Return of the Bunny Suicides

Its amazing what you find on your roommates coffee table in the morning.  I didn't think there could be a sequel to the The Book of Bunny Suicides, but I was wrong & here it is.   This book is much of the same just as shocking & just as witty as the first its definitely worth a glance especially if you picked up the first volume.  I really like the Doctor Who & the Dr. Strange Love references in this second collection of the absurdly depressed white rabbit.

The Book of Bunny Suicides

All right 1^st things 1^st I am not depressed; I saw this book on the shelf as I was walking through the library.  But this book is depressing & morbid in its own unusual way.  The title says all you need to know about this book.  The format of this book is set up in a sort of sketchbook style that reminds me of Farside & my brother’s moleskine sketchbooks.  My family used to raise rabbits for show & market so I found this somewhat funny & inventive.  The drawings in this book are done in a simple contour line style with minimal shading.  I would have to say that the Star Wars suicide was quite hilarious.  This is the type of book that you would see while browsing but would never buy.

Irresistible

This is the first Zenescope title I've read & I have to say I not impressed.  This story is a pretty straight forward watch what you wish for type of plot.  At first its kind of cool the main character is breaking the forth wall & talking to you, but then it gets repetitive up until the end of the third issue.  The finale of this miniseries is depressing to say the least it felt so pointless to read.  I've heard good things about the publishers fairy tale stories so I'll give them another shot but this title didn't make the cut.  

Age of Ultron

I just finished reading the Age of Ultron event from Marvel comics.  I understand why a lot of people were upset with this event the format of its plotting & presentation is confusing at times but I think it will make more sense when read in the as a collection instead of single issues.  The event as a whole is not all that spectacular & given the fact that it was finished early and shelved for future use shows in how some thinks where changed before it went to press.  The real pay off with this is that it sets up a lot of interesting plot devices & stories down the road.  As with most marvel events now I'm really not excited by the events but instead by the potential game changes they bring the the Marvel tapestry.  All of that being said I really love the pay off at the end of this book the middle is convoluted as hell & a little confusing & the begging you have to muscle through but by the end its well worth the ride.  The sad realization of this event is that you come away thinking this is the last Ultron story ever because his fate is so finalized in the end that it is hard to believe that he could ever come back from it.  But this is the nature of comics since the early 90s its an exploration in the death & resurrection of heroes & in some cases villains.  If Marvel is as smart as I hope they are they'll pull Ultron off the table for awhile & won't bring him back to the page until the new Avengers movie is about to hit theaters.  I also like the twist with the multiple Wolverines & I am interested to see how this comes back to reek havoc on his life.  One of my favorite parts in this event was in the second Avengers Assemble tie-in issue which started off with a Doctor Who joke about Daleks.  I wish there had been more of that type of humor throughout the series.  I hope this format & presentation does not become the norm for future events if this had been presented differently I think it would have had a warmer reception from its target audience.  

Kick-Ass 2

This book took the concept that Mark Millar first introduced in back in Kick-Ass Vol. 1 & cranked it up.  Everything was edgier I even found myself cringing at times.  There is no way a lot of this material will make it into the upcoming movie due to some recent events.  For as awesome as Jim Carry looks dressed up as Colonel Stars & Stripes in the new movie he really doesn't get a lot of screen time in the book.  His fate is something that is straight out of the Song of Ice & Fire series; I can only speculate that Millar was inspired by the third book in that series.  I hope he gets more screen time in the movie than he did on the page.  Another big moment which shocked me to the point of almost putting the book down is that blatant & graphic display of gun violence against children especially since the Sandy Hook Elementary shootings that occurred near the beginning of the year.  Granted this book was published before that but it is still disturbing.  That scene then snowballed into the rape of Katie Deauxma in the book which was shocking but less so compared to the massacre of  small children.  Pile on the atrocities to give Red Mist his hat trick by killing Dave's dad & Mark Millar has created the sickest adolescent villain since King Joffrey.  I will be truly shocked & will probably even walk out of the theater if kiddie massacre is included, but the rape could be eluded to & have even more of an impact story-wise since Katie & Dave are actually dating in the movie.  Overall where the previous book showed that this series had a heart & soul this volume decided to rip it out & stomp on it.  I am really glad to know that the next volume Kick-Ass 3 will be the final volume other-wise the main character would eighty-six himself due to how depressed he is becoming.  If you think about it how has something like Kick-Ass survived if not thrived in a time where violence involving children has been in the news on a frequent basis.  Its not just Kick-Ass what about books like the Hunger Games series both of which have gotten the Hollywood treatment.  There is even a Marvel comic focusing on the subject by pitting teen heroes against each other in a fight to the death called Avengers Arena.  There are also other movies coming out soon that are touching on this same subject of violence involving children & even young adults Fruitvale Station & I Declare War.  The first of which is based on or inspired by an actual event where as the second looks to be more of a social commentary.  So it begs to question is this the new norm?

Hit-Girl

This is the second volume in Mark Millar's magnum opus known as the Kick-Ass series.  Even though this title was published after Kick-Ass 2 it takes place in between Kick-Ass 1 & 2.  This is essentially a Hit-Girl story shows how she gets to the position she is in at the beginning of the third volume.  Overall I liked this book it gave some depth to the character's it shows that Kick-Ass's real ability comes in being able to keep Hit-Girl grounded which is kind of cool; in doing this the author has found a way to make him a peer of Hit-Girls instead of pathetic wannabe like the first volume made him out to be.  In a way they have made Kick-Ass into a character similar to Alfred.  Can you imagine what Batman would be like if there was no Alfred.  He would be a mess the same can be said about Hit-Girl.  The best part of this series is when Mindy is taking out the hit-men in her own home & goes over to the neighbors to get a sledgehammer that is just hilarious.  There are some really good Easter eggs in here for comics fans that just make you smile when see & read them on the page.  There is even some character development with Red Mist but it feels unfinished.  It seems that all the little Red Mist segments are just thrown in so the reader doesn't forget that he exist.  The real redeeming moment for this series happens on the final pages of this series where Mindy realizes that her family should come before war on crime this helps to show that this series has a heart underneath the violence & gore that Millar has become known for.  

 

Kick-Ass

I finished re-reading Kick-Ass the other day & I must say it was much better than I thought given my first encounter with the title.  The first time I read this was shortly after I saw the movie & I thought that this was one of the few cases where the movie out shines the book.  I still feel that way but now that I have re-examined this title & I realize that this is an amazing book all on it's own.  Just think of all of new ideas for comics that have come since this book was released we now have a title called The Bounce & Deathmatch these are titles that most likely would not exist if Kick-Ass hadn't paved the way.  Also there is now a whole sub culture of people dressing up in super-hero costumes & going on patrol in major cities around the world.  This might have been going on even before Kick-Ass but it started making headlines in national news media following this title.  This is a simple story about a high school kid who starts dressing up like a super-hero to but quickly discovers what a bad idea it is.  There are some major differences between the book & the film I still feel that the film is superior.  The main reason I like the film more is due to the fact that Dave gets Katie where as in the book she crushes him mentally & physically.  There several other differences but I view them as minor compared to that of Dave & Katie.  I also think that this title has grown on me due to the fact that I have become even more desensitized to this type of graphic violence over the years in movies, books & television.  Its a shame in someways because that is something that I don't believe an individual can ever regain.  Now that Mark Millar is working on Kick-Ass 3 & the second movie is coming out in August I advise people to check out this title & see what inspired the film.  I truly think this is going to be the creator owned work he is remembered for.  It has also set the tone for what people can expect from his work uber violence, gore & snappy dialog.