Books: Flash, Empowered, Fafhrd, and the Mouser

[woodwardiocom]

-Three comics collections this time . . .

The Flash, the Fastest Man Alive: Lightning in a Bottle by Bilson, Demeo, Lashley

-The story of how Bart Allen becomes the fourth Flash. Despite having been a fan of the adventures of the third Flash, this book just didn't do much for me. It felt like a recycling of many earlier stories.

Empowered by Adam Warren

-The superheorine Empowered is the opposite of empowered. Yes, she has a supersuit that gives her strength, invulnerability, and energy blasts, but it rips like tissue paper, and she spends a lot of time getting captured. The book is basically a satire of superheroics, and it kinda works for me, especially the relationship between Emp, her boyfriend (a former henchman for supervillains), and her best friend (the mildly alcoholic ninja). If you like cheescake art and mocking of superhero tropes, recommended.

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser by Leiber, Chaykin, Mignola, Williamson

-The classic adventures of Leiber's F&GM, adapted by Howard Chaykin and illustrated by Mike "Hellboy" Mignola. Love it, love it, love it. (Though, if I hadn't read the stories before, I suspect the adaptations would be confusing. There's a lot going on in an F&GM tale.) In particular, Mignola's interpretation of Sheelba and Ningauble, though simple, is very evocative.

Comments

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

I read Fafhrd and the GM last year! But a really old paperback, not that edition. I loved it and picked up some more. Good!

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

[nods happily] We likes F&GM, we do. (Though I'll warn you that some of the later stories get kinda pointlessly perverse. Not that I have anything against perversion, but the story suffers.)

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

In the second book I read (they were in an underground kingdom, and one under the sea, and one in a mountain), I was getting a little annoyed at F&GM because they kept falling desperately in love with fair maidens and riding off into the sunset with them, and then starting out the next story on their own again. I'm all, Where did the fair maiden go? I hope she's okay! I figure it's just a reflection of the times when the stories were written, so I can deal, but it did get on my nerves a bit.

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

-They tend to be "love 'em and leave 'em" until fairly late in the series. In the last few stories they settle down with some fairly cool women. Despite my warning above, the end of the tale is worth reading for that resolution.

[doctor-toc.livejournal.com]

There's a fourth Flash now? Oh boy.

Have you read any of Paul Grist's Jack Staff? It's basically about a Union Jack/Captain Britain style superhero, in a comics universe built around pastiches of actual British comic books characters (Similar to Alan Moore's Albion, but with a drier sense of humour). Grist plays a lot of very subtle narrative games with the comic, riffing off the weekly anthology format of British comics and British "junk culture" in general. It's published by Image currently, and there are three trades out now. I think you're plugged in enough to enjoy it.

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

There's a fourth Flash now? Oh boy.

-Hey, ever since Barry said, "I think I'll dress up like this comic book hero of mine from the old days," the Flash story has been a generational one

Have you read any of Paul Grist's Jack Staff?

-No, but I'll keep an eye open. Thanks!