November Book Club Review

Infinity Gauntlet

Average rating : 9

Infinity Gauntlet is a six issue collection and the first of the three Infinity titles which revolve around the near universe ending events that follow the uniting of the six Infinity Gems.

Master of Everything

The story revolves around Thanos quest to rebalance the universe for Death. To accomplish his mission Thanos collects the six infinity gems ; Soul, Time, Space, Mind, Reality, Power, and binds them together giving him absolute mastery over them and essentially grants him the power of a God.

Infinity Gauntlet features an extremely wide cast of characters from Marvel mainstays like Wolverine and Spider-man to cosmic entities like Galactus and Eternity banding together to try, and for the most part fail miserably, to save the universe from Thanos.

“ You had all these super heroes banded together that felt extremely helpless and human” - Keenan

The Mad Titan and Mistress Death

With limitless power at his disposal and little to no resistance to hinder him, Thanos embarks on a quest to rule the universe impress a girl. After completing the task Death had set him by killing half the population of the universe Thanos still found himself unable to win Death’s affections.

“I feel his situation with Mistress Death and trying to win a girls heart a bit typical and lame especially compared to his infinite power” - Mario

Having his heart set on an unachievable goal is a reflection of Thanos biggest flaw, the deep seeded sub-conscious desire to lose. As it is pointed out to him during the story the only really reason Thanos is or has ever been defeated is that deep down he wants to fail because he doesn’t feel he deserves ultimate power.

“You really need to read the back story to see why Thanos deserved the Infinity Gauntlet” -Matt

This fatal flaw is one of the reasons Thanos makes a great villain, its not his own arrogance or any great act of heroics that wins the day time after time but the characters own complexity and contradictions.

Artwork

The artwork was very typical of the early 90’s. Although a lot of us really enjoyed the artwork it was hit and miss with some panels being entirely too busy and some of the color work lacking due to the technological limitations at the time.

“Artwork was top notch but I hate that #$&@$@ pink “- Rene

“The frames were very busy” - Rick

“The artwork stood up very well” - James

That being said the cover work and splash pages were excellent, well detailed and a great balance to a very text heavy layout.

Summary

As a whole Infinity Gauntlet is a solid read, it’s a classic piece of Marvel story telling. It was more than just a straight forward heroes vs. villains story which featured the refreshing switch up of watching the heroes lose for a change. The artwork was colourful, detailed, and only a little dated considering its twenty years old. The pairing of George Perez and Ron Lim was both recognizable and well reviewed.

“ I enjoyed the way it was written, it was very contemplative” - Gabriel

“ The artwork was very natural from reading Silver Surfer” - Mathieu

“ The art was great, the pairing of Perez and Lim is some of my favourite art in comics” - Remi

Ratings

Picked the book: Scott - Rating 9.5

“ I learned so much about the Marvel characters”

Harshest critic : Colin - Rating 7

“ It was too much cosmic stuff, too convoluted”

Best rating : Boutet - Rating 10

“Thanos is never really fully the villian, he has a deep pain that humanizes him”

Next months selection : reMIND

Pick up a copy and join us December 28th

Book Club - October Review - Petrograd

Petrograd

Average rating - 8

Petrograd is a stand alone graphic novel that follows a reluctant middle class British spy charged with the seemingly impossible task of assassinating the most important man in Russia : Grigori Rasputin.

War Sucks

Petrograd is a work of fiction based on facts. The introduction did an excellent job in setting the dismal tone and depicting the desperate circumstances that most of Europe found themselves in during the first world war.

“ The story seems very true to history and puts you into the mindset of the Russian people at the time” - Rene

Personally the thought of reading a historical story sounded at best like a punishment which is why I picked it up one night thinking something boring to read would help me sleep and instead found myself reading the whole thing in one sitting . The writer did an amazing job at slowly leading you into the plot by subtly educating you on the circumstances and interests that shaped World War One. The introduction did leave the first part of the book with a fairly slow pace but one that definitely worked in the stories favor.

“The pacing seemed slow at first but it was really perfect “ - Mathieu

“ It was a great introduction to the history behind the time of the war” - Colin

The Reluctant Spy

The story follows Cleary, a former solider turned spy for the British government. When the story opens Cleary is well established in the city of Petrograd having contacts within both the upper and lower class societies as well as the Russian secret police.

Cleary himself is definitely no James Bond; he has no gadgets, no fast cars, and no aptitude for violence. He is just an ordinary man willing to do anything his country asks of him to avoid being sent back to the front lines.

“Cleary was an every man, more like a real spy” - Remi

“ It was a spy story without all the tech” - Matt

As mentioned earlier Cleary is middle class man, a concept that didn’t exist in Russia at the time. Being somewhere in the middle is really the essence of all Cleary’s problems, he constantly finds himself being drug in all directions and never doing what he thinks is right.

Eventually Cleary finds himself stuck with the impossible task of assassinating Rasputin with only idiot aristocrats to help him. Watching the poor practical Brit try to plot with a group of flamboyant fools makes for a highly entertaining story that leads him to an ending that finally sees him pull off a political coup worthy of a legendary spy.

The story is propelled by the fears, anxieties , difficulties, and ultimately the personal growth of Cleary" - Gabriel

Artwork

This book is visually stunning, The cover work alone makes it worth the purchase .

The line work is simple but extremely effective. At first it can be a little difficult to follow the story until you become familiar with the characters but once you do the simple but effective style marked by bold expressions and stunning scenery will leave you nothing but positive things to say.

The color work featured a sepia tone which in addition to adding to the old fashioned feel of the story creates beautifully shaded panels and subtle but power effects like the first appearance of the stories “villain” Rasputin.

Summary

Read this book! Seriously! Almost everyone who reviewed it loved it and was really surprised that they did. A lot of us are big super hero fans so a book about an old school spy in Russia would not have been on our usual reading list which left us all pleasantly surprised by how much we enjoyed it.

“ Not the usual, so it was nice to get my feet wet somewhere else” - Mark

“ It was a nice change of pace from super heroes” - James

The story was well written weaving humor and violence effortlessly into the bleak backdrop of early 1900’s Russia. The artwork was gorgeous and the level of detail work that went into the overall visual package was top notch . I really did expect to hate this book since it was not at all my style but it was possibly the best thing I’ve read all year! That being said some of us loved it some of us were under whelmed.

“ I could see it as a movie” - Keenan

“Not the be all and end all but it didn’t suck” - Brad

“ I wouldn’t re-read it” - Rick

Ratings

Picked the book : Cripps - Rating n/a

Theoretical quote “ I picked this book but didn’t show up”

Harshest Critic: Boutet - Rating 3

“ Incredibly promising but didn’t deliver. The artwork was left wanting”

Besting Rating: Rene / Keenan / Colin/ Gabriel - Rating 9

“When this many people give it a 9 do you really need a quote to back it up” - Me

If you've read Petrograd please comment and let us all know what you thought!

Next Month's Selection : Infinity Gauntlet

Pick up a copy and join us November 30th

Book Club : September Review

Astro City : life in the big city

Average rating - 7.5

Life in the big city is the first of eight collected editions chronicling the lives of both superheroes and everyday citizens living in the fictional world of Astro City. This volume featured six chapters , each of which was its own short story, that introduced the reader to characters and locations unique to the Astro City series.

Six Chapters, Six Stories

As previously mentioned the book is made up of six short stories….which have almost nothing to do with one another. Although it was less of an issue for some than others this was one of the main things that contributed to the lower scores given.

“I need at least a little bit of continuity” - Remi

Each story on its own had a definite beginning, middle, and end that left you satisfied with having been told a complete story but as a collection it was left feeling a little flat.

“It never really went anywhere” - Rick

I personally read a lot of novels , most of which are part of a series , so despite the fact that I really enjoyed some of the stories like “Shadow Hill” the stand alone feel of the chapters left me feeling like the writers wanted to tell me a really great story but couldn’t decide which one. This however wasn’t a problem for everyone.

“I liked the lack of story arc, it was a good intro to each character” - Colin

“The stories being told from different perspectives really clicked with me, I liked that the chapters are not all that connected” - Dennis

City and Characters

To call most of characters filling out the stories original is a bit of a stretch with most of them falling into very familiar superhero stereotypes with slight twists added, this combined with the short story aspect made for a lot of hit or miss reviews on the subject.

“It reminded me of bad superhero TV shows” - Keenan

“I liked the different take on classic characters” - Scott

Some of the exceptions to the stereotypical characters included a pro-hero reporter, an office worker, and the mysterious floating Hanged-man who managed to have impact despite only appearing in two panels.

Normally a world filled with mostly knock offs and nine to fivers would come of as lazy if not for the sheer amount of work put into the creation of the city.

“The city maps made it, the story wouldn’t have been as good without it” - Rene

“The city was really cool, kind of felt like it was my favourite character” -Dennis

Astro City itself really is the main character of this story with the most favourably reviewed stories being ones that featured both heroes and everyday people coping with life , work, and dating in a city filled with super powers, unique monster filled locations, and the occasional shark-man.

“There was no continuity but I liked that because the story was about the city not the people” - Mathieu

Artwork and Design

Like most of the aspects of life in the big city that we reviewed it was a fairly hit and miss subject. Most of us found the planning and layout of the book appealing but it did suffer from some cramped splash pages and the occasional bout of overdone shading.

“ The cleanness of the layout and artwork were good” - Gabriel

“It was well planned but the shading was overdone” - Scott

“Artwork was serviceable…. Very colourful” - Matthew

Some of the opinions on the artwork varied due to the fact that they included some of the original issue cover work which had a different artist that the interior itself leading to characters that sometimes looked seriously bad ass….

…. And other times looking like a Thundercats reject.





Summary

Hit or miss really sums up the discussion on this book. We had both newbies to the series and those who were on their second read through and despite the fact that everyone had complaints on some aspect or another most of us found it a good if not entirely great introduction to the series with a lot of appeal for a re-read.

“Nothing that makes me exited after reading it, but nothing that makes me want to start a fire with it either” - Jeff

“ I enjoyed it more than Top 10” - Gabriel

It also bears saying that it is an older read having been originally published in the mid 90’s and that many of us felt it was something that paved the way for bigger and better things.

“I can see where people drew inspiration from it” - Remi

Personally I gave it a seven and would definitely be willing to continue reading the series in the hopes that it will build on some of the more captivating story lines in the collection.

“Overall I do recommend the book, although your enjoyment from it could vary from story to story” - Jeff

Ratings

Picked the book : Matt - Rating 8

“It was a good intro book, it makes me want to read the rest”


Harshest critic : Rick - Rating 5

“Meh”


Best rating : Dennis - Rating 8.5

“I see a lot of potential for further stories and interesting ideas”