Graphic Novel Review - 'She-Hulk Omnibus (She-Hulk (2004) #1-12)' by Dan Slott (Writer), Juan Bobillo (Artist), Paul Pelletier (Artist), Various

A funny and entertaining 'She-Hulk' omnibus that, even with its length, can be read in one night. At least, that was my experience.

This comic omnibus tells a more complete story than any single volumes, and that is the cherry on top for me. Its individual issues are still funny and well written, though.

The art varies - I'm personally not a fan of Juan Bobillo's small, blobby, pudgy, childlike and often vacuous rendition of She-Hulk/Jennifer Walters (I've taken to calling her She-Sulk when she looks like that) - but when it's good, it's really good, and I can follow the whole thing alright regardless. The action is great and fun. The females in this are practically Super Saiyans! It's awesome!

Also featured are the Wasp (Janet Van Dyne), Scarlet Witch, Gamora (surprisingly and inexplicably), Spider-Woman (Julia Carpenter), Whiz Kid, Captain America, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man (at some of his best), the Fantastic Four, Hank Pym, Iron Man, Hercules, Howard the Duck (hilariously telling George Lucas off), the New Warriors (whoever they are), and lots of meta humour.

The 'She-Hulk Omnibus' by Dan Slott - it's what superhero comics should be. Colourful, fun, action-packed (in spite of its law firm and court drama moments, which is impressive), with clever, witty and creative writing, and plenty of character development, arcs, and introspection. It's a must for any She-Hulk fan, too.

The possible best lawyer in the world, even the universe, always striving to do what's right and just, who is also possibly the strongest woman in the universe - she's a cosmic saviour at any rate - GO, SHE-HULK!

This will be far from the last 'She-Hulk' comic - the last 'She-Hulk' omnibus - I'll read.

Final Score: 4/5

Graphic Novel Review - 'Batman: White Knight Presents: Harley Quinn' by Katana Collins (Writer), Sean Murphy (Writer, Cover Artist), Matteo Scalera (Artist), Dave Stewart (Colours)

I wasn't sure about this at first. I have not read any other 'Batman: White Knight' titles, and the premise sounded off to me: Harley Quinn has kids with the sort-of-redeemable-but-still-abusive-and-now-deceased Joker, and she is sort-of-close-friends with Bruce Wayne, who is now in a penitentiary. Still, I am a fan of Harley, and I have read almost unanimous paise for it, so I gave it a chance.

While my concerns were somewhat met - Harley is dependent on the men in her life, and it's not just Joker/Jack Napier and Batman, and her relationship with women, such as Poison Ivy, is practically nonexistent (except when it comes to Commissioner Renee Montoya, though that is being generous) - I found I enjoyed 'Batman: White Knight Presents: Harley Quinn' regardless.

The art is good; nay, sublime for its intended purpose, with its nice shades and distinguished colour palettes and pastels. The physical and facial expressions are wonderful and convey the characters' emotions exquisitely.

I won't give the mystery/crime noir plot away, but I will say that Harley, as Dr. Harleen Quinzel, is perhaps the most serious and grounded I've ever seen her here. She's close to Stjepan Šejić's 'Harleen', but without the tragic ending to insanity. She's smart and an excellent detective - clearly being set up as a successor to Batman - but her sense of humour remains, and it surfaces every now and then. She's cynical, deadpan and no-nonsense after her time as Joker's lover/helper/carer/supporting buffer/enabler/

abuse victim/sidekick. In this version, she'd met, dated and loved him before he went fully "mad" and was incarcerated in Arkham, you see.

Harleen isn't perfect - she treats her two hyenas as more her kids than her actual toddlers, twins Jackie and Bryce (no prizes for guessing who they're named after), who at first it seems she tolerates at best. Plus her self-destructive path isn't as over as she'd hoped, and it contains gritty issues. This is okay. This is great, for she is still healing from her trauma. She's trying to be better. She'll realise she can trust and love others again, and help them out with their own issues.

She's a survivor, and this doesn't change that fact that she's a med grad and a trained psychiatrist.

She'll learn to embrace all sides of herself. Combine them. Never compartmentalise, never suppress. These versions and personalities that make up Harley Quinn include single mother, doctor, woman, and her chaotic and free nature.

The only explicit LBGTQ content in 'Batman: White Knight Presents: Harley Quinn' is the relationship between Poison Ivy and her roommate Neo Joker (a female Joker copycat...okay, whatever), though we only see them together in a few panels, and it's not really explicit. Individually both characters are utilised minimally and barely appear in the comic, which is disappointing. Renee Montoya and Leslie Thompkins make more of an impression than they do. There is no shortage of female characters, at least. On the other hand, as far as we (I?) know, Harley is totally heterosexual in this alternative continuity - the DC Black Label's Murphyverse series - and she isn't the only male dependent woman in this story. I assume Renee is still gay, at any rate.

But onto positives: 'Batman: White Knight Presents: Harley Quinn' contains elements from and nods to 'Batman: The Animated Series', such as featuring Simon Trent, aka the Gray Ghost, who is not a one-bit cameo but plays an important and recurring part, and there's the overall dark, noirish atmosphere and storytelling. I've always really liked Leslie Thompkins; Bruce's surrogate parent and elderly doctor and confidante, she is an underappreciated character in the Batman mythos, and she needs to be featured in more things. Harvey Bullock, in the tiny amount he appears, is oddly nicer than usual. Jason Todd also has a part here, surprisingly, though that one is merely a cameo (the tied up and bloodied Robin on the trade cover turns out to be a minor detail in the actual comic). The Mad Hatter's cameo is even smaller, and he doesn't do anything.

The mental health representation could have been better, and more sensitive, as well. Although not every character suffers, or is tragic, because of it.

Huh.

Well, despite my reservations, and how much I wish that Harley had been given more independence, even towards the ending, 'Batman: White Knight Presents: Harley Quinn' is an enjoyable, thrilling and dramatic ride, and a unique and interesting take on Harley Quinn. There are some genuinely sleek, clever and twisty moments to be found. It also loves Harley's hyenas; they are very prominent in the comic, nearly as much stars as Harls herself.

Not my favourite Harley Quinn comic, but a keeper, a doll, nonetheless.

Final Score: 3.5/5

Graphic Novel Review - 'Barb the Brave' by Dan Abdo and Jason Patterson

Never in a million years would I think I would ever rate a comic like 'Barb the Brave' five glorious, triumphant stars.

It's silly, it's cartoony, and there is grossout humour here and there. But it doesn't go overboard or obnoxious in its parody elements and self-aware humour.

But the biggest selling point of 'Barb the Brave' (or 'Barb the Last Berzerker') is it's a ton of fun and hilariousness from start to finish. It is pure entertainment.

But but but, most significantly, it contains heart and pathos throughout. 'Barb' is surprisingly touching and heartbreaking sometimes.

Basically, the plot is that Barb, a young and small Berzerker - who are like barbarian superheroes - must save her fellow captured Berzerkers from an ancient evil demon called the Witch Head, and on her epic quest she makes friends and companions with a sausage-loving yeti, a tiny farmer girl with a slingshot, a slimy green ogress with a snot launcher, a green giant, and other monsters she's been trained to beat up and eliminate, but is finding they are not all bad. She encounters all sorts of creatures and completes all sorts of tasks. Her new weapon is a She-Ra/He-Man sword that grants her incredible power. However, using too much of that power can corrupt and possibly kill her.

Barb also has a past - it involves her mother, once the greatest Berzerker ever, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances. She may be a brave warrior who never gives up and never gives in to bullies, but she is a girl who misses her mum, too.

Indeed, Barb is a great all-ages heroine. Righteous, altruistic, dynamic, determined, unstoppable, almost fearless, clever, funny, friendly, and she always stands up for others, and is always willing to help others out. There is compassion to this fiery little barbarian warrior girl. She doesn't actually want to kill anyone or anything. She is strong in every sense of the word. However, it is her vulnerability when it comes to her missing mother that makes her come full circle as a three-dimensional character. She didn't need to be given that kind of depth in a kids' comic like this one, but there you go; her creators put that much effort into making sure she was a fully rounded protagonist worth caring about.

Barb's relationship with her mum (whose name is Raven, because badass) is so loving, sweet, warm, and tearful and tragic. Whaddaya know: badass warrior women can be good mums. As if there was ever any doubt.

On that note, can I just mention how refreshing and heart-soaring it is to see positive mother-and-daughter relationships portrayed in fiction? Positive as in they're simply nice, and good, and kind, and full of unconditional love, support and understanding. Nothing toxic, abusive, tense, and/or complicated about them. As these types of mother-and-daughter bonds seem to only come once in a blue moon, I'm going to point them out every time I see them.

To conclude: 'Barb the Brave' - what colourful and cartoony fun, and filled with such care and heart. The tolerance message is a welcome touch.

One of the best and most entertaining children's graphic novels I've ever read, and have had the luck to come across in my local bookshop. I will definitely read the sequel.

As Barb would say, it is no total drag - it is so rad, dude!

Final Score: 4.5/5

Graphic Novel Review - 'Nancy Drew: The Palace of Wisdom' by Kelly Thompson (Writer), Jenn St. Onge (Artist), Triona Farrell (Colourist), Ariana Maher (Letterer)

Spoilers ahead.

What I liked:


• The artwork is nice, bold, expressive and slick.

• Despite my very limited knowledge of Nancy Drew - I read one book, 'The Secret of the Old Clock', and I have seen the Emma Roberts movie, and that's it - I had no trouble getting into this comic and keeping track of who everyone was. No overt confusion as far as I could tell. So I think it's accessible to newcomers as well as old school fans of the character.

• Nancy Drew's development from an independent, somewhat thoughtless and selfish lone wolf to a team player who keeps in touch with her friends and lets them in - on the mystery and case details, and on a personal, internal level, in going through her struggles and growth - is done decently.

• Aside from Nancy, a few others in the main cast are also memorable, distinct, and make an impression, like Bess and George.

• The scene where Nancy breaks down and pours her heart out to George privately, revealing how vulnerable she truly is, is well done.

• Nancy's not unreasonable and not irrational dislike and distrust of the police.



What I didn't like:


• Everything else.

• The mystery is...I'm sorry, but it sucks. It's crap. It's barely even a mystery. Realistically it would have been solved years ago without the aid of meddling kids.

I grew up watching countless detective shows with my dad, and I've read my fair share of mystery novels in my life, so maybe I am hard to impress when it comes to mystery plots. It often seems I've seen it all. I know what's familiar, and how these things go. I know the standard formula - the linear structure, who has the motive, the clues, the placement of the clues, the red herrings, standing back and looking at the bigger picture, etc. - and how it works. Nothing shocks or surprises me anymore.

However, even without all of that, I am positive I would still find the mystery in 'Nancy Drew: The Palace of Wisdom' to be more than lacklustre. It's vague, sloppy, and full of holes, contrivances, plot conveniences, and coincidences. After reading it to the end and looking back through it from the beginning, in some points I could say that a wizard or a ghost did it and it would've made as much sense.

Oh, and literally the one suspect that Nancy talks to turns out to be the killer, drug dealer and mastermind behind everything. Okay, maybe the new kid and love interest Pete counts as a suspect, but no one reading the comic would believe he is. Too obvious (like the one actual suspect, mind you, but bear with me here), and he is a POC, and a mainstream comic by an all-female team trying to be woke would not make such a mistake as making one of the few POC characters a villain.

• Further problems I had with the comic, starting with: Where is Nancy's dad?

Her mother dying years ago is made a big deal of - it's in the letter that motivates Nancy to return to Bayport from River Heights and start off the mystery, in fact - and it adds to her character development. But her father? He's in a few flashback panels, and then the comic just straight up forgets he exists.

Nancy is seventeen, and everything indicates that the comic is taking place during schooltime, so how is she able to move to Bayport, quick as a flash, and solve the mystery there with nothing getting in her way? And in the end, it is suggested that she will move back to Bayport after all (why she left in the first place, and never contacted her friends there the whole time she was away, is not really clear). Um, what about school? What about her dad, or whoever her legal guardian is? It's like the writer, Kelly Thompson, forgot that Nancy is a teen and not an adult after the first ten pages, where she is at school in River Heights.

• The lack of parental presence is even lampshaded a couple of times, when Nancy in narration brings up how Bess's parents are conveniently never home, leaving the teen team to use Bess's home as their base of operations. It doesn't excuse anything, least of all Nancy's dad's nonexistence, and it feels like lazy writing.

• The first major plot point in the mystery - aside from the threatening letter that got Nancy into Bayport in the first place - is Nancy descending into a cave, and someone trying to kill her by cutting her rope. All of her friends above are unconscious, presumably drugged. No further explanation is ever given.

Okay, this bugs me. No, it outright baffles me, to see something like this in what is supposed to be a serious mystery plot. It's part of the overall vagueness, convenience and contrivance I was talking about earlier.

I want to know: WHO THE HELL DRUGGED HER FRIENDS? HOW DID THEY DRUG THEM, ALL AT THE EXACT SAME TIME, SO NONE OF THEM KNOWS WHAT HAPPENED ONCE THEY'VE WOKEN UP? WAS MORE THAN ONE PERSON INVOLVED? Was it gas? If so then wouldn't there be aftereffects around? Wouldn't Pete, who conveniently found them and then Nancy in the cave at a convenient time, also be affected by the gas a little?

Ugh, moving on.

• Did this story need a big cast, that make up Nancy's friends in Bayport? There are six of them, and most of them are superfluous and hardly do anything. Not anything useful in the grand scheme of things. Nancy does most of everything important in order to solve the easily solvable mystery. She didn't really need any help. This undercuts her lone-wolf-needing-friends-and-help development, and makes the Hardy Boys' involvement (yes, those famous mystery solving brothers are in this, yet their presence here makes them not worth mentioning much, as they could have easily been anyone) kind of pointless. Everything about their characters is unimportant, which, yikes.

Danica, George's girlfriend, especially suffers in this department. When she does get involved in this Scooby gang near the end, she doesn't do anything. She's the token girlfriend for the lesbian side character, unfortunately; made worse by Danica also being a POC.

• Let's talk about how Pete, Nancy's love interest, is the one who sent her the anonymous, threatening letter, thus starting the plot. He did it to get her attention and bring her to Bayport, so she could solve the mystery of his mother's death in a cliff cave, which was dismissed callously by white cops as suicide years ago. It happened around the same time as Nancy's mother's death.

Why he decided to do this now, when, again, conveniently there were multiple murders of women happening in the caves, I have no clue. (Thankfully it'll turn out that Nancy's mum's death isn't connected to the murders, and was genuinely an accident, so there is good restraint present.) And why couldn't he have just contacted her in a normal way, like email, or in a letter that doesn't look like it was made by a serial killer? No good reason I can buy.

None of this distracts me from the bigger issue here, however. Which is:

To reiterate, the book starts because the boy who would be Nancy's love interest SENT HER A THREATENING LETTER THAT SPECIFICALLY MENTIONS HER DEAD MOTHER IN A GUILT TRIPPING MANNER. And he did it JUST TO GET HER ATTENTION, TO GET HER TO LOOK INTO HIS MOTHER'S DEATH, WITH NO REGARD FOR HER FEELINGS, WHEN HE HIMSELF KNOWS WHAT IT'S LIKE TO LOSE HIS MOTHER AS A CHILD. How romantic, huh?

• Pete says the news of Nancy's mum's death overshadowed the death of his own, as Pete's mum was Black, and his dad was Mexican, and Nancy's family was rich and white. He used to hate Nancy for it, but admits it was misplaced anger. So I give him credit for acknowledging that grief over losing a parent is not a popularity contest, but it doesn't excuse the letter and how he chose to word it. Nor does it justify why he chose to involve Nancy, out of everyone else, in his mother's murder mystery. Moral issues aside, he uprooted her life, possibly ruined it, and almost got her and her friends killed.

Was Nancy a famous detective even when she was ten years old? Pete called her a famous girl detective who everyone in Bayport knew, which is why news of her recently deceased mother was huge. Being rich and white must have helped, too. Her parents were also apparently famous? For doing what is yet another mystery that the comic does not bother to impart details upon its readers.

• In the flashback scene at the beginning of issue 2, little Nancy and her friends are in the cliff caves on a hunt for suspected pirates' buried treasure, which is aborted when she receives a call about her mum's accident. After all that infodumping and detailing on Nancy's part, and initiating the kids' adventure, the treasure hunt is never mentioned again, ever. Guess there isn't any treasure in the caves, only women's corpses. This is bad writing for a serious mystery plot, where every intricate (citation needed) detail should count. Elementary, my arse.

• Noah Jessup and Mia Hudson, Nancy's mystery solving friends and partners in River Heights.

Yeah, you can forget about them, as they only appear in four panels at the beginning of issue 1, and are barely referred to afterwards. Any messages to Nancy from them show up even less. It's clear that Nancy's heart and life is in Bayport, and her friends there are more important to her than her friends in River Heights, if she's so willing to abandon them at any time. She may very well move back to Bayport without a second thought. So much for her being a team player and a good friend.

Though why did she move to River Heights and cut contact with Bess and George and others to begin with? Is it to do with her grief over her mother? Either way, it makes Nancy look extremely fickle, untrustworthy and disloyal. Kelly Thompson seemed completely unaware of this flaw of the girl detective's, and she doesn't explore it, nor work it into the plot and Nancy's development in the slightest.

Noah and Mia are people of colour, BTW.

• For a supposed feminist reimagining and story, in 'The Palace of Wisdom' we see: a w/w relationship (George and Danica) get sidelined - and even called too much by Bess - in favour of the developing straight couple (Bess and Joe Hardy); the female murder victims receive little to no characterisation - they're plot devices, names in the word balloons, not important in their own right, plus we know practically nothing about Pete's mum, nor Nancy's mum for that matter; and even the surviving kidnapped girl victim at the end is quite literally pushed to the side and out of the story in favour of smoochy time between Bess and Joe. Gross.

• The Palace of Wisdom itself? Unimportant. It's a rave site where drug dealing happens, and where supposedly all the kidnapping takes place, but it could have been anything, anywhere. The actual murders take place in a generic warehouse somewhere else - again, supposedly all the murders, as it's rather vague. How original and interesting.

• Obvious suspect is obvious, especially since, as I've stated, he's the only real suspect in the comic. Typically, he has a weak, generic, bog-standard motivation.

• The drug dealing and distributing mystery is solved by Nancy making assumptions and connections she pulled out of her arse. No clues and connections for the audience to go back to and solve for themselves. That's not a good mystery, that's another contrivance, and it's cheating.

• Bess Marvin's last name is Martin sometimes. Not good editing.

• Not good art and panel editing either, as there are a couple of instances of them not flowing well together in a coherent series of events; like characters suddenly being in a different place from where they were before, with no indication for how they got there.

• Finally, the comic ends with one of the worst cliffhangers I've ever seen. Nancy is arrested, with no reason and no explanation given. It's a cheap way to try to make readers pick up the second volume. Sorry, but it didn't work for me. I won't be continuing the series.

• Oh and lest I forget: What cinched Pete's mother's "suicide" for the police is that substances were found in her bloodstream after her body was found. I deduce we are meant to assume the bad buys injected them into her, as this detail is never brought up again afterwards. Was she injected with drugs before or after her death? Hell, was it the drugs that killed her? This joins in the myriad of examples of the mystery comic not explaining anything.

With that comes the end of my thoughts.

If you like 'Nancy Drew: The Palace of Wisdom', then great. Like it, enjoy it. Love what I could not; whatever you want. For me, the reimagined, modern take on the girl detective in comic form is yet another example of something Nancy Drew related which could not get me to become a fan of hers. Mainly because of how lame, dumb, dated and forgettable they are.

In my opinion, 'The Palace of Wisdom' is anything but wise. Cleverness is a rarity. It's basic, poorly planned, poorly thought out, average and mediocre.

Another disappointing, underdeveloped and messy comic book I've read in 2022. Oh well.

Final Score: 2/5

Non-Fiction Book Review - 'DC Brave and Bold!: Female DC Super Heroes Take on the Universe' by Sam Maggs (Writer), Various Artists, Gail Simone (Foreword)

'DC Brave and Bold!: Female DC Super Heroes Take on the Universe' - the DC counterpart to 'Marvel Fearless and Fantastic!: Female Super Heroes Save the World', and in writing and presentation it is the inferior version of 'DC: Women of Action'. But it is still about loads of DC superheroines, so I dig it.

It has more heroine inclusions than in 'Women of Action'. There is a chapter on Amethyst (finally!), and chapters on ladies I'd been sparsely familiar with before, such as Miss Martian, Saturn Girl, Star Sapphire, Ice, Fire, Lana Lang (like when she was Superwoman), Jesse Chambers aka Jesse Quick aka Liberty Belle, Artemis (my kind of gal! why isn't she in more things?), and Elasti-Woman. Then there's the women I'd never heard of at all beforehand, such as The Flash of China/Avery Ho, Crush/Xiomara Rojas (she sounds really cool, but I can't find much about her online, and is she Lobo's daughter? he's not mentioned in this book), Tanya Spears (a or the new Power Girl?), Steel/Natasha Irons, Bluebird (she sounds awesome, more of her please), Soranik Natu, Red Arrow/Emiko Queen, Iris West, and Phantom Girl.

Lois Lane and Etta Candy also rightfully receive their own chapters.

But there's no Amanda Waller, sadly.

'Brave and Bold!' has some problems, like how brief its character descriptions are for its limited one-page written chapters. As a result, some details about the heroines are vague, are missing important details, or are plain bizarre. Like, the book will let you know what languages a heroine speaks if she's multilingual, and how many, when other, omitted things about her seem more crucial (Catwoman being fluent in Mandarin trumps her relationship with Batman). It also seems to think that mentioning Batwoman's love of rock music, and that she plays the guitar (I did not know that...), should overshadow her tragic life and past. Same thing with Black Canary - her current incarnation as a rockstar leading a band is prioritised above nearly everything else about her.

Other examples of bizarre trivia are: Jessica Cruz's favourite food is pancakes (what about her PTSD?), Stephanie Brown loves waffles, Hawkgirl loves driving cars, Starfire tends to a garden, Etta loves the sitcom 'Friends' and chocolate, and Mera owns a dog named Aquadog who ironically can't swim.

Onto the subject of details that are not only frivolous but redundant when it comes to the simple act of looking at the artwork: the book ends its bio on Amethyst with, 'She has amazing purple eyes.' Well no shit - she's looking right at me with those purple eyes on the page next to that descriptor! Same with Frost's (not Killer Frost, not in this modern continuity, it seems) bio ending with her having blue lips, Zatanna's tuxedo and top hat closing off hers, and Tanya Spears's concluding that she wears her hair in buns.

I can't decide if the chapter on Power Girl (Kara Zor-L/Karen Starr) not acknowledging her (in)famous cleavage window, in neither her bio nor her art pic, is an act of feminist rebellion, of restraint, or is another example of publisher editorial truncation. Can it be empowering either way? In different ways?

Nitpick-but-not-really: Katana's chapter talks about her sword Soultaker A LOT...and in her art pic her sword is nowhere in sight. Oops.

Past comics history is not included in 'Brave and Bold!', unlike 'Women of Action', which can be counted as a DC women's history book. Instead, 'Brave and Bold!' is written to reflect the DCU's current comic continuity, retcons and all; in other words, the only info we get is how these characters are in relation to what is canon nowadays. We don't receive much on who Donna Troy and Cassandra Sandmark are in relation to Wonder Woman in their separate chapters (I know Donna's multiple choice origin story is a retconning and rewriting mess, and the book had to pick one, but still). And while Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown are honoured with their own chapters as well, there is no mention whatsoever of them ever being Batgirl. Cassandra is Orphan and Steph is Spoiler, and these are the heroes they've always been.

To my relief, Barbara Gordon's time as Oracle is written in in her chapter. The Birds of Prey are referred to many times in the book.

Another similarity to 'Fearless and Fantastic!' is the omission of female villains, which doesn't feel fair and makes the book look kind of biased, basic and unnuanced.

'Brave and Bold!''s greatest sin is undoubtedly the exclusion of Harley Quinn. Harley. Fucking. Quinn. Although she is mentioned once in Batgirl/Babs Gordon's chapter, as an 'antihero'. Uh. Huh. At least others who would be considered "antiheroes" receive their own chapter - Catwoman, Huntress, Big Barda, Crush, and Frost.

But again, 'DC Brave and Bold!' is about DC's superwomen, so I can't write it off entirely. It contains good points, and excellent and beautiful artwork/cover art choices for its heroines. It clearly loves Batgirl (there are five art pics of her in the book, and her chapter knows and respects her well, mentioning her photographic memory and love of solving problems), and Gail Simone writes the foreword.

Need I say anything else, in this review which turned out to be a lot longer than I anticipated?

I recommend 'DC Brave and Bold!' for any DC and DC heroines fan.

Final Score: 3.5/5 

Book Review - 'The Little Wooden Robot and the Log Princess' by Tom Gauld

Oh my pagan goddesses, what a lovely little original fairy tale picture book. After finishing it, I just thought and felt, "Lovely". I don't know how else to describe it.

'The Little Wooden Robot and the Log Princess' is simple, sweet and adorable. It is an adventure book, and it is dynamic and clever; yet ironically, especially as its titular children are made of wood, there is this softness to it. It is a positive and absolutely adorable book about helping others and being kind. There are no baddies. Even the traditional green witch in the woods is good and helpful.

There is a female inventor, a goblin, and beetles and other animals. I won't tell you anything else. It is best to go into 'The Little Wooden Robot and the Log Princess' blind and verily...experience it, new emotions abound.

It really is like a lullaby. Perfect for bedtime reading.

Recommended for all ages. At any time, any place, anywhere.

Final Score: 4/5

Graphic Novel Review - 'Galaxy: The Prettiest Star' by Jadzia Axelrod (Writer), Jess Taylor (Artist)

Well, here I go.

I wanted to like this comic so much. DC showcasing an alien princess superhero on earth who is a trans allegory sounded great, progressive and revolutionary for them even.

From the blurb:


It takes strength to live as your true self, and one alien princess disguised as a human boy is about to test her power. A vibrant story about gender identity, romance, and shining as bright as the stars.

[...] Taylor is actually the Galaxy Crowned, an alien princess from the planet Cyandii, and one of the few survivors of an intergalactic war. For six long, painful years, Taylor has accepted her duty to remain in hiding as a boy on Earth.

That all changes when Taylor meets Metropolis girl Katherine “call me Kat” Silverberg, whose confidence is electrifying. Suddenly, Taylor no longer wants to hide, even if exposing her true identity could attract her greatest enemies.

[...] comes the story of a girl in hiding who must face her fears to see herself as others see her: the prettiest star.


'Galaxy: The Prettiest Star' is a good comic generally. The artwork is lush, stylistic, colourful and awestriking to fit its world and themes, if a little trying-too-hard-to-be-avant-garde, messy and confusing for my personal taste. A few of the main characters are as bold, vibrant and fleshed out as the art, and the coming-of-age story does bring up just how hostile and extreme discrimination in the "progressive west" - fearing what you don't understand and most damningly don't want to understand - too often gets. Even though 'Galaxy' is a DC title, and Taylor is given the possible superhero moniker Galaxy near the end, and Superman is mentioned, this is not a superhero story. There is nothing in the comic that could be called "action-packed", and there are no superhero fights of any kind. Yet I don't mind this creative choice, since 'Galaxy' is (purportedly) about talking things out and not resorting to violence, and it is a trans allegory, reflecting real life transgender experiences, above everything else. With a sci-fi twist.

It's just... I am so sick of reading and watching LBGTQ stories that are miserable, mean, hateful, malicious, and potentially triggering for members of that community. No matter how "realistic" they are. A lot of us consume fiction as an escape from horrible reality, and to see, with hope and optimism, a representation of how reality can be better. A colourful superhero comic like 'Galaxy' promised exactly this!

Tragic or otherwise meanspirited LBGTQ media is everywhere, and at this point, in 2022, I'm more tired of it than angry.

I want to see openly and happily queer and trans people represented for a change; who are allowed to be happy, to be free, to be themselves, without the looming threat of violence, death, their rare moment of joy twisted into something they will be guilt tripped over later, and/or the same tired overcoming of bigotry - whether from their society and system, their peers, or from their seriously out-of-touch family who need to grow up and who should love them unconditionally.

This review will mostly be a very long rant, I admit. But it does relate back to 'Galaxy', as you may see throughout my ramblings. I'll try to stay on topic and connect everything by the end. I humbly ask for kindness and patience.

Welp. Let's strap in:

There is a disturbing trend I've found in stories in 2022 that feature queer main characters and themes. It's inexplicably present even in otherwise positive LBGTQ media such as the 'Heartstopper' TV adaptation (see my rant of that in particular in the 'Heartstopper' section of my blog post here). Like, there must be conflict, and in order to create conflict, there must be misery (not true, that's plain lazy and obviously contrived), and the target of that misery - of disdain, of blame - is always the marginalised and therefore vulnerable LBGTQ protagonist, and their own story doesn't grant them nearly enough sympathy. Not like it gives sympathy, empathy, and time to their abusers, oppressors, gaslighters, and gatekeepers (read this excellent review of 'The Danish Girl' on Letterboxd here for more info, and for a further analysis on how truly harmful LBGTQ stories, but especially trans narratives, can be when they are attempting to be "mainstream" and "accessible" to cis audiences, and the common trappings and pitfalls they end up falling into. Here's another wonderful Letterboxd review of the same film while you're at it).

In a story's effort to create a "balance" and a "both sides" argument, it inadvertently frames it so it looks like the queer person - the victim - is mostly or partially to blame for their own marginalisation; for making the cishets uncomfortable, or for "ruining the straight person's life" or whatever. But instead of this resulting in the cishets revaluating their own views and prejudices, and realising how wrong they are, they are hurt emotionally, and so they take out their hurt on an easy target - the queer person they've been hurting all along - horrifically, maliciously - and the story sympathises with them! It's saying they are right for blaming the queer victim for everything. It's saying queer people are always wrong for daring to be human, for wanting to be happy and free, for not being the perfect "model minority" forced on a pedestal, and a bigot/oppressor's ideal of what they want the queer person to be like.

That is abuse. That is victim blaming. That is gaslighting.

The "both sides" debate - but what if one side is just. plain. wrong? Fuck the bigots and the insecure babies with the privileged yet limited worldview. Give them the flaws and problems to seriously work through and that they should be held accountable for. Leave the poor LBGTQ community out of their toxic spheres, they've suffered enough! They did nothing to deserve such scorn from the privileged masses. They did nothing wrong.

The cliché of the bigoted bullies/oppressors/gatekeepers transferring their own hurt and hate and blame towards the easy target of the discrimination victim via gaslighting to try to make themselves feel better, and never being properly called out on it, if at all... it's insidious and upsetting, to say the least. It has consequences. One of them is setting up the unintended, unconscious rule of: "If you're a member of a marginalised group of people, everything is your fault, even when it isn't."

And 'Galaxy: The Prettiest Star' has this in spades.

There is constant fearmongering and paranoia (another victim blaming tactic in certain contexts) in both real life and fiction, that if someone who is queer comes out, bad things will happen, and it will be all their fault, when really it's a self-fulfilling prophecy - it's the oppressive people, society and system who are to blame and are in need of change. In the context of 'Galaxy', this mindset is made literal, legitimate, and the punished queer victim's fault: if Taylor/Galaxy does come out as female and an alien, if she does come out of hiding, of no longer being afraid to be herself, then she risks invading aliens finding her, and thus putting her cover family, who are victims themselves, forced into this situation for her sake, and her friends, and possibly earth itself (it's not clear) in mortal danger. Or is this further fearmongering BS on her gatekeeping guardian/cover-father's part, to keep her under his tight control? I'm not certain. But it's still a terrible situation to put your metaphorically trans protagonist in. Any narrative that potentially justifies victim blaming, for example in situations that can be read as domestic abuse, is the worst, and it needs to be scrapped immediately.

I hate every character in 'Galaxy' except for Taylor, her love interest Kat, Kat's mum, and Taylor's little cover-sister Sally. They are all sweethearts, and the latter three possess common sense that's in touch with the progressing 21st century, and they are super supportive of Taylor from the beginning. Everyone else, such as the cover-father, the cover-brother, the high school principal, and Buck the "best friend", are pathetic, victim blaming trash who hold too much power over Taylor and the narrative when they don't deserve it. They're not worth it. And they receive absolutely no consequences for their actions by the end of the comic. No comeuppance. Nothing. They are allowed to just get away with their bullshit, after everything they put Taylor through. In fact, it is she who apologises to the abusive members of her cover family and to her toxic friend. She has to say sorry for one meagre reason or another, but they don't. Ever.

She has nothing to be sorry for! Except for things done for understandable reasons, for things done by accident, and for when she's justifiably angry and upset and is about to do bad things herself, but stops herself, but those instances are forgotten about quickly. Typical.

People of marginalised and socially maligned groups, such as the LBGTQ community, have nothing to apologise for. In these victim blaming narratives, done in service of the privileged who hate thinking and hate feeling uncomfortable, when a queer character is blamed for something, really they are being blamed for existing. For being someone with free will and a mind and life of their own, and for not being perfect in their abusive gatekeeper's eyes. Stop doubling down on this by having the queer character say sorry to their abusers! who may or may not apologise back (but on a much smaller scale if they do; yeah, so much for that "balance", eh?), and who will barely change their ways, if at all. It's not good, it's not right, and it's not fair. FFS, even 'The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School' doesn't fall into this trap!

Okay, there's one more point I have to make in this already overly long rant of mine, but it is ultimately the most important to take away with you: in 'Galaxy' and story types like it, about bigotry, bullying and oppression, that're told in a miserable way that leans towards victim blaming, inadvertently (at least I hope so) taking the side of the oppressors and gatekeepers who despise the main character, who is a member of a marginalised group and a victim, just for existing; always in these stories, the main victim characters are teenagers.

They are kids! So of course they're going to make mistakes and not be perfect! And they'll be dealing with enough anxiety, low self-esteem and self-hatred as it is! without making it so that merely wanting to be who they are - and happy, like everyone else! - makes them the worst people imaginable, because it inconveniences others. Oh, boo fucking hoo.

I want to hug these kids, comfort them, hold them as I allow them to just cry, to just release, and softly whisper to them, "It is not your fault. None of this is your fault. Fuck anyone who says it is. They are the ones with the problem, not you. They are the ones who need to change. You are brilliant the way you are. You are loved. You matter.

You deserve to be happy."

The blurb says, [...] a girl in hiding who must face her fears to see herself as others see her: the prettiest star. Well that's a lie since most of the others hate her either way! It doesn't matter if she's pretty or not. It shouldn't matter.

Even without all of these toxic trends and issues, 'Galaxy: The Prettiest Star' loses stars by reinforcing the "trans women and girls have to be the most conventionally beautiful ever in order to receive validation from the populace" idea, which is pervasive in both real life and fiction (hell it's bolstered in its title!). It contains all sorts of misogynistic and transmisogynistic layers unable to be unpacked in full here, so I'll leave it as it is, and hope I don't need to explain how problematic the idea, the manmade concept, is.

Other reviewers have also pointed out the fantastical bigotry trope: in 'Galaxy''s case it's a female alien disguised as a human boy that's used as a metaphor for the trans community and experience... good intentions aside, it's still trans people being compared to something that isn't even human. To something that may not exist. This is hugely concerning in of itself, and indicative of the problematic nature of the fantastical bigotry trope as a whole. But again, a further analysis into this topic would take far too long and take up far too much space for me to go over here, so I'll trust and leave my readers to look into it on their own, in their own time.

Taylor's cover-father and cover-brother (their names don't deserve to be remembered) seem to keep switching moods and personalities whenever it is convenient to the plot, as well.

All right. After all that, I'm not sure I can recommend 'Galaxy: The Prettiest Star' in good conscience, despite some good elements in it, and it being a mainstream "trans superhero" comic (even though it is allegorical, and there are hardly any ingredients categorising it as a superhero comic). Read it if you want. But be careful. If you do decide to buy and read it, consider yourself forewarned.

I shall finish off my rattling-on-and-on of a review of 'Galaxy' with a final bang:

Buck can go fuck himself.

Seriously, screw that insecure toxic waste of toxic masculinity. He was an obvious arsehole even before Taylor came out to everyone, so why she was friends with him in the first place, I have no idea.

Fuck him. That is all.

Final Score: 3/5