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9. Ms. Marvel: Destined by Saladin Ahmed, Minkyu Jung, etc. - Can Ms. Marvel stay a great character without G. Willow Wilson? This is a tough question since almost every writer that has tackled Kamala Khan has missed the mark. I get the feeling that Wilson put so much of herself into Khan that it's almost impossible for anyone else to work with her. What makes this worse is that as an Orthodox Jews, Khan is the best representation for me that I didn't even think I needed (seriously straight white guy - not really hurting for representation here) but when I read a comic book story where Ben Grimm (Thing) gets a Bar Mitzvah and his Ba Mitzvah portion is the Book of Job and his best insight is "well I guess times are tough for people" I'm noticing how un-fucking-believable some writers can be when it comes to faith. Marvel Comics is in fucking New York City. You think those writers could have gone out and asked someone what a bar mitzvah is like.
I digress.
So how does Saladin Ahmed do? Not bad. I don't feel like Kamala Khan is a charactiture. He leans heavily on her family including her father disapproving of her superhero gig. The main story is about her going to a planet and dealing with a chosen one narrative that is happily not a real chosen one so much as her costume looking like the Kree woman that liberated the planet from the slaver robots and beasts. It's fun and it's light. I don't hate it.
The emotional weight comes at the end when we find out that her father has a rare disease. Talking to Tony Stark on a building is pretty neat. So first Saladin Ahmed story - pretty light on the emotional payoffs but definitely delivers by the end. Definitely looking forward to more.
10. No Longer Human vol 3 by Usamaru Furuya - I'm starting to think that "No Longer Human" is the Japanese equivalent of the Bell Jar or Catcher in the Rye (or Sorrows of Young Werther if we want to be historical), being that book that hits a certain part of the population (young, confused, angry, possibly mentally ill) in a deep and profound way to the point where once they read it they can't shut up about how amazing it is and how it really gets them. This impression comes from the fact that this version ALSO has a framing device of an outsider obsessed with the story of Yozo Obo seeking him out. Granted, I think that there might be a bit in the actual book that goes outside the main character but it's still interesting seeing how we are not just with this poor fucker but we are also with the man who wants to find him, figure him out, see him in his final broken form.
I've already read the Junji Ito and the pushed the body horror. Another reviewer condemned that version as being grossly misogynist by turning all the women into monsters and even using an ambivalent depiction of his wife's rape. In this one, it's obvious that his wife is being raped by his editor but everyone around it is suspect. Why does his friend bring him down to the crime instead of stopping it? I can see how Junji Ito can be criticized but I still have affection for Ito and his body horror.
This one is more subtle (ok that's the dumbest critique ever - more subtle than Junji Ito? What isn't) but it definitely brings about the tragedy of the poor protagonist as he falls into despair and alcoholism. The decision to set it in the modern day is strange but not terribly distracting. Mostly it brings us back to the same character wandering lost and having lost what he considers to be humanity.
The main difference is that this one has way more scenes of the main character trying to work and shoot up heroin. He does a lot of heroin. Junji Ito puts you in his head. Furuya puts you outside him watching him destroy his life until finally we see the outsider seek him out.
11. A Noble Profession by Pierre Boulle - author of Planet of the Apes and Bridge over River Kwai!!! Before I review this book, I am going to note that apparently his book for Planet of the Apes has the Tim Burton ending. No really. That fucking stupid ending where Mark Wahlberg gets on a rocket ship, goes back to Earth only to find out that on Earth everyone is also an ape - that's the original ending. Tim Burton was actually truer to the book than whomever did the Charlton Heston movie.
And like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Tim Burton made a shit movie by staying truer to the book.
But I digress.
So I put this one in the other authors entry because Boulle is in every way writing a John Le Carre book. The strength of Le Carre books is in the fact that they are high stakes games done by low stakes people. No one is a master spy in Le Carre. They are functionaries and bureaucrats. They do their jobs and sometimes they do them badly. Most of the time they fuck up in big ways and the only thing that keeps them from giving everything away is the fact that the other side fucks up just as much.
This book reminds me of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold not just because it's short and it tells a small intense story with people trying to work with major stakes but also because it's main character is a bit of a weasel. Actually he's much more of a shit than the poor bastard from Cold.
Anyhow, this character is one of those gentlemen spies that were so popular in early WW2 (and so fucking useless as a best case scenario) who gets into spying for the thrill and then as soon as he's about to get tortured gives everything away.
The rest of the book is the Hitchcock bomb under the table as the British spy agency puts him back into the field. But why are they putting him back in the field? Certainly they can't think that he's trustworthy. He claimed that his radio guy gave everything away and only one psychologist seems to trust him. Certainly his co-spy, the sister of the radio guy, does not trust him. And the Germans seem to already know.
So this isn't a book of will they find out but when will they find out.
It's quite fun in its own way and the main character is a hilariously shitty person who won't stop thinking of himself as the hero.
I definitely recommend this one.
I digress.
So how does Saladin Ahmed do? Not bad. I don't feel like Kamala Khan is a charactiture. He leans heavily on her family including her father disapproving of her superhero gig. The main story is about her going to a planet and dealing with a chosen one narrative that is happily not a real chosen one so much as her costume looking like the Kree woman that liberated the planet from the slaver robots and beasts. It's fun and it's light. I don't hate it.
The emotional weight comes at the end when we find out that her father has a rare disease. Talking to Tony Stark on a building is pretty neat. So first Saladin Ahmed story - pretty light on the emotional payoffs but definitely delivers by the end. Definitely looking forward to more.
10. No Longer Human vol 3 by Usamaru Furuya - I'm starting to think that "No Longer Human" is the Japanese equivalent of the Bell Jar or Catcher in the Rye (or Sorrows of Young Werther if we want to be historical), being that book that hits a certain part of the population (young, confused, angry, possibly mentally ill) in a deep and profound way to the point where once they read it they can't shut up about how amazing it is and how it really gets them. This impression comes from the fact that this version ALSO has a framing device of an outsider obsessed with the story of Yozo Obo seeking him out. Granted, I think that there might be a bit in the actual book that goes outside the main character but it's still interesting seeing how we are not just with this poor fucker but we are also with the man who wants to find him, figure him out, see him in his final broken form.
I've already read the Junji Ito and the pushed the body horror. Another reviewer condemned that version as being grossly misogynist by turning all the women into monsters and even using an ambivalent depiction of his wife's rape. In this one, it's obvious that his wife is being raped by his editor but everyone around it is suspect. Why does his friend bring him down to the crime instead of stopping it? I can see how Junji Ito can be criticized but I still have affection for Ito and his body horror.
This one is more subtle (ok that's the dumbest critique ever - more subtle than Junji Ito? What isn't) but it definitely brings about the tragedy of the poor protagonist as he falls into despair and alcoholism. The decision to set it in the modern day is strange but not terribly distracting. Mostly it brings us back to the same character wandering lost and having lost what he considers to be humanity.
The main difference is that this one has way more scenes of the main character trying to work and shoot up heroin. He does a lot of heroin. Junji Ito puts you in his head. Furuya puts you outside him watching him destroy his life until finally we see the outsider seek him out.
11. A Noble Profession by Pierre Boulle - author of Planet of the Apes and Bridge over River Kwai!!! Before I review this book, I am going to note that apparently his book for Planet of the Apes has the Tim Burton ending. No really. That fucking stupid ending where Mark Wahlberg gets on a rocket ship, goes back to Earth only to find out that on Earth everyone is also an ape - that's the original ending. Tim Burton was actually truer to the book than whomever did the Charlton Heston movie.
And like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Tim Burton made a shit movie by staying truer to the book.
But I digress.
So I put this one in the other authors entry because Boulle is in every way writing a John Le Carre book. The strength of Le Carre books is in the fact that they are high stakes games done by low stakes people. No one is a master spy in Le Carre. They are functionaries and bureaucrats. They do their jobs and sometimes they do them badly. Most of the time they fuck up in big ways and the only thing that keeps them from giving everything away is the fact that the other side fucks up just as much.
This book reminds me of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold not just because it's short and it tells a small intense story with people trying to work with major stakes but also because it's main character is a bit of a weasel. Actually he's much more of a shit than the poor bastard from Cold.
Anyhow, this character is one of those gentlemen spies that were so popular in early WW2 (and so fucking useless as a best case scenario) who gets into spying for the thrill and then as soon as he's about to get tortured gives everything away.
The rest of the book is the Hitchcock bomb under the table as the British spy agency puts him back into the field. But why are they putting him back in the field? Certainly they can't think that he's trustworthy. He claimed that his radio guy gave everything away and only one psychologist seems to trust him. Certainly his co-spy, the sister of the radio guy, does not trust him. And the Germans seem to already know.
So this isn't a book of will they find out but when will they find out.
It's quite fun in its own way and the main character is a hilariously shitty person who won't stop thinking of himself as the hero.
I definitely recommend this one.
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