Gail Simone

The cover of this one made me feel a little skeevy when I picked it up from the library-- only one button, Oracle? a "belly window," Huntress?-- but this is the start of Gail Simone's celebrated run on Birds of Prey. For most of the story, Black Canary is captured and seemingly under threat of torture, an interesting contrast to what happened to her at the beginning of Mike Grell's Green Arrow run in The Longbow Hunters. That torture removed her sonic cry, destroyed her ability to have show more children, and caused her to largely abandon her crime-fighting career. And, of course, she was utterly dependent on Green Arrow to rescue her. (Though what's not often mentioned is that in the prelude to The Black Arrow Saga a couple years later, Green Arrow was just as badly tortured, and rescued by Black Canary in an amazing example of sheer ass-kicking.) The torture her serves as a rebirth of sorts for Black Canary: she remasters her sonic cry, and she's rescued not by her boyfriend, but by her new best friends, Oracle and the Huntress, working together as they've never done before-- not to mention Canary's own quick thinking. It's an effective way to signal the beginning of a new era.

Otherwise, this is a serviceable but unremarkable superhero story, involving captures, double-bluffs, escapes, and lots of fighting. The best part of it is Simone's grasp of the characters; she ably picks up the ball from Chuck Dixon and carries on the development of Dinah and Barbara, adding Helena into the mix as well. There are a lot of great moments: Helena saving a baby, Dinah having to cope with a wheelchair of her own, Barbara's battle of wits with Savant.

If only Ed Benes didn't feel compelled to show off all the female characters' butts and boobs at every opportunity. Are you fifteen, dude? What is this supposed to be in aid of? I also miss the Black Canary costume introduced at the beginning of Dixon's run; I'm not sure where it went in the gap between Old Friends, New Enemies and this story. Benes also draws Dinah a little too young; especially with that haircut, she looks like she's 20 years old, when in fact she's a few years older than Barbara. On the other hand, I think he gets Barbara down perfectly, and he's pretty adept with facial expressions, which is important when you have a largely immobile character!

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The ten year anniversary of Killgrave's control of Jessica is coming up, coinciding with a batch of horrible migraines, the trial of Killgrave's practice victim, Jessica's trying to give up coffee ... and a bunch of Jessica variants from other dimensions suddenly appearing at her home.

Noto's artwork is good, particularly selling the facial expressions and emotions of the characters at all times. Simone (unsurprisingly) writes an excellent Jessica Jones, her voice and personality consistently show more on point, funny and hitting all the right emotional beats. The A-plot of her lingering issues wit the Purple Man is also terrific. The B-plot ... well, for a multiversal hijinks storyline, it is fine -- considerably better than I would expect, honestly, but nothing special. I can't help but feel this would have been a much stronger book if doing entirely without this gimmick, and simply fleshing out Jessica, the character of Maria Snyder, and the dread of Killgrave's spectre in their minds.

Even so, this is a good read, and recommended to most Jones fans. The only thing I'm missing is the noir, private eye angle that has served the character so well previously, but for a short collection with a huge sci-fi premise, that would have felt shoe-horned in any case. show less

I had to grit my teeth when yet another Jessica Jones book began with the return of the Purple Man. (Can we put him in a box and set him aside for a good long while, please?) But the story slowly moves Zebadiah KIllgrave to the side as Jessica gets increasingly involved with her alternate reality doppelgängers -- the multiversal "variants" of the title -- who suddenly start popping up.

The required slugfests upon first meeting lead to a Jessica Jones support group with some humorous show more one-upmanship for who has it the worst and who can be trusted the least.

What really lifts the story though are its Luke Cage moments. He steals the scene every time he shows up, from introducing someone to the most dangerous real estate in the world, to being kinder to a woman on an elevator than she is to him, to being "damn bulletproof."

Jessica is at her best when she is with Luke, and all those sad variants are just gonna have to be jealous of that. show less

A well-written, strongly-illustrated, highly-compelling graphic novel. Clean Room takes a Scientology-esque institution and places it into productive action, revealing an alternative awareness of the world which both enlightens and terrifies those who know. Astrid Mueller is a horror writer turned self-help guru who has attracted a large umber of devoted followers, including nearly all of Hollywood, who attend weekly "readings" and espouse her wisdom. The organization is also cited in a show more number of suicides, calling into question Mueller's intentions and control, and whether or not her "help" is really positive. When a reporter's fiance falls under Mueller's spell, and kills himself suddenly, she makes it her mission to expose Mueller and take down the organization. Of course, there is far more to the story than she imagines, which she discovers after being allowed a rare glimpse into the "clean room" that is Astrid's true command center. The book is a creative take on alternative social communities and suggestive of a real horror that will leave readers on edge. The character development is strong and largely believable, making the fantastic all the more possible. Very well done. show less