Phil Noto

Volume 1 started off strong, but volume 2 takes it up a notch – as evident by the cover. I absolutely love the image of Black Widow sitting on The Punisher logo. The inside follows through in a big way by bringing in not only Frank Castle, but Bucky Barnes as well. Three of Marvel’s morally murky characters together.

Natasha exists in a gray area. This is quickly made apparent in the opening mission by a visit from Daredevil (who practically exemplifies righteousness) who disapproves of show more her tactics. This sets the tone for the volume as she uses increasingly strong armed methods to get information. Though Natasha is highly skilled, she doesn’t have superpowers. The writer doesn’t skirt this issue and so when Natasha gets in a little over her head, she doesn’t refuse help. First from Winter Soldier and then later from Punisher. The missions get increasingly dangerous, the fights more brutal and the gray areas even murkier. Natasha’s loyalty and place in the world is called into question by her teams, and by her.

The volume closes on a bang (literally) that sets up the magnitude of Chaos and sets the stage for Last Days. 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

When browsing downloadable audiobooks on my library's ebook app I immediately hit borrow when I saw that Elizabeth Wein wrote a Star Wars novel! As an added bonus, the audiobook is narrated by Kelly Marie Tran who portrayed Rose Tico in The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker. Wein's expertise at writing stories of women pilots and the relationships among them is perfectly suited for the story of sisters Rose and Paige Tico. The story is about their involvement in a covert Resistance effort show more to provide supplies to a planet under the thumb of the First Order. But overall it's a character story about Rose learning to emerge from her sister's shadow and assert her own skills. It makes me wish all the more that we got to see more of Paige in the movies than the one scene in The Last Jedi and that Rose wasn't done dirty in The Rise of Skywalker by having her screentime cut to appease MRA manbabies who whined about a woman of color having a prominent role. show less

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