Freakangels, Vol. 1 (Avatar)
Freakangels, Vol. 2 (Avatar)
w. Warren Ellis; a. Paul Duffield
| Writing |  | New reader? |  |
| Art | | Non-comics reader? | |
The twelve were born in England at the same time. At 17 they did … something. Now civilization has collapsed from the waters rising a good fifty feet worldwide, and, six years on, eleven of them live in Whitechapel, protecting the people there as an enclave against the darkness.
Freakangels is an ongoing web comic, and these two volumes are the first chapters in the tale. They suffer a bit from being rambling, with lots of big frame shots of a flooded London. Like an ice berg, we’ve only seen a few small bits of the characters themselvers, but by the close of the second volume — and having fought off yet another attack by starving outside tribes — the Freakangels are realizing that they need to use their genius and psychic powers to create a sustainable settlement, not just scavenge through the ruins.
For all that, it’s fun and worth a read. More approachable than some Ellis, there are still a lot of great concepts here to play with and enjoy. Recommended.
Ghost Omnibus Vol. 1 (Dark Horse) [Ghost Special, Ghost #1-12, A Decade of Dark Horse #2]
w. Eric Luke; a. Terry Dodson, Adam Hughes. et al.
| Writing |  | New reader? | |
| Art | | Non-comics reader? |  |
In the early 90s, Dark Horse had a go at creating a shared super-hero universe. Much of it eventually vanished without a trace, but one character, Ghost, continues to haunt.
I’d forgotten much of the Ghost story before getting this volume. What I remembered most was the swexy white leather bustier, clothes, and veil. And the guns.
I ought to have left it at that, because in the end Ghost is a rather uncomfortably misogynistic tale, with women (including our protagonist, the amnesiac gun-toter) being either “ball busters,” metaphysical rape victims, or both.
The stories here are not helped by the intermittent and usually gratuitous inclusion of second-rate super-characters from the DH Universe thrown in for a publicity-pumping cross-over. The less said about them, the better: this was the Image era, after all.
All in all, Ghost is great fan service eye candy. There are a ton of posters I’d love to make, esp. from Adam Hughes works. But stick with the visuals — the words will only ruin the effect.
Listening to: John Barry, “Overture” (The Black Hole (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)))
Ghost came exactly when I was addicted to comic books. I still got the first 20-something TPB for it. I liked the story, but then it started to go nowhere, relying on cheap ploys, marketing crossovers, and the precise style of combats I love to hate: the ones where everyone is shooting everywhere, full screen page of awesomeness combats with long “deep” dialogues while the guns are shooting, and no one is breaking a sweat nor any speck of blood appears anywhere.
That’s exaggerated, Ghost never went to that extreme, but that’s not for the lack of trying. And this is why I tried to stop reading it.
I was reading this at the same time as Shi appeared too … and neither did win, I stopped reading both a year or two after they started the serie. Both had winning teams, excellent graphics, technically good writers, but they fell victims of their own success, trying to extort even more readers in their followships. At least they didn’t rely to limited ed’s with full nudity covers at ten bucks for teeny impressionable guys who scream T&A. Again not for the lack of trying I’d guess.