Venus Envy

Venus Envy by Erin Lindsey

A webcomic

What's it about?

Venus Envy is about young Zoe Carter, a male to female transsexual living in Salem, Pennsylvania.  It's a high school comedy focused on Zoe's life as she negotiates the perils of high school - dating, keeping secrets, making friends, overprotective parents and irritating younger brothers.  The normal sort of stuff with the normal high school cliches, but set against Zoe's life experience as a trans woman.

The creator, Erin Lindsey, is trans but this is not an autobiographical comic.

Empowered volume 1

Writer and artist:  Adam Warren
Publisher: Dark Horse

Note: This review doesn't contain any sexually explicit pictures, but be aware that the book contains graphic sex and is not suitable for children.

What's it about?
Poor Empowered.  She gets her powers from a more-than-skin-tight supersuit with a nasty tendency to malfunction at the slightest tear.  She hasn't been able to eat anything sugary since she got it, lest the people surrounding her realise she's got chubby.  The Superhomies mock her and her fighting skills leave her anything but empowered.

She's lonely and full of shame, and then she meets a former witless minion (who defeats her and ties her up of course).  This does not prove to be a problem as get together, start having lots of orgasmic sex and develop a comfortable living arrangement. Later on they are joined by a caged demonlord and a ninjette best friend.

It's a mixture of domesticity, superheroing, romance, passionate sex and mean teammates.

Teen Titans: Spotlight: Wonder Girl

Writer: J. Torres
Penciller: Sanford Greene
Inker: Nathan Massengill
Colorist: Guy Major
Letterers: Pat Brosseau, Phil Balsman, Steve Wands
Publisher: DC

What's it about?
Cassandra Sandsmark, Amazon protege and warrior, has not had a good year.  To begin with she was involved in an epic stop-the-Apocalypse type of battle.  Then her boyfriend died and in her grief she joined a cult dedicated to bringing him back from the dead.  Then her Gods and her mentor abandoned her.  Her efforts to stop a war between the Amazons and the rest of the world backfired spectacularly.

There's a lot of dangerous Hydras out there she needs to stop and on top of all this her (possibly evil) brother Hercules turns up, requesting her help to stop a God killer.

She would really rather not be dealing with all this... 

Just a quick round up and update

Any of you using Blogger's follow function might have notification of a post that doesn't exist... I accidentally hit publish on a draft post listing all books to review and now it is showing in the reading list pane on the dashboard.

In other news, all blog posts have been tidied up and typos removed.  I will also take this opportunity to remind you of this post, explaining how to use the site.

In case any readers are not familiar with blogs, there are various ways to navigate round the blog.  You can use the labels at the bottom of each post to find other books with similar themes, or other books by the same penciller or writer etc.  You can also navigate by month using the blog archive on the right - simply click on any year or month and it will list all post titles from that month.  Lastly, you can enter something into the search box in the top left hand corner.

If you want an overview of the why the site was set up or want more information about comics please browse the Aims, Objectives and Information box on the right hand side.

Thank you all commenters and readers!  I hope that you are all finding the site interesting and are getting some good recommendations.

Lastly, don't forget that you can join our facebook group  (no longer active) or follow Saranga on Twitter where she tweets about comics, feminism, deaf issues and sometimes UK news.

X-Men: Magneto - Testament

Writer: Greg Pak
Artist: Carmine Di Giandomenico
Colours: Matt Hollingsworth
Letterers: Artmonkeys' Dave Lanphear and Natalie Lanphear
Publisher: Marvel

What's it about?
The life of a Jewish boy and his family, living in Germany from 1934 (or thereabouts) to 1948.  At the start of the story young Max Eisenhardt is at school experiencing discrimination from his teachers, and at the end he has survived Auschwitz.

It's about the lies that the Nazis put forward, the degradation of the Jews and the Roma and the ways in which the persecuted groups within Nazi Germany survived, or didn't.  It is very much focused on the experiences of the victims, not the authorities.  It's about the methods and ways in which the Jews were sidelined and pushed out of society, resulting in their murder by millions in the camps.

Worlds Finest

Writer: Sterling Gates
Pencils: Julian Lopez, Ramon F. Bachs, Jamal Igle and Phil Noto
Inks: Bit, Rodney Ramos, Jon Sibal, Jack Purcell and Phil Noto
Colours: Hi-Fi and Phil Noto
Letters: Jared K. Fletcher
Publisher: DC 

What's it about?
This trade collects the 4 issue miniseries titled World's Finest, as well as two singular issues of other DC titles, namely DC Comics Presents #31 and Action Comic's # 885.  These two extra issues provide backup stories giving a more in depth look to the characters featured in the main story (the miniseries).  This review will focus on the miniseries.

Traditionally, the World's Finest title is a Superman/Batman team up book.  This version is a little different as it features 4 different team ups between the Superman and Batman families, and so explores the relationships between the heroes.  There is Red Robin and Nightwing (Chris Kent, last seen in Superman: Last Son), The Guardian and the current Robin, Supergirl and Batgirl, and lastly Superman and Batman with everyone else.

Green Arrow: Year One

Writer: Andy Diggle
Art and Cover: Jock
Color: David Baron
Letters: Jared K. Fletcher
Publisher: DC

What's it about?
Oliver Queen, multi millionaire playboy, has no aim in life.  He has a passion for Robin Hood, but not much else.  He hires someone to take him on danger trips, then gets a helicopter home and gets extremely drunk at charity fundraisers.

Suddenly he is shipwrecked on a desert island and has to fend for himself.  This being a superhero comic, he does so by becoming an ace archer.  Handily enough, he discovers an opiate farm on the island and sets about trying to put things right.

Despite what it may sound, this isn't a daft or silly book.  The art lends a lot of gravitas to the story and it is really about one man coming to terms with his potential, turning his life around and committing himself to the fight for social justice.

Batman: Two-Face and Scarecrow: Year One

Writer: Mark Sable
Penciller: Jesus Saiz
Inks: Jimmy Palmiotti
Colourist: Chris Chuckry
Letterer: Sal Cipriano
Flashback sequence art: Jeremy Haun
Publisher: DC 

Quick note:
This book contains two Year One stories, that of Scarecrow and that of Two-Face.  Both will be recognisable to anyone who's seen The Dark Knight Batman film.  Each story is completely separate and as such, this review will be focusing only on the Two-Face segment.  This is primarily because I bought the Two-Face issues when they were originally released, but not the Scarecrow issues.  However, if you can get the trade cheap, it is worth buying just for the Two-Face story.  
When the Scarecrow issues are obtained, a follow up review will be posted.

What's it about?
DC's Year One books take a look at famous heroes and provide us with stories about their first year of crimefighting.  They usually give us the background of the character, deal with their first fights and provide us with the information and events that shape them into the established characters most DC readers are familiar with.

The character of Two-Face was, for me, one of the highlights of The Dark Knight.  Aaron Eckhart portrayed Harvey Dent's fall from grace with panache and clarity.  The special effects used to create Dent's damaged face were effective and horrifying.  This book provides the in canon story of how Harvey Dent became Two-Face.  It is similar to, but not the same, as the version presented in The Dark Knight.

Megatokyo

Writer and artist: Fred Gallagher
Co-creator and original co-author: Rodney Caston
Featuring additional material
by Dominic Nguyen and Sarah Gallagher

What’s It About?
Piro and Largo are two American gamers who make a scene at the E3 Gaming Expo and feel the need to leave the country for a while. Boarding the first available plane they find themselves broke and trapped in Tokyo until they can earn the fare home. The Tokyo city of Megatokyo is a loving pastiche of manga story conventions.