Book Burn 2016 #8: New Suicide Squad, Vol. 2: Monsters

BY SEAN RYAN AND PHILLIPE BRIONES, ET AL.

Deadshot, Black Manta, and Captain Boomerang infiltrate a breakaway sect of the League of Assassins calling itself simply The League. While they gain the League's trust; Harley Quinn, Reverse-Flash, and Parasite wait in the desert as back up. Gaining the League's trust doesn't turn out to be the problem; the problem is stopping Black Manta from going to the other side.

New Suicide Squad has been meh from the beginning and this volume includes more meh. Black Manta's conflicting loyalties between the Squad and the League are the most interesting, engaging part of the story. Everything else is fairly forgettable. Harley feels guilty in an unconvincing way, someone dies because someone has to die, and everyone forgets about Parasite. Because he's barely in it. And I have no idea why he was in it at all. I could've been in it instead. It's possible I was. I'm not sure.

Book Burn 2016 #7: Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War

BY GEOFF JOHNS AND DAVE GIBBONS, ET AL..

Fyi, The Sinestro Corps War is collected in two volumes, each reprinting issues of Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, and some event-specific one-shot. I'm not going to bother reviewing both volumes separately since I don't really know how many new things I'd have to say with a second review. Like, "this second volume is similar to the first volume except that it is, you know...later."

A couple of days ago I wrote about how a friend loaned me a stack of Green Lantern trades in order to educate me about why there are now yellow lanterns and red lanterns and purple lanterns and mauve lanterns and the rest of it. After reading Green Lantern: Rebirth, I should have read Green Lantern: Revenge of the Green Lanterns and Green Lantern: Wanted: Hal Jordan, and then finally the two volumes of  Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War. But, for some damn reason, rather than taking the three seconds I would've needed to find out the correct order, I just read all the trades in the order in which they were stacked. It wasn't until I was halfway through Green Lantern: Revenge of the Green Lanterns that I realized my reading order was dumb.

I'm almost ashamed to admit I enjoyed The Sinestro Corps War. I came close to telling my aforementioned friend to not bother loaning me the trades, particularly because they all lead to the Blackest Night event, and there are very few people I know whose opinion of Blackest Night doesn't sound similar to the roar of a flushing toilet. And I also remember that it was this event in particular that lead to Alan Moore's remarks about DC scrounging through his old ideas like raccoons rooting through garbage.

But I liked it. What can I say?

Another friend of mine has said he's never liked Marvel's space mythology compared to DC's. I forget exactly what his reasons were, but reading this event made me consider a possible reason for that: because Marvel has never been as consistent with its space mythology as DC, and as a result Marvel's big space opera events don't really mean anything. The "change" they effect is arbitrary.

The Sinestro Corps War is a big, glowy space epic that apparently does change just about everything in DC's cosmos. I mean, it really is just one huge, long, battle between guys who glow green and guys who glow yellow, but, it's fun. And pretty. My single complaint is the constant abrupt slaughter of heroes that became such a trademark of DC during and after Infinite Crisis. I mean, I guess in a big cosmic space war it at least makes sense, but it's tough to not wonder - if Green Lanterns are so easy to snuff - how the hell Earth's four Green Lanterns have stayed alive for so damn long.

The fact that I liked Sinestro Corps War as much as I did makes me consider if it points to an inherent weakness in books like Sinestro and Red Lanterns. I stopped reading those books because, in part, the armies of glowy guys with the same damn look and powers just bored me. Like having a series with an army of Supermen in every issue. But the Red Lanterns and Yellow Lanterns and Avocado Lanterns and everyone in between are much more fun to watch when they're fighting each other. On their own, to hell with 'em. But once all the crayons start beating on each other, it's fun time.

Book Burn 2016 #6: Deathtrap by Ira Levin

A good friend who has already introduced me to wonderful writers (including Martin Amis), was recently talking to me about how much she enjoyed the work of Ira Levin. The next time I saw her, she had the novels The Boys from Brazil and Rosemary's Baby ready to loan me; along with the play Deathtrap.

Deathtrap is a darkly humorous play about a one-note playwright, an up-and-coming wanna-be protege, the playwright's wealthy wife, and a ridiculous psychic next door, Approached by a young writer with an amazing script, the washed up playwright jokes to his wife about the idea of murdering the young man and stealing his script to revive his career. From there, the plot twists and turns in hilarious and bloody ways that keeps guess about what the hell is really going on.  Anyone who has ever written with the hopes of doing so professionally, along with anyone involved in theater, or anyone who can read English, would adore this play.

Book Burn 2016 #5: Green Lantern: Rebirth

BY GEOFF JOHNS AND ETHAN VAN SCIVER, ET AL.

When I started getting ready to launch It Takes A Villain, my column about comics told from super-villains' point-of-view, the Green Lantern mythos presented a particular problem. While gathering the names of villain-led titles, I found two titles that seemed likely candidates from DC's New 52: Sinestro and Red Lanterns. Now, I knew enough about DC's continuity to know that Sinestro is a villain, but I really didn't know anything about the Red Lanterns. I read a few issues of Red Lanterns, and still couldn't tell whether or not they were super-villains. They were dicks, that was for sure. And it confused the hell out of me that someone thought it a great selling point to fill a comic with super-powered guys who constantly vomit blood. And all they really seemed to do was beat the crap out of each other on some desolate planet while their leader had a lot of angry thoughts about dead people. But were they villains? What the hell were they? Was it worth reading more of this strange, bloody-vomit-drenched comic or did they just not fit in It Takes A Villain?

A friend was kind enough to loan me a pile of his Green Lantern trades so I could learn more about DC's cosmic rainbow of confusion, the first of which is Green Lantern: Rebirth, the comic that brought Hal Jordan back as the company's premiere Green Lantern and whose huge retcon redeemed Jordan of his past actions.

It's a good comic, but it's also indicative of one of the many things I find frustrating about DC. So much of Green Lantern: Rebirth's drama hinges on history I don't know. And it seems particularly silly for a comic book company to make its stories so heavily continuity-dependent when that company tends to rewrite that continuity every few years.

Book Burn 2016 #4: The Martian by Andy Weir

A good friend recommended The Martian just before I started seeing advertisements for the movie.

It's a good, suspenseful novel with a likable narrator. It was clearly written with a movie adaptation in mind, and sometimes that bothers me just a little bit but not enough to spoil the experience.

I would hate to put together a dresser or any kind of furniture with Mark Watney. He would probably end up figuring out a way to use fake wood and plastic into a universal translator or a water reclaimer. And I'd just be sitting there, moping, like, "Dude, I just want somewhere to put my Hulk statue."

Book Burn 2016 #3: Black Panther by Christopher Priest: The Complete Collection, Vol. 1

BY CHRISTOPHER PRIEST AND MARK TEXERIA, ET AL.

Dude. I was so thrilled when I learned Marvel was finally collecting Christopher Priest's Black Panther run. Unless I'm very mistaken, until these collections, Marvel had reprinted only the first twelve issues of Priest's 62 issue run (in two trades: Black Panther, Vol. 1: The Client and Black Panther, Vol. 2: Enemy of the State), and I owned them both. I was glad to have them but there was so much more from Priest's run that deserved reprinting. As days go by and more stories surface about Black Panther's involvement in the film Captain America: Civil War as well as 2018's Black Panther, it's clear to me that at least one of the reasons Marvel chose to finally give this run the treatment it deserves is that Priest's interpretation of the ruler of Wakanda will prove key source material for the Black Panther of the films.

Priest's Black Panther wasn't always perfect. His Pulp-Fiction-esque storytelling style can be confusing and there are times you end up wondering why - in spite of how enjoyable a character he is - narrator Everett K. Ross seems to be much more of a focus than the guy whose name is on the cover of the comic,

But even now, over a decade later, I find Priest's approach to superheroics refreshing. He invests heavily in all of his flawed, rich characters. Black Panther is clearly a bad-ass, but Priest is modest with his hero. Panther doesn't win every fight and he never comes off as the Best There Is At What He Does. Black Panther was often criticized for a lack of action, but I never had a problem with more political intrigue and less fisticuffs. And when things devolve into fisticuffs, Priest is serious about it. Fights between Panther and villains like Kraven the Hunter and Killmonger are fierce, brutal, and absent the usual super-hero banter.

The second volume of this collection is already out and in my shelf. The third volume is scheduled to be released in April. I would be very surprised if those other two volumes don't make their way onto this list by the end of the year.

Book Burn 2016 #2: Planet Hulk: Warzones! and Future Imperfect: Warzones!

Planet Hulk: Warzones! by Sam Humphries and Marc Lanning, et al.

Even if don't read comics, there's a good chance you've heard of the original Planet Hulk storyline (and if not, you can read my review), There was a direct-to-DVD animated feature based on the story, and ever since it became clear that the Marvel Cinematic Universe was here to stay there have been rumors that the story would get a live action adaptation.

But in spite of the name and the setting, Hulk isn't really the main character in Planet Hulk: Warzones! Instead, a rugged and scarred gladiator Steve Rogers takes center stage. The many strange, crazy realms of Battleworld include Greenland: a land ruled by tribes of green, red, and gray hulks. Rogers and his warbound partner Devil Dinosaur are offered the opportunity to free themselves from bondage and to save the life of Rogers's old partner Bucky if they will infiltrate the savage Greenland and assassinate the Red King. Doc Green - an intelligent and certainly more Machiavellian version of the Hulk - leads them through Greenland to the Red King's doorstep.

Planet Hulk: Warzones! surprised me. I expected it to be fun, and it is, but there are some unexpected layers to the story. Doc Green presents the idea of being Hulk as more than a physical condition to Rogers, but a philosophy; a conscious way of being. At the same time, Sam Humphries digs into the unexpected parallels and similarities between Hulk and Captain America. Toward the end of the series, I kept thinking of Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones's Marvel Boy, when they merged the two characters into one monosyllabic flag-clad brute. And at the same time, Humphries integrates bits and pieces of the original Planet Hulk story in clever ways.

Future Imperfect: Warzones! by Peter David and Greg Land, et al.

Like Planet Hulk: Warzones!, this was a Secret Wars mini based on a past Hulk story.

It also happened to be a series with a super-villain protagonist, so I reviewed it as part of my column It Takes A Villain over at Trouble With Comics. Rather than reviewing it here, I think a link to the column would suffice.

Book Burn 2016 #1: Lord of the Rings

Distraction is an enemy. Possibly my fiercest and most resilient.

I have habits I like. I have habits I hate. Most of the habits I hate - like binge-watching shows on Netflix or playing video games - are, like many things in life, just fine in moderation.

Sometimes I forget that I love to read, and instead I play Fallout 4 for days or just keeping slamming the "Play Next Episode" button for West Wing or Supernatural or whatever series I'm letting my inner completist go crazy on that week.

Reading, to me, is like a nutritious, filling, healthy gourmet meal. Video games and TV shows (with some notable exceptions) are junk food. And that's fine. But I need more real food than garbage.

This year, I wanted to combat my tendency toward distraction and one of my tactics was to keep a "Book Burn 2016" list. The list is on a legal pad. The pad is snapped to a clipboard and hung on my home office wall.

Now, I don't think reading is something to brag about. But, I have to admit that while I don't think reading is something to brag about, my feelings don't always agree. I figure if stroking my ego helps battle this distraction, then I'll stroke like, well, like I do it professionally.

So, I'm going to review every single graphic novel, prose novel, nonfiction book, short story collection, poetry book, or play I read this year.

I was originally going to do this as one long post at the end of 2016. Like, I would just keep adding to the post and saving it as a draft until the end of the year. Yesterday, a good friend asked why the hell I would do something like that. Who would want to read a post that long of Hulk knows how many reviews?

So, I'm not going to do that. I'll review them one-by-one. And many, like today's, will hardly even be reviews. Just a couple paragraphs. A few thoughts. A couple jokes. And a picture. Because pretty.




The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

A few years ago I decided to start a tradition of making Lord of the Rings the first thing I read every year. On one hand because these were the books that made me realize I wanted to be a writer. On another, because I just wanted a tradition. I don't have many; at least not deliberate ones. You could say I have a "tradition" of losing socks and scissors, but that's not something I really schedule.

I don't have a precise count, but at this point I must have read Lord of the Rings beginning-to-end 6 or 7 times. Every time I get excited as the Fellowship approaches the gates of Moria, easily my favorite part of the trilogy. Every time I tear up at Sam's final quote. Every time I tell myself I won't skip the songs this time and I get maybe a third of the way through Fellowship before I say, "Fuck this, I'm skipping the songs." Every time I see something I didn't see in a previous reading. This time I realized that Sauron is, actually, the bad guy.