Opening Fire by Greg Rucka. Art by Leandro Fernández
Series: The Old Guard, #1
Read Time: 4 Days
Rating: 4/5
The quote: "Mother of God."
"I know.
You do not want to get in Andy's way when she's got a mad on." — Nile Freeman & Sebastien 'Booker' le Livre
Why yes I am reading this because of the 2020 Netflix film. To a degree, I can't help compare this to that film, which I will do first to get it out of the way. Okay firstly there is a major difference in one of the plot points pretty much everything about Noriko/ Quỳnh is a bit different and the ending is different. But it is a very good adaptation with large parts of the scripts using dialogue directly taken from these comics. That is most obvious with Joe and Nicky. Their two iconic moments in the film ("incurable romantic" and "Malta") are taken directly from this. It has been explained that Noriko's name was changed to Quỳnh to reflect actress Vân Veronica Ngô Vietnamese birth.
Of the missing or severely altered traits and moments aka something closer to the works as it should be read and reviewed. It's so sex-positive. Andy is sleeping her way through her immortality and the only judgement made on her for that is that it isn't a healthy coping mechanism not about the act itself. She is so fierce and her relationship with Nile is fun, there is little in the way of combat. The comics are written from Andy's perspective, she is almost talking directly to the reader as she talks about her history and that of Booker, Joe and Nicky. In the film, we are given Booker's dark story for why they break from humans, but Andy has another story. His name is Achilles and this story provides a brilliant complement to Booker's darkness a potential. The colouring of these pages is much brighter than most of the others. The colouring for the whole book is intelligent, providing contrasts and telling something of its own story. I like the character designs too. The guards, in particular, they look so huge and brutal almost like walking walls. The styles of all the characters are wonderful, they are all distinct. The chapter breaks are smart too, well-known quotes about war and love. Calling it a fairy tale is a good choice that is what it feels like, a messed up and maybe slightly more realistic fairy tale.
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Series: The Umbrella Academy, #2
Read time: <1 Day
Rating: 3/5
The quote:Â "Hey --- have you seen, like a little boy?"
"Talks like a grown-up?"
"Kind of a jerk?" — Cha-Cha and Hazel
Volume 2 of the Umbrella Academy series is titled Dallas and plays with the cost and potentials of Fives time travel powers. It does play with time well. It doesn't hold back, Dallas is a reference to exactly what you think it is when thinking time travel. All the characters (bar one) going forward and backwards through time. Vanya (codename The White Violin) is still alive but has no memories of who she is or what she's done. Allison/ The Rumor does not take it well. That specific scene is brutal. As we first see the characters coming into the volume they are introduced to us again using their codenames. Essentially the family is basically messed up and hating on each other in a way that makes perfect sense given the set-up from volume one.
Some important characters from volume one return, aside from the central characters. The odd-looking ones that Five slaughtered. We know now why they were after him and how he killed them so effectively. Five is a deadly and dangerous f***er possibly more so than any of the others. Klaus gives us some more ideas of his powers, I really like them. We see him talking to Pogo...and God (? that scene is just spectacular are a design choice so opposite to everything else). Colours and general design to indicate place and time well. I really like the designs of the assassins, Hazel and Cha-Cha, they were a lot.
