Tag Archives: Graphic Novel Review

Batman: No Man’s Land 1, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

If the city you lived in was left to rot by the powers that be, if something so catastrophic hit it that the decision to let it bleed to death, let it become a crumbling edifice of humanity’s folly, would you stay behind to try to save it, cower in the darkness and the filth and wait for a hero to turn up, one that could at least bring hope, or would you run, leave the city to die in slow agony and watch from afar, counting down the heartbeats, counting down time to the inevitable last gasp from the shadows.

Batman: No Man’s Land 1, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(465 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

Superman: Doomed, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

When the hero becomes the destroyer, when the bringer of salvation turns into the prophet of doom and death, then nobody on the planet can save humanity, save for the prophet himself. It is in the nature of humanity that such direct and opposing forces should be found in the body of one being.

Superman: Doomed, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(454 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

Fables: Rose Red, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

There are times when all you want to do is get hold of Bill Willingham’s phone number and phone the writer to tell him in no uncertain terms just how grateful you are as a reader that he came up with the idea for the Fables books, which has to be seen as up there with Joe Hill’s Locke & Key series in terms of originality and continuing brilliance. The 15th in the series of combined Graphic Novels, Rose Red, is no exception to the rule.

Fables: Rose Red, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(459 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

Fables: The Great Fables Crossover, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Life is but a tale in which we are the masters of our own sharpened pencil and in which higher powers will always have an eraser, a bottle of correction fluid and a redaction machine handily placed in which to make us disappear if need be, or at the very least make our lives seem worthless and out of control. It is in this action that words and deeds become heroic or they become creatures in which the under fire find a kindred spirit; either way words are power, in whichever hands they are handled.

Fables: The Great Fables Crossover, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(489 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

Fables: The Dark Ages, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The war is over, the enemy vanquished and a new optimism fills the hearts of the populace of Fabletown. Yet something dark lurks in the shadows, something let loose as the Great Adversary wrestles with his freedom within the confines of his new home in New York City. It is a power that sees Bill Willingham’s collection of tales of heroism and valour return with a bang, and the world of the Fables is once more thrown into jeopardy.

Fables: The Dark Ages, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(493 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

Harley Quinn: Welcome To Metropolis, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It always seems like an entertaining idea when a crossover in the world of graphic novels presents itself before the reader. Even within the pages of a company such as D.C. where the appearance of Batman and Superman outside of a Justice League story can titillate and tantalise even the most rabid of fans, such a crossover can mean growth, further development and more intriguing aspects that may have gone undeveloped for years. It can in some cases allow the undisguised stink of a money making exercise, the chance to breathe life into a fading, unlikeable character by teaming them up with a big monster of a comic book gem, either way, the fan will have an opinion on it.

Harley Quinn: Welcome To Metropolis, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(482 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

Fables: War And Pieces, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The war is over, the battles, at great cost, have been won and the exiled fables have been saved in part to the heroics of Bibgy Wolf, Prince Charming and Boy Blue, yet deep down, even with Geppetto being captured and the puppet adversary finally succumbing to overwhelming odds, the reader and fan of Bill Willingham’s highly delightful fantasy graphic novels knows that the real test is still to come and that Fables: War and Pieces is only the end of the beginning.

Fables: War And Pieces, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(490 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

The New 52: Harley Quinn Volume 1: Hot in The City, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Re-invention is at times good for the soul, for D.C. Comics’ Harley Quinn it’s a positive boon.

The arguments of the New 52 series is one that might last until graphic novels sail long into the collective memory of all who have had the fortune to be taken on many a voyage of discovery with the utopian marriage of an excellent scripted story and the artwork that would adorn many a wall. It revived and refreshed what had become a standing joke amongst fans of the superhero genre in Aqua Man, it gave new context to titles such as The Justice League and perhaps greatest of all, took the most insane but beautifully crafted of modern inceptions of the D.C. world, Harley Quinn, and made her a true star in her own dramatic right.

The New 52: Harley Quinn Volume 1: Hot in The City, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(598 words, estimated 2:24 mins reading time)

Batman: Mad Love And Other Stories, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

At times in life, a diversion is needed to take the subtle agony of the daily grind away, a sense of humour keen and required to withstand even the most arduous of days and if not for love, humour would have no way of being reigned in from being nothing more than cruel and absurd.

Batman: Mad Love And Other Stories, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(456 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

The Wicked And The Divine, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The ancients arguably had a better idea of what makes Humanity tick than the so called enlightened era in which the notion of one deity, in which ever guise you prefer to believe in, sits in judgement or peace loving affection you care to mention. Whether through the inter-changeable Gods of Rome and Greece or the Gods of Norse mythology and British Paganism, there was personal God for everybody and whichever one you believed in surely stoked the fires within you.

The Wicked And The Divine, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(643 words, estimated 2:34 mins reading time)