CBR16 Book 3: "Dance with the Devil" by Kit Rocha

Page count: 416 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

After his father died, Rafael "Rafe" Morales basically sold himself to TechCorps and agreed to become a technologically enhanced supersoldier, so he could make enough money to keep his widowed mother and younger siblings safe. He didn't really know what signing away his life would entail, and given the choice again, he probably would have chosen differently. He hasn't been able to see them for years, certainly not since he and his team, the Silver Devils, had to fake their own deaths to get away from their cruel superiors.

Unlike Rafe, Danijela "Dani" Volkova didn't really have external pressures that made her sign up with TechCorps. She was just curious and driven, and once their scientists had experimented sufficiently on her, she became super fast, agile, and graceful and lost the ability to feel pain, at all. This made her the perfect elite bodyguard for the rich and powerful, until she just couldn't handle the cruelty and corruption she was witness to and broke away. She joined Nina and Maya to become one of the mercenary librarians of Atlanta. Dani feels like TechCorps turned her into a monster. She appreciates the love that her chosen sisters and the former supersoldiers who share their lives offer her, but deep down she knows she doesn't deserve it. 

Since their very first meeting, when Dani may have "accidentally" stabbed Rafe a little bit, the chemistry between them has been off the charts. But Rafael doesn't want a quick fling, Dani doesn't do long-term commitment, and neither is willing to risk screwing up their new big, unusual family unit with relationship drama. Keeping everything casual and platonic becomes a lot more difficult when the two have to go undercover among the rich and deplorable of Atlanta. After the death of Tobias Richter, the VP of Security for TechCorps, and the one who sat with most of the power, the organisation is desperately scrambling to maintain control, and our enhanced heroes and heroines have decided that it's time to start fighting back. 

Having come into unexpected wealth at the end of the previous book, Maya is using all of her considerable resources and brains, her wealth of sensitive information burned into her brain after growing up in the loving arms of TechCorps and learning a lot of its dirty secrets, as well as calling in all the favours from her vast network of informants and allies. It's one such ally, a head researcher at TechCorps, whom Rafe and Dani are trying to contact when they go undercover, as a married couple. Once on the mission, they not only discover that Rafe's little sister is in terrible danger, but it also becomes impossible for them to keep their hands off each other. 

This is the third and probably final (there is a suggestion at the end of the epilogue in this one that there may be new dangers facing our intrepid band of heroes, but it seems like the author duo has moved on to new projects now) novel in the Mercenary Librarians series. As such, it's not the best place to start. This might very well not be an almost five-star read to someone else but as the end chapter of all that has been established in the previous two books, with all the seeds sown and the principal cast, as well as the various supporting characters, joining together to launch a full-scale revolution, I loved this book. The romance between Dani and Rafe has been teased from the beginning and didn't disappoint. 

Both Dani and Rafe got turned into lethal weapons by TechCorps, but Rafael grew up in a loving family and always knew that the sacrifices he made were for them. Dani was rejected by her parents once they realised the choices she had made, and was honed into a ruthless killing machine by the scientists. She is fiercely loyal and has vast capacities for love and emotion, all of which she is worthy of, but takes her quite some time to come to terms with. 

I loved this book, and its action-packed and thrilling finale, where the downtrodden of Atlanta join with our protagonists to kick ass and take names, in order to secure a better future, free of the dominance of TechCorps and their controlling ways. 

Judging a book by its cover: The cover for this one at least has slightly more of a sci-fi feel than the last one, but it's still a pretty generic image and I certainly would never have picked up this book from the cover alone. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR16 Books 2: "The Devil You Know" by Kit Rocha

Page count: 416 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Maya used to be Marjorie Chevalier, but had to change her identity after she escaped the evil super scientists at TechCorps, where she was trained as a data courier (basically a human hard drive), with her senses specially enhanced to remember flawlessly everything she hears, reads, sees, hears and experiences. She used to work for one of the Vice Presidents of TechCorps who was secretly orchestrating a rebellion, However, her boss (also the only maternal figure Maya ever knew) was caught and executed, and Maya had to be smuggled to safety. 

She found that safety with Nina, now one of the sisters she never had. Along with the lethal Dani, they have been working to help the residents of post-apocalyptic Atlanta by passing on free information (books, videos, music) and technical know-how. They also occasionally go off on adventures to recover more books and resources. After the events of the previous books, their little found family has expanded a lot, with the former supersoldiers from the Silver Devils squad having settled down in a warehouse next to the librarians' headquarters. The group is hired to retrieve what turns out to be a genetically modified child, and it turns out that Rainbow (which is the name the child chooses for herself) is not the only one. Since Maya doesn't have super speed or strength, she stays back home holding the fort, accompanied by Grey, the former sniper of the Silver Devils, who can't be trusted on a tense mission since his body might betray him.

All the Silver Devils have technical implants that have enhanced their senses. Supersoldiers like them don't normally have a very long lifespan, but in rare cases, their bodies might start rejecting the implant after decades of being used to them. This is what is happening to Grey now. He can suddenly be struck with seizures and an operation to replace the implant has a less than 5% chance of survival, even if they could find a surgeon skilled enough to perform the operation. So Grey is accepting that he doesn't have long to live. One of the things he wants to do with his final days is make sure Maya has the skills and confidence to defend herself and keep herself safe. She's always been told that she needs to be careful not to overload her brain, or she can pretty much short-circuit, but Grey suspects that she's limiting herself out of fears told to her to control her and keep her from reaching her full potential. He shows her that not only is she an absolute wizard with all things technical, but her perfect recall is a superpower in itself, if not as physically intimidating as those of her chosen sisters.

There is a very strong attraction between Maya and Grey, however, the only man Maya ever loved before was literally tortured to death in front of her in an attempt to get her to reveal the secrets buried in her brain after her boss was executed. She's also prone to sensory overload and doesn't really know how she'd react in a physically overwhelming situation, like having sex. Letting herself fall for a man who's dying is bound to lead to heartbreak, but not acting on the attraction before it's too late might be a bigger mistake than keeping her distance.

While Maya and the Silver Devils all had very skillful people hiding their tracks and faking their deaths (complete with falsified bodies with their DNA planted), Tobias Richter, the VP of Security at TechCorps is a ruthless and deeply driven man, convinced (rightly so) that he can find them if he searches hard enough. When a video from a farmer's market surfaces, proving to him that his quarries are still alive, Maya and Grey's days together might be numbered sooner than they think. 

I enjoyed Deal with the Devil, which introduced the world and all these characters to each other. Now the super soldiers and the high-tech murder ladies all live together as a big, ruthlessly efficient, and deadly family, doing their best to right wrongs and improve their local community. Maya has always felt like the weakest of the group, and the lies to her by her former boss to keep her from showing too much of her excellence to Tech Corps means she hasn't been able to reach her true potential until Grey comes along and makes her see how truly remarkable she is, even in a dangerous situation. She's not just brains and perfect recall. Their romance develops slowly since Grey is likely to die soon, and Maya has some understandable emotional scars from her first and only romantic relationship so far.

The villain in this book is a complete psycho, and once he discovers that Maya and the Silver Devils are alive, he lures them into a trap to get his clutches on Maya. Of course, Maya is no longer a delicate flower raised in a sheltered environment and beats Tobias Richter at his own game. Things look dicey for Grey for a while (who to be fair already thought he was dying, so wanted to save Maya with the grandest of gestures), but this is a romance, and our brave, self-sacrificing hero doesn't actually end the book dead. 

By the end of this book, our altruistic heroes and heroines have some difficult choices to make. Their attempts to stay hidden from TechCorps have clearly failed, and a confrontation is inevitable. Are they ready to go to war?

Judging a book by its cover: This is about as generic as covers go. Nothing about this says post-apocalyptic action adventure with kick-ass murder ladies and supersoldier dudes. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

#CBR12 Book 92: "Haunted Heroine" by Sarah Kuhn

Page count: 400 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Spoiler warning! This is the fourth novel in the series Heroine Complex and this review may contain spoilers for earlier books in the series. I suspect it will also be a lot more satisfying for someone who's read the preceding three books. Begin with Heroine Complex. 

Official book description:

Everything in Evie Tanaka's life is finally perfect. As a badass superheroine, she defends San Francisco from demon invasion on the regular. Her relationships with superhero partner Aveda Jupiter, little sister Bea, and hot, half-demon husband Nate have never been stronger. Maybe it's possible for a grad school dropout turned put-upon personal assistant turned superhero to have it all?

As if things can't get any better, Evie learns she's pregnant. She's overjoyed, but also worried about whether she's cut out for motherhood. Before she can dwell on her dilemma too much, a women's college reports a string of mysterious "hauntings," and Evie and Aveda are called in to investigate. When the hauntings turn deadly, they decide to move into the dorms full-time, going undercover as grad students.

As she lives out a bizarre version of her grad school life, Evie can't help but wonder about the road not taken: what would her life be like if she'd stayed here instead of pursuing superheroing with Aveda?

Poor Evie is not having a fun time of it in this book. While she's excited about her pregnancy, she's also terrified. She was given strange superpowers through demonic energy and her husband is half-demon. Said husband is also completely on edge about Evie and super protective of her. He pretty much wants her wrapped in cotton wool until the baby is born, and to Evie's frustration, absolutely refuses to engage in anything resembling physical affection (so as not to elevate her blood pressure). Neither Evie nor Nate exactly had good parenting role models, and while Evie and her younger sister Bea now have a close and mutually supportive relationship, Evie is still feeling guilt and inadequacy in how she handled a lot of her responsibilities when she pretty much had to raise her teenage sister on her own. 

Aveda, on the other hand, is in full cheerleader mode and does whatever she can to support and encourage Evie. She's also the one who insists that she and Evie go back to Morgan College for a reunion. Evie doesn't feel like she belongs at a reunion, after all, she didn't graduate, but quit her degree, exhausted from juggling her studies and taking care of her sister. It's also the place where her powers first properly manifested, when she burned down the campus library in a rage, after finding her college professor boyfriend Richard cheating on her. No matter, Aveda won't take no for an answer, and once they're on campus, they discover that there may be some kind of malevolent supernatural activity there, actually harming the students. Morgan College has always had a reputation for ghosts, but only in brief and occasional appearances. Lately, there have been several harmful and dangerous encounters, and Aveda and Evie are asked to investigate.

Since Evie isn't all too happy with her husband, she agrees to go undercover with Aveda as grad students, which involves not only having to interact with her weaselly ex-boyfriend, Richard but to try out a very different student experience than she was ever able to first time around. 

While it's eventually sort of explained, Nate, Evie's one true love, really is a big dumb stupid for a lot of this book. He kind of makes up for it towards the end of the book, but it takes far too long, in my opinion. So anyone looking for a lot of romance is going to be disappointed, there's mostly angst and pregnancy worries here instead. 

There is, however, the new and much-improved friendship between Aveda Jupiter and Evie Tanaka. They have come a very long way from Evie being Aveda/Annie's long-suffering and put-upon assistant in book 1. With Bea away researching paranormal activities and only able to communicate with her sister long-distance, Aveda is Evie's staunchest supporter, and when Evie finally breaks down and confesses her worries and fears, does her best to put her mind at ease. She's also determined that Evie get to experience all the various college things she never got to do the first time around (except get blinding drunk, no alcohol while she's gestating). 

The two women also befriend several young women who are connected to the case of the malevolent hauntings, and older, stronger, and much more confident Evie gets a chance to finally confront her ex and tell him just how badly he treated her and how f**ked up the power dynamic of their relationship was. By the end of the book, Evie has exorcised a lot of personal demons and is in a much better place.

This book is the start of a new trilogy about the Jupiter/Tanaka superheroines, and it was a lot of fun revisiting this fantasy world again. I reiterate what I said at the beginning of this review, though, I would recommend not starting with this book, there is so much important back story about the various characters and their interpersonal relationships to learn about before reading this one. 

Judging a book by its cover: These books really have absolutely amazing cover art. All kudos to Jason Chan, the artist, for time after time knocking it out of the park with fun, creative, and very accurate ways in giving the reader a glimpse into what the book will feature. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

#CBR12 Book 6: "Unsung Heroine" by Sarah Kuhn

Page count: 121 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Official book description:
Lucy Valdez is many things: fight trainer/bodyguard to superheroines, fabulous vintage fashion plate, undisputed karaoke queen at local joint, The Gutter. She is also one of the toughest fighters in all of San Francisco without superpowers. So why can't she seem to confess her feelings to her longtime crush Rose Rorick, head of the San Francisco Police Department's Demon Unit?

Well.... actually, she knows why. She's afraid Rose won't like the real Lucy, the Lucy underneath all the fabulous bravado. (She is still fabulous underneath that bravado--just in a different way.)

When a mysterious new karaoke star rises up at The Gutter and eclipses her, Lucy finds her confidence further shaken--and when strange, seemingly supernatural happenings threaten both this new star and The Gutter's very existence, she must rise to the challenge and investigate alongside Rose. Will Lucy be able to vanquish the demonic threat to her beloved karaoke haven, confess her true feelings to Rose, and reclaim her karaoke throne?

Back in August 2018 (my, how time flies) I read and very much enjoyed the Heroine Complex trilogy, a series of romantic, paranormal fantasy books featuring superheroes in an alternate version of San Francisco. It seems Sarah Kuhn is going to be writing a second trilogy and this novella is a bridge between them, as well as giving readers more background and time with Lucy, Aveda Jupiter, and Evie Tanaka's personal trainer and bodyguard. There are cameo appearances from Aveda and Evie, as well as their husbands, and even Evie's little sister Bea, but mostly this story is all Lucy, trying to figure out why there appear to be strange demon possession events at her local karaoke joint, while also fighting her feelings for police detective Rose Rorick.

While it seems pretty obvious to all around Lucy that Rose is crazy about her, Lucy doesn't believe she could ever be good enough for Rose, and thanks to some serious baggage, Lucy is also convinced she could never be the settling down type. So she keeps trying to set Rose up with someone else, trying desperately to ignore the chemistry and obvious attraction between them. Luckily, her friends (and Rose) are having none of that, and work to make sure that the two women find their happy ending, while also solving the mystery demon attacks at the Gutter.

While this was a cute little novella (there really isn't all that much f/f romance out there), I'm not entirely sure how it works as a bridge to the next series of books, but that may become more clear once book 4, Haunted Heroine, is released in July. I'm certainly very excited to see where Ms. Kuhn takes our various heroines next.


Judging a book by its cover: I really like the brightly colourful, cartoony covers for Sarah Kuhn's books. Her cover artist has a very distinct style and it suits the books and the series well. It's a really good collaboration, and I hope the style continues with the new series.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR11 Book 17-20: "Captain Marvel: In Pursuit of Flight", "Captain Marvel:Down", "Avengers Assemble: The Enemy Within" and "Avengers Assemble: Infinity" by Kelly Sue DeConnick and assorted artists

Total page count: 544 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Back in the summer of 2016, I read what I believed to be the first trade in a run about Captain Marvel, but that turned out to be incorrect and Marvel had just been stupid in how they were rebranding and renumbering their comics. As I came to discover, the reason there was so little back story given about Carol Danvers, her powers and her role in the Avengers, is because despite being entitled Vol 1: Higher, Further, Faster, More, it was by no means the start of Kelly Sue DeConnick's run.

Rather let down by the experience, I put Captain Marvel on the back burner and decided to read other things instead. Then she became the first female superhero to get her own standalone film in the MCU, and it felt like I should probably give her another chance. I always prefer to read the source material before seeing a movie (although honesty forces me to admit that when it comes to the MCU, Captain Marvel is more the exception than the rule. My husband has nagged me for years to read Ed Brubaker's run on Captain America (which forms the basis for much of The Winter Soldier and some of Civil War and that's still firmly on the TBR list). Anyway, I had some of the comics and sat down to read them the weekend before I was going to the cinema to see Captain Marvel. As is sadly the norm for these reviews now, that was more than two months ago now, so my recollection of the various stories is a bit fuzzy.

Hence this review is going to to be light on the various plots of the books and focus more on my reactions to the stories (as far as I can remember them now). All this vagueness makes for thrilling reading, I know. Sorry. I should also mention that if you haven't read these comics before seeing the film, there are some spoilers regarding the motivations of some characters. Nothing major, because the film does its own thing, with mostly the costume and Carol's name taken from the comics, but still - I was able to predict some things that could be considered spoilery.

In In Pursuit of Flight, Carol Danvers actually ends up travelling back in time when trying to set a new flight record, and helps a group of female fighters battle a sinister enemy during World War II. In Down, she reunites with the previous Captain Marvel, Monica Rambeau, and they work together to fight an alien threat coming from the ocean depths. There was also a Captain Marvel/Avengers Assemble cross over focusing on Carol's past, which gave insight into how she got her powers in the first place (in flashbacks), in the actual story, she's having seizures every time she tries to fly and horrible headaches. There is an old enemy of hers staging attacks all over New York and she needs the help of the Avengers to stop the various enemies and figure out what is going on. There was also more of a big space cross over thing, which was less interesting, probably because I suspect it would have helped to read more of the surrounding issues, and they weren't included in the trade.

I read the comics, not knowing all that much about Carol Danvers, and then shortly afterwards watched the film. I've now seen the movie twice, and I really like Carol as a character, both in these comics and in the film. I think it's absolutely abysmal that it took the MCU twenty one films to make one focusing on a woman, but this review is not really the place to go into that. Because it's been two months since I read the comics, it's difficult for me to separate my view of comics Carol with movie Carol. Suffice to say, having now read a lot more of Kelly Sue DeConnick's early run on the title, I should probably go re-read Higher, Further, Faster, More, since I suspect it'll make a lot more sense.

Judging a book by its cover: As this review covers a number of Captain Marvel trade collections, let's just skip over this part. The covers are cool, some using art reminiscent of the golden and silver age of comics. Carol's new Captain Marvel costume looks awesome, so much better than her old "bathing suit" one.

#CBR10 Book 80-82: "Heroine Complex", "Heroine Worship" and "Heroine's Journey" by Sarah Kuhn

Total page count: 1136 pages

SPOILER WARNING! As I'm reviewing all three books in a trilogy, it's going to be difficult for me to discuss the books without minor spoilers, especially in books 2 and 3, as they naturally follow on from and develop stuff that's gone before in the series. So if you want to approach this series entirely spoiler free - you may just want to read the synopsis for book 1.

#CBR10Bingo: Heroine Complex: So it begins

Heroine Complex - 4.5 stars

Evie Tanaka is the long-suffering and ever patient personal assistant to Aveda Jupiter, San Francisco's favourite superheroine. Friends from girlhood (when Aveda was still Annie Chang), Evie has become a master at anticipating Aveda's many demands, handling her diva tantrums and keeping her life organised.

When Aveda gets injured, things become a lot more complicated. Aveda wants Evie to pose as her (in disguise) during a public appearance, and when danger strikes, it becomes obvious that Evie has superpowers of her own that she's been repressing for years. Of course, the gossip press believes her flame wielding powers to be Aveda's (who is still bed-ridden) and the demon threat they've been containing appears to be ramping up.

In addition to dealing with Aveda's many demands and trying to control her suddenly public knowledge powers, Evie also has to do her best to raise her demanding teenage sister Bea (their mother died, their father is off "finding himself"), not to mention figure out her rather confusing and conflicting feelings for Nate, Team Aveda's scientific adviser.

Heroine Worship - 4 stars

Aveda Jupiter and Evie Tanaka are now San Francisco's cool demon fighting superhero duo, but when the video of Nate's proposal to Evie goes viral, Aveda finds herself more and more in the role of sidekick. Nevertheless, Aveda is painfully aware that she hasn't always been the best friend and is determined to be an absolutely magnificent maid of honour. While there's been a lack of demonic attacks in the city in the last few months, a new sinister force, focusing specifically on brides, means that Evie could in fact be in danger, and Aveda will need to work hard to keep her best friend safe.

As well as trying to navigate her feelings about sharing the spotlight, as well as making sure she's the very best and supportive friend she can be, Aveda is trying to figure out how to prove to Scott Cameron that she loves him, and if he can't return the feelings - at least find her worthy of friendship.

Heroine's Journey: Dream Vacation - San Francisco (and the bookstore Bea works at is heavily inspired by The Ripped Bodice, which while it is in L.A. in real life, is seriously a life goal of mine to visit)

Heroine's Journey - 4 stars

Set a few years after the other two books, this one features Beatrice "Bea" Tanaka, Evie's little sister as the heroine. Not really entirely sure what she wants to do with her life, except join Evie and Aveda as a superheroine, Bea is working part time in a bookstore/coffee shop and tinkering with improving gadgets for the superheroes. When she's not trying to convince her sister and Aveda to let her join their team, she hangs out with her best friends, Sam and Leah. Bea has the ability to emotionally project, which has so far proven really useful in getting bookstore patrons to behave civilly, but her sister seems to see her as too impulsive and irresponsible to really join Team Aveda.

As people are going missing, and new forces appear to be threatening the city, strange messages are being left for Bea. She's determined to prove her worth and show Evie and Aveda that she's a valuable asset. Once she really gets going, is she leaning a bit too far towards the super-villain end of the spectrum to get the job done, though?

----

I've seen these books recommended in a number of places and by so many different people. Fun and adventurous urban fantasy novels with a diverse cast, where every single book is centred solidly on the relationship between women. Complex, different and interestingly flawed women, none of whom are perfect and need to work to be accepted by and occasionally forgiven for making dumb mistakes. There are "good" girls and "mean" girls. There are actual biological families and found ones.

Aveda, or Annie Chang, is Chinese. Evie and Beatrice are half Japanese. Aveda and Evie grew up watching superhero movies starring Michelle Yeoh and the importance of representation for Asian women is absolutely addressed, in all three novels. There are straight characters, as well as bisexual and lesbian ones. Some of the women have a lot of sexual experience, others barely any. Each of the three books features a different woman as the main protagonist, each with a different love interest, but more importantly, a number of personal and emotional issues to work through and conquer.

I very much enjoyed all three books, but Heroine Complex was my favourite, mainly because both Aveda/Annie and Bea were more hard work as protagonists. It seems book 3 was written in large part at The Ripped Bodice in LA, which is why the bookstore Bea works in is so inspired by it (and her best friend Leah is not only named for one of the proprietresses, but Fitzwilliams Waffles, their bookshop dog, is the model for Leah's dog Pancake).

I had not realised until I checked out Sarah Kuhn's blog after finishing the trilogy that she has a new contract for another three books and a novella set in this universe. I'm not sure whether it will concern the same characters or a whole new set of awesome superheroines, but based on this trilogy, I will absolutely be eagerly waiting for more.

Judging the books by their covers: All three books have bright, colourful covers with art that seems deliberately inspired by comic books (which seems perfectly appropriate considering they deal with superheroes). Jason Chan draws all the covers and makes each of the heroines distinctive and badass-looking, with a memorable scene from the book front and centre on the cover.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR9 Book 124: "Jessica Jones: Alias, vol 1" by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos

Page count: 216 pages
Rating: 4 stars

From the blurb:

Meet Jessica Jones. Once upon a time, she was a costumed superhero...but not a very good one. Her powers were unremarkable compared to the costumed icons that populate the Marvel Universe. In a city of Marvels, Jessica Jones never found her niche.

Now a chain-smoking, self-destructive alcoholic with a mean inferiority complex, Jones is the owner and sole employee of Alias Investigations - a small, private-investigative firm specialising in superhuman cases. When she uncovers the potentially explosive secret of one hero's true identity, Jessica's life immediately becomes expendable. But her wit, charm and intelligence may just help her survive another day. 

Back when this comic came out in 2001, it was called Alias. I can only assume that the new title, adding Jessica's name, was done after the premiere and success of the Netflix series from 2015 (was it really that long ago already?), to allow new readers to more easily find their way to the comic. Ironically, of course, the show had to be called Jessica Jones as there was already an action show starring a female character out there called Alias. This book was a Christmas present from my husband last year, because of all of the Marvel TV shows with their many cool characters, Jessica Jones is probably my favourite, and he wanted me to be able to read the comics the show was based on.

For those who have watched the show, the character we meet in the pages of this book will be very familiar, even if the two cases she works on over the course of the nine issues collected here are different. Jessica is a loner, she's bitter, sarcastic, self-destructive and mean. She doesn't particularly enjoy her job, but needs to pay the bills somehow. She smokes, drinks too much and swears a lot. While she has a very suspicious nature, she is still fooled by a crying woman coming to her for help. It turns out that the case she's hired for, locating a missing woman, is in fact a ploy to potentially unmask a very famous superhero (and get him implicated in a murder case). The whole plot seems to be set in motion to discredit the current president. Jessica is none too pleased about being used, but refuses to provide a proper alibi for herself by releasing the tape she has proving her whereabouts when the missing woman she was hired to locate turned up dead (but which will also reveal the hero in question's identity).

For Jessica's second case over the course of the book, a distraught woman shows up at Jessica's office trying to locate her husband, Rick Jones, who she claims is somehow related to Jessica (this is news to our heroine) and a former superhero sidekick who may now be in terrible danger. While she's unsure of how wise it is to get involved, Jessica nevertheless takes the case.

While I really enjoyed and read through all nine issues of this book very quickly, I especially miss some of the supporting characters from the Netflix show in this book. There is no Trish here, Malcolm is basically an over-eager fan who pops up in Jessica's office occasionally and asks to be allowed to be her assistant, and Luke Cage only makes a brief (but rather memorable appearance).

I know that a lot of things only borrow loosely from their source material, and I suspect that much of what ended up on the TV show will happen later in the comics. In 2018, I clearly need to get further trades of Alias to see where the stories become more similar.

Judging a book by its cover: Since I watched the Netflix series first, in my head, Jessica Jones looks like Krysten Ritter. But you know, I guess the original artist gets to decide what she looks like to the creators. Can't really argue with it. It's not the most thrilling of covers. I'm not sure it would make me pick up the book unless I was already interested.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR9 Book 104: "The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, vol 1: Squirrel Power" by Ryan North and Erica Henderson - DOUBLE CANNONBALL

Page count: 128 pages
Rating: 5 stars

Meet Doreen Green, aka Squirrel Girl. She's been living in the attic of the Avengers headquarters, but now she's ready to go to move out and go to college. Accompanied by her trusty squirrel sidekick, Tippy-toe, aka Tippy, she's ready for the challenges of higher education and keeping her super-identity secret. Her new roommate Nancy Whitehead seems mostly interested in knitting and her kitten Mew. Even before she's had time to get properly settled, Doreen has to save the campus from Kraven the Hunter, and shortly after, she's alerted by her squirrel friends that Galactus is on his way towards Earth, and she has less than two hours to stop him. Luckily, by borrowing some Iron Man suit parts from her old pal Tony Stark (who doesn't seem all that happy about it) she manages to make herself a suit. Now she just needs to make Whiplash go away and persuade Galactus that he needs to take his business elsewhere. Doreen's biggest challenge at college so far, though? Talking to cute boys.

Before reading this, I vaguely knew that there was a superhero in the Marvel Universe by the name of Squirrel Girl. As mentioned in my review for Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, my husband is a much bigger classics comics fan than I am, be it Marvel or DC and he's a huge fan of the many creations of Steve Ditko. I think I'd seen pictures of the famous panel where Squirrel Girl defeats supervillain Doctor Doom by having him overrun with her squirrels, but until I read the bonus issue included at the end of this collection, I'd never really experienced the awesome confidence of this rather off-beat superheroine. The modern reinterpretations of Doreen and her squirrels is much more to my liking, but it was fun to see her "origin story", so to speak.

Seriously, this comic was utterly delightful from beginning to end. Doreen's theme-song (which heavily borrows from the Spider-Man theme), her secret powers, the running meta-commentary at the bottom of each page, the fact that Doreen's roommate loves cats and knitting (and has a gift for snark), the letters pages (which I normally like something that should just be skipped), the writing, the excellent art - I am completely won over and adore this comic. I think I love The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl more than Ms Marvel, and that's a pretty impressive feat after just one volume. My Christmas wish list this year will absolutely be featuring more of Doreen's books, because in this super bleak world we're currently in, I need all the colourful, funny and happy comics I can get. Highly recommended!

Oh yeah, I finally completed my double Cannonball! Honesty forces me to admit I finished this comic more than a month ago, I just seem to have lost the ability to make myself to do anything other than binge watch Parks and Recreation or constantly update my Twitter feed, it seems.

Judging a book by its cover: Erica Henderson's art is SO good throughout this comic, and the cover shows you a little tast of that. I adore that Doreen, aka Squirrel Girl isn't built like an emaciated supermodel, but looks like an actual person and is cutely quirky at that. Having Doreen and Tippy on the cover, with Doreen dreaming of all the adoration she'll recieve from her fellow superheroes seems extremely fitting, she's certainly extremely awesome and deserves wide-spread fame and praise.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR9 Book 103: "Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, vol 1: BFF" by Amy Reeder, Brandon Montclare and Natacha Busos

Page count: 160 pages
Rating: 4 stars

From the back blurb:

Lunella Lafayette is an Inhuman preteen genius who wants to change the world! That job would be a lot easier if she wasn't living in mortal fear of her latent inhuman gene. There's no telling what she'll turn into - but Luna's got a plan. All she needs is an Omni-Wave Projector. Easy, right?

That is, until a red-scaled beast is teleported from the prehistoric past to a far flung future we call...today! Together they are the most Marvellous Team-Up of all - the Inhuman Moon Girl and time-tossed Devil Dinosaur! But will they be BFFs forever, or just until DDs dinner time?

And Lunella soon learns that there are other problems with having a titanic T. Rex as a pet in the modern-day Marvel universe. School, for one. Monster hunters are another - especially when they are the Totally Awesome Hulk! Then there's the fact that everyone's favourite dino didn't journey through time alone. Beware the prehistoric savages known as the Killer Folk - New York City's deadliest tourists! Can Lunella handle all this turmoil...and keep herself from transforming into an Inhuman monster?

To begin this review, I think it's helpful background to say that my husband is a HUGE fan of everything Jack Kirby. This is not all that unusual, Jack Kirby is an undisputed genius when it comes to comics creating, and while Stan Lee is still alive and gets to gurn his way through obligatory cameos in every single Marvel movie, Kirby's legacy isn't always addressed in the same way. Of all the Marvel movies put to screen so far, it's probably the Thor movies that have incorporated the most of the Kirby aesthetic, and brilliant New Zealand directer Taika Waititi has gone the furthest to fully embrace both the design and sometimes full on nutty plot shenanigans of Kirby on screen, with Thor: Ragnarok. My husband was beyond delighted, that's for sure.

Now, I don't really like Kirby's stuff as much as my husband, possibly because I'm really just not that big a fan of the grand Silver Age of comics (and all the DC stuff with the Fourth World just mainly bores me - although I acknowledge that DC's Darkseid is a much cooler villain than his obvious Marvel rip-off Thanos, and Big Barda kicks ass, no matter how boring her husband is). One comic of his that just delights me no end, however is the original Devil Dinosaur. The plot is so so, I am just completely taken with the big red dinosaur and his adventures with the clever Moon Boy. That I'm a fan of Devil Dinosaur should not be a surprise to anyone who has seen my avatar in a number of places - it's that fierce lizard stomping in a very memorable fashion.

So I was always going to want to read this re imagining of Devil Dinosaur, pairing him not with another male side-kick (because Moon Boy is most certainly the side-kick), but with a fiercely intelligent girl of colour. Marvel has been kicking ass all over the place in terms of representation for various minorities for years now (Miles Morales as Spider-Man, Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel, Sam Wilson as the current Captain America, Black Panther, the newest Iron Man being Riri Williams, a teenage girl of colour, to name but a few). As Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur seems clearly geared towards a slightly younger audience than some of their other comics, making the heroine both a budding super scientist (with a secret lab deep under her school) and black is a big deal. For a lot of young women of colour, that sort of representation matters a lot (this reviewer says sagely from her extremely privileged middle aged white cis-gendered perspective).

For all that this is a comic possibly aimed at more middle grade readers, there was some surprising violence within the pages. Devil Dinosaur's original sidekick, ol' Moon Boy is disposed of in a rather gruesome fashion (RIP Moon Boy - long live Lunella, the Moon Girl), which seemed almost needlessly harsh to me. There's a lot of themes that should be recognisable to teens - overbearing and overprotective parents, teachers who just don't understand, classmates who are prone to bullying - Lunella has a lot to deal with, even before she gets a rampaging T. Rex to take care of.

Now, I really know little to nothing about Marvel's Inhumans (and the dire reviews of the current TV-series has not in any way made me tempted to use that as a way to find out more). I know that some of them have appeared briefly in the pages of Ms Marvel (who is also Inhuman, I think?), but I honestly am not sure why Lunella lives in such constant terror of having her latent gene activated. Some of them go bad or monstrous, I guess? If Kamala Khan is in fact one of the Inhumans, they seem pretty cool to me, but Lunella's driving force throughout this whole first collection of comics is to figure out a way to stop herself from becoming Inhuman, while also befriending the time displaced Devil Dinosaur, and eventually taking on the equally displaced prehistoric bullies The Killer Folk (who adapt from the Stone Age to modern day New York admirably quickly).

This was a fun comic, and I am absolutely going to want to read more, especially to get my fix of my favourite big red lizard. I love that guy.

Judging a book by its cover: The cover is fairly minimalistic, as comics covers go. Just super cute Lunella in her school gear, and Devil's giant head. Now, some might say that Lunella is bending forward to give Devil Dinosaur a kiss, but that seems very unlikely with our unsentimental scientist heroine. Most likely, she's just trying to observe something on his nose up close.
  Crossposted on Cannonball Read

#CBR8 Book 83: "Ms Marvel, vol 2: Generation Why" by G. Willow Wilson, Jacob Wyatt and Adrian Alphona

Page count: 136 pages
Rating: 5 stars

Kamala Khan has gotten better at juggling her life as a teenage girl with her secret identity as Ms. Marvel. She shoulders her responsibilities as well she can, even when being inundated both in school and in the media that her generation of teens are really just parasites on society, draining it of precious resources and brainlessly just existing in a multi-media reality, without ever giving anything back or asking necessary and critical questions. She geeks out adorably when given a chance to team up with one of her heroes, fighting giant sewer alligators with Wolverine. Being a total fangirl doesn't mean she can't hold her own, though.

She discovers more about exactly how she got her powers from the mysterious cloud, is introduced to the Inhumans and (possibly temporarily) gets herself a gigantic, teleporting dog. The local supervillain, the bird-headed the Inventor, is still at large, trying to outmanoeuvre Ms Marvel and now there are more teenagers going missing. Kamala is determined to stop him, once and for all.

I thought Vol 1, No Normal was a very good introduction to the amazingly likable Kamala, her world, her friends and family and the new challenges she found herself with when given super powers. In Generation Why, she's clearly been superheroing for a while and getting better at balancing her dual identity. She takes her responsibilities very seriously, but finds surprising allies even in her imam (the conversation she was expecting and the one she ends up having are very different). Her team-up with Wolverine is a true delight from start to finish and I laughed out loud more than once. Her powers are clearly linked in some ways with the Inhumans (of whom I know little to nothing about, being fairly new to the Marvel comics universe - if it's not in a movie, I'm probably ignorant of it) and they are doing their best to keep tabs on her.

Sadly, there are only five issues in each of these trades, so I read through it quickly and will have to wait until my finances are better (or until after my upcoming birthday to see if I get some gift cards) to get more of Kamala's adventures.  Kamala is such an important role model for teens out there, regardless of gender, race or nationality. She's kind, competent, hard-working, loyal and brave. I am so glad that superhero comics are getting better at diversity and representation and continue to love the practical and completely non-gratuitous nature of Kamala's costume. I absolutely loved this book, and will continue to recommend it to anyone asking about comics.

Judging a book by its cover: The cover depicts a scene not actually in any of the comics (but which I would have loved to read), showing Kamala happily engrossed on her phone, while also using her amazing body-morphing powers to stop a bank robbery. The cover is bright, colourful and cheerful. It shows the reader Kamala in her excellent costume, being a teenage girl and a crime fighter all at once. What you see is exactly what you'll get. If the cover image appeals to you and makes you want to pick up the comic, you are not going to be disappointed with the contents of the book. It's also a cover that is unlikely to make any female reader depressed to wander through a comic book store, which is more that can be said for other superheroine comics I've seen in my day.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.  

#CBR8 Book 79: "Hawkeye: My Life as a Weapon" by Matt Fraction, David Aja and Javier Pulido

Page count: 136 pages
Rating: 4.5 stars

I didn't know a whole lot about Hawkeye outside of the Marvel comic book movies, where he's clearly an excellent bowman and reclusive family man, but also Black Widow's wise-quipping sidekick. I've heard good things about Matt Fraction's run on this comic for years, and since it was on our shelf, this summer seemed like the right time to finally check it out. I'm so glad I did.

In the comic, Hawkeye, or Clint Barton as he's known when he's not a part of the Avengers, is not a family man. In the first issue of this trade (the first five issues and a special of Young Avengers, showing how Kate Bishop and Hawkeye first met), he gets a dog, but he appears to live alone and be quite content with that. The closest thing he has to a family is Kate Bishop, his young protegee, who may be the only one in the world as good as (or even better with) arrows than he is.

In my review of the first volume of Captain Marvel, I complained that I didn't really find out much about who she was as a person, or what the exact nature of her powers were (I found out later that apparently while it is labelled as volume 1, it's strictly speaking more like volume 4 in the ongoing Kelly Sue DeConnick-written adventures of Captain Marvel, which would probably explain why it felt like I was missing a LOT - bad marketing move there, guys). This is more what I expected from the first trade about a superhero (albeit a human one with no actual superpowers, just a dedicated training regime and amazing archery skills).

Matt Fraction writes a very likable Hawkeye, who will risk his own safety to rescue a dog in traffic, spend a lot of his own money to save the people in his neighbourhood from being evicted, who will team up with his teenage sidekick to outsmart a circus full of bad guys, can easily escape car chase with his quiver full of seemingly useless novelty arrows, is quite the ladies man, and occasionally a very decent secret agent and decoy. I loved the action and humour, the easy-going relationship between Clint and Kate (although the Young Avengers story at the end was my least favourite of the issues in the trade) and seeing some of the stuff Barton might get up to when he's not one of the more physically vulnerable of the Avengers. The writing is clever and fun and the art was also very well done. With a colour palette of mostly dark colours, the comic gets a noir aesthetic which adds to my enjoyment.

Sadly, because the Oslo public library system seems to mainly prioritise NORWEGIAN books (strange that) and not really American superhero comics of any kind, the husband and I have to buy all the comics and graphic novels we read. So while I really want more of this, I suspect I'm going to have to wait a while (as we've spent well over our summer budget already while in New York).

Judging a book by its cover: I think the mostly black and white, rather stark cover, with the purple (Hawkeye's signature colour) details in the form of bullseyes (cause he's an archer, see what they did there?) is really eye-catching and cool. The art style mirrors that inside the comic really well and while the use of arrows in the font can be a bit seen as a bit hokey, I like it.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.