Houser, Jody
AVERAGE REVIEW SCORE:
3.5 out of 5
(4 books)
TOP PICK:
Star Wars: TIE Fighter
Doctor Who: Empire Of The Wolf
(Art by Roberta Ingranata)
Rose Tyler is pulled back from her life in a parallel universe into an encounter with the Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann). Meanwhile, the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) encounters another Rose Tyler, product of a paradox, who is Empress of a conquering empire. The two Doctors then have to figure out how to get one Rose back to her adopted universe and how to prevent the other from becoming a conquering tyrant.
What makes this book worthwhile are the interactions between three of the four main characters. I love a multi-Doctor story and seeing the pre- and post- Time War Doctors interact always makes for interesting reading. It's also really interesting to see Rose interact with the Doctors, neither of whom is either of the incarnations she knows so well. It's particularly emotionally engaging to see the Eleventh Doctor meeting up with Rose, a woman whose loss devastated his previous incarnation, shortly after he has lost both Amy and Rory.
Unfortunately the fourth main character, Empress Rose, is far less engaging and her backstory is never really explained. I assume it must've happened in some other comics story but we definitely could've done with a more detailed recap here in order to actually get on board with such a radically different version of Rose.
However, this book's biggest problem is that its story is very rushed. The plot skips ahead so fast that at times I thumbed back a couple of pages to make sure I hadn't accidentally skipped some. There are complex scenes that are given almost no time to develop and establish themselves before things move on at a rapid pace. I felt like this book could've been infinitely better by being just a little bit longer, but instead comes across as rushed, incomplete and, ultimately, a bit unsatisfying.
3 out of 5
Ms. Marvel: Fists Of Justice
(Art by Ze Carlos, Ibraim Roberson and Dave Wachter)
When swarms of robotic creatures attack various powered individuals and steal blood samples, Kamala Khan sets out to track down those behind it. On the way she is gleefully pushed into team-ups with the X-Men, Moon Knight and Venom.
Kamala Khan remains one of the best characters Marvel have introduced in the past couple of decades, with her inherent morality, her relatable fangirling and her simple joie de vivre (and Iman Velani is one of the best things in the MCU right now for capturing all of that perfectly). What I particularly liked for this adventure for the teen hero was seeing her team-up with some of the Marvel Universe's most notorious loners, not to mention some of its scariest and most violent anti-heroes. So, whilst it's cool to see Wolverine, Moon Knight and Venom team-up, without Kamala there would be no heart to the story.
The actual threat involved in this story is pretty disposable and the antagonist unremarkable, but the book is carried nicely by the interactions between the title character and her superheroing peers.
4 out of 5
Star Wars: Thrawn
(Art by Luke Ross)
The graphic novel adaptation of Timothy Zahn's novel of the same name, set between Episodes III and IV. On a remote planet Imperial forces capture a mysterious alien who introduces himself as Thrawn. After a meeting with the Emperor, Thrawn is fast-tracked through the Imperial Navy, accompanied by his aide Eli Vanto. However, despite being tactically brilliant, Thrawn lacks political savvy and gains numerous enemies within the Empire itself, whilst also matching wits with a resistance leader known as Nightswan.
Timothy Zahn is known for his complex plots with lots of subtlety and nuance but there's very little space for anything of that kind in this fairly short graphic novel. Instead, I'd say that what we get here is a summary of the 'Thrawn' novel which hits the major important points but lacks any of the original author's flair. If you want to see how Thrawn goes from exile to Grand Admiral and don't have the time to spare to read a novel, then this will get you from A to B easily enough.
I have to say that I'm also not a huge fan of Luke Ross' artwork in general, which remained true here with one exception; Thrawn himself. Ross does an excellent job of portraying the character and remembering, in a way that Zahn himself sometimes seems to forget, that Thrawn is a villain.
Overall, a functional and uninspired adaptation of a much better novel.
3 out of 5
Star Wars: TIE Fighter
(Art by Roge Antonio, Michael Dowling, Joshua Cassara, Geraldo Borges, Ig Guara and Juan Gedeon)
Set shortly before 'Return of the Jedi', this book follows a squadron of TIE Fighter pilots as they face dogfights with Rebels, corruption within the Empire and betrayal from within their own ranks.
This book nicely evokes the feel of Michael A. Stackpole's X-Wing stories, introducing us to a mismatched group of pilots having to put aside their differences to fight as a cohesive unit, whilst also showing us some dynamic and exciting starfighter action. It also does a good job of getting you emotionally invested in characters who won't necessarily survive to the final page.
Only two things hindered this book for me. The first is an aesthetic one; I didn't like the see-through helmet artwork used to show the pilots' faces during combat. I absolutely understand the importance of seeing their reactions, which would be hidden by their Imperial flight helmets, but the way it was executed just didn't work for me at all. The second thing I didn't love was that this represents another example of a weird trend among (evil) Disney's new canon stories, which is to tell stories sympathetic to the Empire. With the likes of this, 'Inferno Squad' (by Christie Golden), the new Thrawn trilogy (by Timothy Zahn), 'Tarkin' (by James Luceno) and 'Lords of the Sith' (by Paul S. Kemp), they seem to be going all-out to get us to sympathise with characters who serve a genocidal authoritarian fascist regime. It's a very weird angle to pursue and, personally, I prefer to read Star Wars stories focusing on characters who are less morally reprehensible.
4 out of 5