The Darker Mask: Heroes From the Shadows

Well this ones better than the last supers-themed anthology. Mostly. I'm not sure what exactly editors Gary Phillips and Christopher Chambers were going for with the collection, and I'm not sure the writers did either. Is it supposed to be stories about revenge? Street level heroes? PoC supers? Its hard to tell...

You've got a large number of stories about PoC. But then there are ones about vengeful ghosts in Italian neighborhoods or white teens with secret abilities. Lots of vengeance themes but others that are about forgiveness, growth or more basic action/adventure. Street-level? Perhaps, except for the ones about the alien war-machine pilot or the electricity controlling hero in Darfur...

Another problem with several of the stories is that they end badly. Not bad as in unhappy. Bad as in inconclusive. Endings where you end up going, "AND THEN WHAT? FINISH THE STORY DAMN IT!" Annoying...

Still there are several stories that stand out. First Michael A. Gonzales "The Whores of Onyx City" which is probably the worst story I've read..well forever. I mean outside of online fanfiction by 10 year old kids. Its just terrible...

On the positive side are "Tat Master" by Naomi Hirahara (about a tattoo artist hiding from her Yakuza ex-boyfriend), "Henchman" by Matt Johnson (a behind the scenes look at super-villain henching), Gary Phillips "And What Shall We Call You?" (with a civil servant turned dark avenger of the night) and "In Vino, Veritas" by Peter Spiegelman (whose hero can detect lies but they cause an allergic reaction unless he's drinking)...

There's also a new story by Ann Nocenti (former writer of Daredevil and Longshot) which is one of the "bad ending" ones. "Switchback" is interesting but it feels like its a rough draft for a much longer work...

Not as good as the classic Super-Heroes, but far better than Who Will Save Us Now?. Worth checking out at the least...

Sunday Trade: Minx finale?

The New York Four written by Brian Wood, art by Ryan Kelly
Emiko Superstar written by Mariko Tamaki, art by Steve Rolston

As many of you likely already know, DC recently announced they were ending their minx line of books. Lots of armchair analysis as to why. Poor marketing, not producing a consistent product, etc etc. I still have no real idea if the line had much appeal to its target audience, but I know I liked the majority of it. And two of what look to be the last output were Brian Wood's The New York Four and Emiko Superstar from Mariko Tamaki...

The first follows four female college freshman at a New York school. Wood excells when it comes to writing about people in New York, no matter what the rest of the setting looks like. With the only real criticism of the book being that it is very much the start of a series. The ending is weaker than it could be. Which, now that Wood will have to shop the series around for a new publisher, is kind of annoying...

Tamaki's book is in some ways a normal teen-age coming of age story. Her lead has to discover her own self-worth, realize who is and isn't worth listening to and balancing responsibility with staying true to self. But while the basic underlying story isn't anything new, Tamaki crafts it well, using a background of an indy/underground performance art scene. Emiko Superstar makes a high point for minx to go out on...