John Semper

Just wonderful what they're doing with this series
1:40 pm 18 November 2016
Cyborg (2016-) #5 - John Semper Jr., Guy Major, Paul Pelletier, Tony Kordos, Scott Hanna, Allan Jefferson
A young woman who was undercover gets injured so severely by a terrorist attack - in a foreign country - that she can only be saved by duplicating the procedure that created Cyborg. Normally, the US would let this go: it's a tragedy and she's a hero. Creating Cyborg was traumatic for everyone, including Victor show more Stone, who was the young man who became Cyborg. His father and the woman he loved are still coping with what Vic has become and trying to help him cope.

In addition, they'd need dangerous alien technology to do dangerous things that might put Detroit at risk if they do save this woman.

Add to all this the fact that Victor's father, Dr. Stone who is also the man responsible for the creation of Cyborg, has vowed never to save anyone in such a manner again. This all seems impossible, except that the woman they need to save said she had important information that would save more people than they put in danger.

Add to that the fact that Dr. Stone is being held captive and the man living Dr. Stone's life is an imposter determined to destroy Dr. Stone's life, and this becomes far more manageable, especially when the US government reveals that they have a mother box - the alien tech that they need - and this becomes very possible. Dr. Stone readily agrees, although his team and his son argue against this. They're fairly easily convinced: Dr. Stone is going to do this, with the government's blessing, and who else is going to make sure that this goes smoothly?

There's a lot to this: the tension between Vic, his 'father' - and his real father, the tension that's brewing between the team and Dr. Stone over this, and the fact that Vic says there's not much left of the woman they're saving and the response is that there wasn't much more of him left when they saved him. this one line acts as a lovely counterpoint to the subplot that includes Blue, the blind man Vic has befriended. Vic is still trying to figure out how much of him is human and how much is machine, and Blue argues that he just has to find his soul. He reveals, in a lovely way, that he knew that Vic was Cyborg all along. He gets assurance from the local disabled community, as well, and when he points out that he never thought of himself as disabled, they say they don't either. And yet he's a hero, and someone they look up to.

It's also a nice high note between all the tragedy, manipulation and betrayal. It's small moments in this series where it gets more street level and personal - where someone reaches out a hand to someone else and helps them rather than punching things out to save the world - that keep this from drowning in its darker aspects.

The writing is top notch and would be without them, but these counterpoints make me love this series even more than I already did.

And I read six comics yesterday and this is a longer review than I've written in a while. I'm still anxious and sad, but the crushing depression has lifted. I spent hours yesterday night and this morning relaxing myself by coloring so I didn't get to the reviews. Oops!
Graphic Novel DC bat-verse read in 2016 show less

Oooh, Kilg%re!
4:45 pm 9 October 2016
Cyborg (2016-) #2 - John Semper Jr., Guy Major, Will Conrad, Ivan Nunes, Tony Kordos, Scott Hanna, Tom Palmer, Paul Pelletier
He's got a Ke$ha thing going on with his name, and he hates humans about as much as I do. And he's trying to get Cyborg to turn his back on humanity, supposedly at the orders of a master.

I want to see where this is going. There's a lot of humanity and what it means to be human versus a machine and is there that much of a difference show more in this series, and I am digging it all.
Graphic Novel DC read in 2016 show less

I love this more with each new issue...
11:37 am 7 November 2016
Cyborg (2016-) #4 - John Semper Jr., Guy Major, Paul Pelletier, Scott Hanna, Joseph Silver, Timothy Green II
Cyborg is fighting off a nightmare that is really, well, malware. He sees his friends hunting him down, with nowhere for him to run and hide so that he can figure out what's happening to him and how to stop it.

When he does come up with the plan to materialize on Apokalis with all the other Justice League members following show more him, well, he feels guilty about it. It's not as if he had much of a choice, though. And it does allow him enough breathing room to figure out that malware, and through malware worms/wyrms are eating away at his mind and his security protocols.

He not only finds a way to defeat the enemy within, but is forced to take the battle into his most painful memories. All of it reveals memories that were stolen from him, although they were merely hidden to keep him safe. Right after the accident that left him Cyborg, Victor's father was afraid he'd be lost to his own self-destructive emotions if he had all his memories and he was responsible for this theft.

And so everything is revealed - except the name of his one true love. A woman he was convinced was his soul mate. I saw the revelation of who it was long before it was revealed, but it didn't make that peak at the last page any less heartbreaking.

I'm eager to see where this goes. show less

I kinda love Cyborg
4:44 pm 9 October 2016
Cyborg (2016-) #1 - John Semper Jr., Will Conrad, Ivan Nunes, Tony Kordos, Paul Pelletier
So far as I can tell there's the Robocop thing I like so much going on, which yes, please. He seems to keep getting more and more machine and less and less human bits - physically speaking - and yay!

He's never struck me as someone I'm that into, but I am right now! Yay, yay, yay! I'm not quite sure what about this issue did it for me, but it really, really did show more it.
Graphic Novel DC read in 2016 show less