everything is fun. Again, it’s lazy, a solution jammed in there because these stories are deliberately short.

#95 - ヨコハマ買い出し紀行 1 Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou 1 by Hitoshi Ashinanoヨコハマ買い出し紀行 2
#96 - Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou 2 by Hitoshi Ashinano
#97 - ヨコハマ買い出し紀行 3 Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou 3 by Hitoshi Ashinano
#98 - ヨコハマ買い出し紀行 4 Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou 4 by Hitoshi Ashinano

The first four volumes of a post-apocalyptic series that fits into a genre paraphrased as “the appreciation of things passing.” Which is to say that this is a drifting, sweet, story about a robot — the cute, caring Alpha — who runs a café in a village of sorts. There’s few people, only a couple of kids, the old petrol station, and signs that civilization as a whole is facing the end quietly. The oceans have slowly risen, taking the land; Yokohama, now mostly underwater, is a distant market town.

Alpha’s story, slowly revealed, is that she’s to be the memory of the last of Japan. She might not be immortal, but she will outlive everyone around her. For right now, we’re seeing what she sees, learning about this world through the people around here. There’s perhaps hope for her, though, as another robot, a similar model to her, has shown up, and there’s a bond.

It’s gentle, and captivating, and there’s strangeness here too. It’s almost a meditation on finality, though not on death.

#99 - Thor Epic Collection Vol. 2: When Titans Clash by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

The writing and plots are just as hokey and daft as ever, but suddenly the series is lifted out of the cod Shakespeare face-punch swamp by Kirby cutting loose and the addition of the “Tales Of Asgard” which chucks the regular continuity and goes in for fun with Nordic mythology. This volume also introduces Hercules, who has the brains of a chihuahua, leading to the start of an epic friendship between the serious Thor and happy-go-lucky Herc. Sadly, Zeus gets very little play here. Big Grouchy Daddy duties all fall to Odin, who nearly gets Thor killed.

#100 - Manhunter by Archie Goodwin and Walter Simonson Deluxe Edition

A remarkably compact thriller about Paul Kirk, a big game hunter from the 1930s who ends up revived as an assassin for “The Council,” a group of scientists intent on the betterment on mankind…except they’ve lost the plot. Kirk turns renegade, teams up with Interpol agent Christine St. Clair, and sets about destroying the Council’s schemes. Eventually he connects with Batman, as the adventure roars to a finish. There was a later story, without dialogue, drawn by Simonson after writer Goodwin had passed away in 1998.

It’s cracking good stuff. Deserves expansion, in fact — this would make a great movie.

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