Stunted Intellect Reviews

  Spectators (Hardcover) front This book is an original graphic novel. Score (out of 5 Capes) A visually attractive and entertaining commentary on our human tendency to watch things happen to other people, 4 out of 5 Capes. My Review When I saw this new graphic novel on the store shelves, by one of my favourite authors in Brian K. Vaughan, I knew I could not leave the store without it.  Vaughan has made a name for himself in the world of the "big two" comics makers and their superhero lines, of course. But where he really shines is in his growing body of creator-controlled books and long-running series. Paper Girls was sometimes deeply moving and always amazing. Y: The Last Man broke moulds and pushed boundaries. Little else compares to Saga. So my expectations were high for this new standalone book.  It did not disappoint. In this world, when people die, most pass on in short order. But not everyone. Some choose to linger, observing the "real world" and its many dr...

I am very excited to unveil the new look of my graphic novel and TPB review site! My site has now joined the throngs and switched to a dark-mode look and feel, with a cleaner, more compact overall layout.  Best of all - it is now "mobile-friendly!" The old layout was optimized for a laptop or computer monitor, was OK on a tablet and was almost unreadable on phones. No more! Now the layout will adjust to whatever size of screen you are using. Earlier this year I expanded the contents and layouts of each individual review. They grew from short, 500-word reflections to longer and a little deeper, 1,000-2,000 words, with special pull-out sections for things I particularly liked or did not like. With this change, all the past posts will keep their contents but will adopt the new colour scheme and be responsive to your screen size. There are a few things I am not 100% happy with so I will be tinkering a little more in the coming days. Things like adding quick-links to specific grou...

  Front cover of Elektra (2014) volume 2: Révérence This book collects the following comics: Elektra #6-11 (2014) Score (out of 5 Capes) 2 capes out of 5 for a book that is beautiful to look at but a story that is chaotic and disjointed. My Review Elektra's 2014 solo series proved to be short-lived, coming to an end after only 11 issues. This collection, paired with the Bloodlines volume I reviewed last week, captures the entire series and brings the many threads to a conclusion. It provides closure, if not a terribly satisfying ending. Picking up where Bloodlines left off, Elektra is in search of the leaders of the Assassins Guild. Her quest brings her into conflict first with the Serpent Squad then with a nanite-infused and revived Lady Bullseye. The experimental nanite serum used in saving her has made her able to phase between solid and gaseous form, presenting whole new challenges as a combat opponent for Elektra. After some misdirection, Elektra learns that the most likely ...

  Front cover of Elektra: Bloodlines TPB This book collects the following comics: Elektra #1-5 (2014) Score (out of 5 Capes) 2 out of 5 Capes for a beautiful book with an unpleasant and half-incoherent story. My Review My two-volume set collecting the complete run of the Marvel Comics 2014 Elektra series has been sitting on my must-read list for too long. Elektra is a complicated character in the Marvel universe, with lots of tragic back-story and twists, and I have been looking forward to reading this series since I scored the books on a discount rack. It was not worth the wait, a disappointment in so many ways from cover to cover. What was not a disappointment was the art. Michael Del Mundo's painted pages are breathtakingly beautiful. The reds, whether from Elektra's costume or the frequent sprays of blood, pop from the page; the ballet-esque movements of Elektra in particular but other combattants; the fluidity and swirl give the action sequences a life too often absent fro...

  Front cover of Flash Rogues: Captain Cold This book collects the following comics: Showcase #8 (1957), The Flash #150 (1965),  The Flash #297 (1981), Flash #28 (1989),  The Flash #182 (2002), Flashpoint: Citizen Cold #1 (2011),  The Flash #6 (2012),  The Flash #17 (2017) Score (out of 5 Capes) A scattered collection of moments in the career of a middling member of the Rogues earns a middling score of 2.5 out of 5 Capes. My Review Leonard Snart, aka Captain Cold, has a very long history of villainy battling the Flash. This collection mines the DC Comics archives to pull out eight of his most memorable tales. For such a significant rival, of course you have to start at the very beginning, and the collection does exactly that, opening with the 1957 Showcase #8 debut. Written by John Broome and drawn by Carmine Infantino, who would spend decades on Flash stories and lay a foundation for his classic look, the tale introduces the "ambitious crook" Leonard Snart. Nee...

  Front cover of Lost Girls Book 3 This book collects the final 10 Lost Girls stories Score (out of 5 Capes) 4/5 Capes While the art and to a lesser extent the tales suffer from a stiff repetitiveness, a strong defense of the entire project raises this to a 4 Capes review. My Review In this, the third and final volume of the Lost Girls work by acclaimed writer Alan Moore and accomplished artist Melinda Gebbie, any remaining norms and taboos are well and thoroughly shattered. Moore also articulates a clear thesis statement about what he and Gebbie have created, why it matters and why it is wrong to punish artistic works as obscene. All of that and more in just the first three chapters! The collection unfolds in the now-familiar pattern: ten self-contained tales, each eight pages in length, each with a distinct focus and drawn in oft-shifting but by now familiar patterns of artistic style. The book opens with the fracturing of the lovers' ensemble, as the growing global unrest from t...