Hulk vs Thor: Banner of War

The same friend who lent me Dark Knights of Steel, Volume 1 lent me Hulk vs Thor: Banner of War.  I wasn't really expecting much from it, but wow was this a wild ride!

After a tragedy in El Pasco, Bruce Banner removed himself from the world, trying to stop anyone else from getting hurt. He separated his body and consciousness into three: Hulk's body was acting like a space ship, taking them out away from everyone. Hulk's psyche was powering the engines by fighting ever increasing (simulated) threats, and Banner himself was the captain of the spaceship. Unfortunately Thor gets wind of where Banner is, and tries to bring him back to face justice, resulting in an all-out brawl between the two! Unfortunately Hulk's powers/madness are contagious; is even the God of Thunder safe?

I wasn't expecting to enjoy this one as much as I did. One of the things that I really enjoyed was that Odin's ghost is currently inhabiting Mjolnir; after hitting Hulk, his spirit is able to enter the control room to talk to (and fight) Banner himself! The two of them ultimately work together to end the fight after Thor is infected; Mjolnir-wielding Hulk was a very unexpected but fun touch to the end of this story, too!

I'll admit that I didn't follow the story super well at times (I basically had to describe some of what happened as "space magic," even though I know it wasn't really magic at play at all). But it was really crazy, a lot of fun, and definitely worth the read!

Dark Knights of Steel Vol 1

A friend of mine lent me Dark Knights of Steel, Volume 1 awhile ago, and I finally sat down to read it today. Dark Knights of Steel sets Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman in a medieval fantasy setting with an alternate history for Kal-El. In this setting, Kal-El's parents escaped the dying planet Krypton when his mother was pregnant; Kal-El is born on Earth. Batman's parents were the rulers of one of the three kingdoms, but after they were killed by the Green Man (Lex Luthor who found the Green Lantern ring and became the Joker), Kal-El's parents took over. Bruce was the bastard son of the Waynes (Thomas isn't his dad here) and so would never have been accepted as the ruler. 

While the Els rule fairly peacefully, magic is banned from their kingdom. Batman is tasked with rounding all of the magic users up and imprisoning them. Due to this, and a prophecy from John Constantine, the neighbouring Kingdom of Storms wants the Els dead. With the help of the Green Man, Green Arrow launches an arrow and kills Jor-El, starting the three kingdoms' descent towards war.

What's really fun is that Dark Knights of Steel takes you in some really unexpected directions. There were a few moments that I did not see coming because the story plays with what you know of the characters: for example, Dark Knights of Steel's Kal-El is not the same (Superman) Kal-El who we're used to. But you don't realize it until the story unfolds.

I thought this was a fantastic reimagining of the three superheroes, and I can't wait for Volume 2!!!!

The Wicked + The Divine Volume 9: Okay

Well, here we are: the finale of The Wicked + The Divine! Unfortunately the Comics Plus app didn't have Volume 9 on it, so I had to snag the physical copy from the library.

 

I had no idea where the story was going, beyond a few hints from Ananke's sister that the Children would have to find their own way out, and the ending she suggested to Ananke was false. Volume 9 also finally explained how Ananke (and Minerva) worked - Minerva appeared when the other Children's powers appear. They are basically the same person, but their consciousness splits until one of them dies. 

I was also really happy to see that reading Volume 8 was necessary: some of the things that happened with earlier pantheons (specifically the last two pantheons) directly came up in this book. 

I was really excited that some of the characters who were sidelined earlier by Ananke got new bodies! And Baphomet/Nergal made an amazing sacrifice that no one saw coming (not even the other characters). 

Laura Wilson managed to find her way out of the cycle first, at the end of Volume 7: she realized she wasn't a god, but still had her powers. It just took practice to make them work. When everyone confronted Minerva, she was the one who helped everyone end the cycle. It wasn't an exciting climax (in an action way), but it was a very fitting end for the whole series; you don't realize at the beginning how it's about the birth and death of stories, but that's honestly what The Wicked + The Divine is, at its heart. Not only their birth and death, but their power.

After that, the story wraps up with Laura accepting the punishment of her crime for murdering Ananke back in Volume 4. Then the book ends many years later, at the funeral of Cassandra, who comments on the good that the remaining members of the Pantheon have wrought now that they've broken free of the story and were able to live out their lives as themselves, not gods. 

All in all, Okay is a fitting end to The Wicked + The Divine. I'm glad I decided to reread/finish the series. While it is often quite brutal (there's a lot of gore, which I found very uncomfortable), the story is good; overall I enjoyed it.

The Wicked + The Divine Volume 6: Imperial Phase Part 2

Just a short one this time. The Imperial Phase, Part 2 was a quick read. Lots of backstabbing in this one, lots of death, and lots of drama. Cassandra, Dionysius, and Woden put together a show to power up the machine to try to figure out what it's for. Woden tries to use it to mind control all of the attendees. Meanwhile, Baal and company are hunting Sakhmet after she rampaged when she found out the Pantheon had lied to her. 

But the biggest surprise came at the end: it seems that Ananke may not be so dead after all. And she's trying to get one more head from a god or goddess to stave off The Great Darkness...

I definitely can't wait to see where things go from here!

The Wicked + The Divine Volume 5: The Imperial Phase, Part 1

Well, here we are: the first new (for me) The Wicked + The Divine story that I've read since starting the series back in 2016! The Imperial Phase, Part 1 had a hard act to follow (the crazy ending of Rising Action). I wasn't sure where the story would go (and honestly, it kind of felt like the creative team wasn't 100% sure what to do with the first issue after Ananke's death, though I imagine that was on purpose to show how the Pantheon has to figure stuff out now without the Goddess who guided them for millennia). 

This volume opens as a magazine with pieces about different members of the pantheon. The back pages of the book explain how this was put together, and it was really neat: the creative team got their writer friends to do an email exchange with Gillian, who stayed in character as whoever they were interviewing. Then the writers took that email exchange and crafted an article. I thought that was a really neat idea, and it was fun to read one of the actual interviews in the back pages.

The Pantheon are trying to figure out what is true and what is false from what Ananke told them (as well as what the purpose of her crazy machine is), when there starts to be attacks from the Darkness that she warned them about. But rather than working together, they are now split in three: those who primarily want to stop the Darkness, those who want to research everything about their existence (especially with their second year closing in on them), and those who don't care about any of it. But the attacks are increasing, and research is slow going....

I can't wait to see what Part II will bring.

The Wicked + The Divine Vol 1-4 Rereads

I was browsing on Comics Plus, a comic reading app my local library offers, and found most of The Wicked + The Divine is available on it. I never did read any more after finishing Volume 4 back in 2016, so I decided to start it again and see what I think now. I honestly didn't remember much of what happens in the first 4 volumes. But I think I enjoyed them a lot more this time around. 

I just reread what I wrote about these volumes back in 2016. I didn't find the dance party of Dionysus as bad this time around (it was still a bit confusing, but I wasn't trying to follow it super closely either this time - they were partying, and that was good enough). I also just looked up the god Nergal, and he sounds pretty interesting - I'm not sure why Baphomet lied about who he is. I also didn't really get why people didn't like the Goddess Tara so much (but I also didn't read the pages of terrible social media posts about her, so maybe there was something in there?) 

Needless to say, I'm quite enjoying the story this time around, and can't wait to see where things go now that Ananke is dead...

Folklords

I saw Folklords at the library and was intrigued. A boy in a fantasy land has visions of our world. So he goes on an illegal quest to get answers from the Folklords. But there's a legion (the librarians) in his way. And he has no plan of how to find the Folklords!

I thought it was a very interesting story. I liked the worldbuilding and characters (the enchanted forest was really spooky). But unfortunately, by the end of the graphic novel, I felt like there were more questions than answers. And the series was canceled after issue #5, so there's no answers forthcoming. 😞

The Vampire Slayer Volume 3

It took me awhile to get (and read) The Vampire Slayer: Volume 3, but I finally have!  And I have to say...it was a bit underwhelming compared to the first two volumes.

Starting up where Volume 2 left off, Willow and Faith enter Hungrus' lair to save Buffy. Willow triggers her magic to help, but accidentally taps into a well of dark energy (it's the generational magic of the slayers). She kills Hungrus and, as the dark magic starts to consume her, starts plotting to unmake reality to do away with the world's suffering. Faith attempts to confront her, but when that goes poorly, she decides to tell Buffy about what has happened.  Buffy confronts the rest of her friends angrily, then they all go off to stop Willow.  Faith and Buffy manage to get through to her and convince her to give Buffy her destiny back. Then at the end, Giles calls someone to help rehabilitate Willow: Tara.

I'm not sure what I was expecting, beyond more of a fight with Hungrus I guess.  But definitely not Dark Willow sitting around for a good chunk of the story as she became one with the dark magic. There was also a lot less of Spike and Xander in this one - Xander finally decided to dump his boyfriend (his boyfriend didn't respect him at all, so it was a long time coming), and Spike was just basically along for the ride (he seemed more active in the earlier volumes because he ended up helping people out just trying to get closer to the Slayer).

Volume 4 is due out next month, but I'm honestly not sure if I'm going to read it. I found this one just okay, and with the main story feeling over (Buffy got her slayer powers back), I don't really feel the need to keep going. But who knows, maybe when the library gets it I'll give it a read.

Sonic the Hedgehog: Scrapnik Island

I haven't read a Sonic the Hedgehog story in a long time, but saw this one at work and wanted to give it a shot!  Sonic and Tails take refuge from a storm on one of the old Death Eggs, which crashed in the ocean. There they discover the Scrapniks - old, discarded badniks which Sigma-117, himself a badnik, has rebuilt so they can be free from Robotnik's programming. The Scrapniks help Sonic and Tails rebuild their plane. But while looking for a part that they need, Mecha Sonic's old programming is triggered!  

I really enjoyed this story about second chances and building the life you want to build.  Your future is in your hands, even if you start out as a badnik - you can change your programming and live the life you want.  It's a very cute story, and I very much recommend it for all Sonic fans!

The Vampire Slayer, Volumes 1 and 2

I haven't really been keeping track of my graphic novel reading lately, but I really wanted to talk about The Vampire Slayer Volumes 1 and 2 because they were awesome and I really want to remember what happens for when more volumes come out!  So this is going to be super spoilery.

In The Vampire Slayer, Willow and Giles cast a spell in an attempt to heal Buffy from the trauma she is carrying around as the Slayer.  But the spell ends up taking all of Buffy's Slayer powers and memories and transferring them to Willow!  Now Willow is the Slayer, and Buffy is a normal person who remembers nothing of her past.

Willow, Giles, and Xander have been trying to come up with a fix, but nothing is working.  So Willow has to go out and fight evil, even though she's had no training.  All the while she's struggling with her magic, which seems to be getting more and more out of control.  Faith arrives to help train Willow, and Xander ends up making friends with Spike in what started out as a way for Spike to learn about the Slayer, but what seems to be a genuine friendship by volume 2.  But all of this is pushing Buffy away because she knows something is up, but no one is telling her what happened or what is going on (plus her friends are all busy with other people now).

Volume 2 ended with Buffy going missing because Hungrus the Slayer-Eater has captured her.  Her friends didn't notice until 5 days later when they track her down at the park where she was captured.  They're going to go after her and hopefully save her from Hungrus (who still went after her, even though she isn't the Slayer, so Giles took that as good news that the spell can be reversed).

I thought this was a super fun story, and I can't wait for more!  Volume 3 is due out sometime next month and I can't wait!

Magical Boy: Volume 2

 After a several month wait, Magical Boy: Volume 2 was finally released!  I was very excited to see it - I couldn't wait to see how the story ended!

Magical Boy: Volume 2 starts off where Volume 1 ended: the third gate is open!  But all is not lost - Walnut tells Max and company that they have a chance to close the gates still.  Unfortunately, Max's mom starts really freaking out on him for going against the family's traditional magical girl heritage, blaming that for the opening of the third gate.  

Max isn't the only one dealing with disapproving parents.  Pyper's family hauls her into church where she is publicly disowned for admitting her truth.  And Sean has to deal with his own father thinking he isn't good enough.  But with the demons feeding off negative emotions to bring their leader through the gate, all this hate and sadness is definitely working against our heroes!

Once again, I enjoyed Magical Boy.  The story was brought to a satisfying conclusion and I enjoyed learning more about our heroes!  I look forward to reading future releases from The Kao. :)

Magical Boy: Volume 1

 A friend of mine recommended Magical Boy to me the other day.  It's adorable!  It's about a trans man who finds out he is descended from a goddess and is the next incarnation of Magical Girl. Many, many years ago, the goddess sacrificed herself to banish an evil god behind a magical seal.  The god sends his servants through little cracks (leaks) in the seal in an attempt to get free, and it's up to Magical Girl to stop them and seal the leaks. But Max, who had no idea about this, gets thrust into the role right as he is struggling to come out as a trans man!  

I loved Max's friends, especially how with many of them, appearances were often deceiving.  I also loved how supportive his father was right from the get-go.

Overall, I thought this was a really fun story that dealt really well with some difficult topics (like how hard it can be for LGBTQ+ people to come out, and how hard it can be for those closest to you to accept you as you are), as well as showing how wonderful and accepting people can be.  I really enjoyed reading it, and I am looking forward to volume 2!

A Few Graphic Novels - Jan 2022

 A friend of mine lent me some graphic novels a little while ago and I finally got around to reading them today. 

First was Return of the Valkyries, a random story where Jane Foster brings more Valkyries back (?) in the middle of Marvel's The King in Black event.  Right off the bat I was kind of in trouble because I knew nothing about The King in Black (but the book does a good enough job of giving you the gist of things so I get that it's like a chaotic god named Knull is attacking the earth with an army of symbiote-dragons).  It opens with Jane Foster ferrying the best super-human, Sentry, to death because he failed to stop the mad god (I'm not a comics expert, but I have never heard of this guy before so his death meant nothing to me). :( On the way to the afterlife, they find the body of the Celestial whose head is being mined elsewhere (where the Collector lives in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie).  The body has been trapping souls and manages to snag Sentry's.  While trying to get him back, Jane frees another lost soul (and fellow Valkyrie). They return to Valhalla where Brunnhilde fills Jane in on what they're dealing with (the Celestial's body is tied to Knull.  Breaking the bond between the two will weaken Knull.  But the rescued Valkyrie isn't interested in joining the fight, so Jane hatches a desperate plan with two others.

I found this one kind of hard to follow at times.  Yes, I understood the main plot and what was going on.  But I had a hard time keeping track of what all the characters were doing and why (and also who was dead vs who wasn't, as the dead Valkyries all show up to help).  I also have no idea what the rescued Valkyrie's name is (I'm sure it says it somewhere, but I didn't catch it, even though I caught her dead lover's name, and the names of some of the dead Valkyries).  This story also kind of felt out of place to read it on its own - it would probably be a lot better within the context of the King in Black storyline.

Next was Star: Birth of a Dragon. Star (aka Ripley Ryan) is a character from Captain Marvel.  While interviewing Captain Marvel, Ryan was kidnapped and later gained superpowers, attempting to kill Captain Marvel (she failed, but I think she killed many in New York).  To stop her, Captain Marvel ripped a hole through her chest.  But she didn't die.  Instead she somehow ended up bound with the reality stone.  Sentenced to prison on the Raft, she breaks out and just wants to be left alone.  But her uses of the infinity stone are clumsy, and she suddenly has a whole pile of superhumans looking for her to obtain it!

 This was a really interesting read.  Ryan is suffering from PTSD after being kidnapped and having Captain Marvel punch a hole through her.  She's trying to deal with that while also trying to control her new powers.  And to make everything worse, guess who shows up, but Captain Marvel herself!  I think what really made this story shine was at the end when Carol Danvers doesn't understand what happened (and just how traumatized Ryan is by her), why Ryan chose to make a deal with the Black Order rather than fighting with her and Scarlet Witch. I'm not sure if that PTSD will feature in future stories with this character, but I'm definitely interested to read more!

Finally, I read Crossover Volume 1: Kids Love Chains.  This one has a really interesting premise.  All the people of all the comic books have suddenly appeared in our world, blurring the lines between what is real and what is fake.  The comic people have erected a barrier over one of our cities.  Any of the comic people caught outside of the dome are immediately surrendered to the police when caught.  

In the middle of all this is Ellie, a young girl whose parents were caught on the other side of the dome.  She works in a comics shop with Otto.  When a young comic girl, Ava, is found in the shop, everyone panics and the shop is lit on fire.  Ellie, Otto, and Ava escape, and end up embarking on a journey to return Ava to her world (and hopefully find Ellie's parents along the way).  

I really, really enjoyed Crossovers.  It was a really interesting look at what could happen if our world collided with the fantasy world of comics (in a very District 9 kind of way).  The one issue I had with it was that I didn't really know who any of the characters in it were (although there was a list at the end with thanks to people whose characters appeared in this, so that was helpful).  I loved the ending, and can't wait to read more of Ellie's adventures!

Estranged: The Changeling King

 I was very excited to get my hands on Estranged: The Changeling King after reading Estranged a few days ago.  This one takes place a little while after the first volume. Ed (the Childe) is trying to adjust to the World Above, and King Cinder is trying to rule the World Below justly.  But magic is fading in the World Below, causing more and more troubles in the outer lands.  And Ed's parents want to visit the World Below to try to make sense of what happened to their two sons.  

While I enjoyed reading The Changeling King, I didn't like it as much as the first volume of Estranged.  To me it felt like a bit too similar of a story - the World Below is in trouble once again, so it's up to Ed, Cinder, and Alexis, along with basically all their friends from the first book, to save the day.  Yes, there were differences - I wasn't expecting the mysterious queen to be Ed and Cinder's mother (I was honestly expecting their aunt, Hawthorne, to make a reappearance).  And the roots of magic were interesting, especially what needed to be done to obtain new seeds (I also misread that part - I thought the Queen said the Royal Family had to give a secret, which I took to mean the price was a secret or a memory, not that the process of tithing was secret). The end had a lot of running around and away from people, which again was very similar to the first book (where they were literally trying to outrun Hawthorne's guards). 

I also felt that this story was mainly setting up for future volumes - the Wild Hunt will be after Ed now, and magic has changed within the world thanks to Alexis planting a seed in the World Above, so future stories will be exploring the consequences of that.  So while this story was fine, I am hopeful (and looking forward to) future volumes!

Estranged

A friend of mine recommended Estranged to me when we were looking at some new library books (Volume 2 had just come out). So I put Volume 1 on hold, but it took awhile for me to get it (hence I'm reading it a few months later).

Estranged is the story of the Childe, a human changeling who was raised by faeries, and Edmund, the fae who replaced him. When a fae ball is crashed by the evil Hawthorne, who changes the king and queen into rats and takes control of the World Below, the Childe and his faithful golem servant Whick go looking for help. They quickly determine they cannot trust anyone in the World Below, and so go looking for the Childe's counterpart in the World Above.

Edmund of course wants nothing to do with the Childe, fearing he will take Edmund's family (the Childe's rightful family) away. But when Hawthorne's minions attack, Edmund unfortunately learns that Hawthorne wants him dead because he is the rightful heir to the World Below. And so he ventures Below with the Childe and Whick to try to stop her (and to keep his family safe). 

I really liked how Edmund's big sister, Alexis, saw the three of them leaving and followed them into the World Below to find out what the heck was going on and why she has two brothers. She was incredibly welcoming to the Childe while not rejecting Edmund either, showing Edmund that maybe he doesn't have to hide who he is, and that he should try telling their parents the truth. Edmund was always terrified to do so because he was afraid of losing them.

Honestly, all of the main characters were great (and I liked the supporting cast too, especially the Nanny). I thought Ethan M. Aldridge did a fantastic job of showing how the two boys' upbringings changed them while also making them stronger in their own ways (although it was a shame that Edmund's art didn't feature more in the story beyond leading Whick and the Childe to him).

Estranged was at its heart about finding your place in the wider world, including you family. I thought it had some lovely themes about accepting people for who they are. I really, really enjoyed reading it, and I'm looking forward to Volume 2!

He-Man: The Eternity War Volumes 1 & 2

I'm a fan of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, and have enjoyed the other graphic novels I've read, so I was very excited to read parts one and two of He-Man: The Eternity War.  

The Eternity War opens with Hordak returning to life after millennia imprisoned in Despondos, Realm of Darkness.  He rejoins his Horde, who has conquered Eternia and Castle Grayskull, and sets about forging a weapon that will grant him the Power of Grayskull.  The rebels, under King Adam, She-Ra, and Teela, the new Sorceress of Eternia (who the Snake People worship as the Sorceress of their Goddess, Serpos), have taken refuge in Snake Mountain.  They plan an attack under the cover of the Dark Hemisphere's Mystic Vale, hoping to stave off Hordak's conquest of the entire universe.

Right off the bat, I once again felt like I was in the middle of the story.  What happened to the previous Sorceress?  How did Adam become King?  How was She-Ra with them?  Skeletor is reportedly dead, but how?  But whatever, I got enough information to follow along with this story.

Under Teela's counsel, King Adam (who is known to be He-Man) mounts an attack against the Horde while She-Ra is sent to locate one of the Eyes of Grayskull, the last artifacts that Hordak seeks in order to use Grayskull as a weapon against the universe.  The other one was in Skeletor's possession and presumed lost.  Man-at-Arms reprograms Roboto and heads off to space to sabotage the Horde's Orbital Disrupter.  While He-Man is victorious thanks to Man-At-Arms' sabotage, Duncan is ambushed in space by defender drones and Roboto is damaged; the two fall back to Eternia and are lost.  She-Ra is also defeated: Hordak challenges her with the Power of Grayskull.  She attempts to find the artifact, but Hordak stabs her.  But then she is rescued by an unlikely person: Skeletor!  He takes both her and the artifact to safety out from the clutches of Hordak.

Skeletor talks She-Ra into healing him, as he is still diminished from his last fight where he was presumed dead, and joining him on a journey to Despondos in order to strike directly at Hordak's power.  Unfortunately Evil-Lyn hears him tell She-Ra that when all of this is over, he wants her to heal him back to Keldor so he can start over with a new life.  Evil-Lyn flees with the two Eyes of Grayskull and delivers them directly to Skeletor!

Meanwhile, Teela shows Adam a vision of what will happen if he remains He-Man and uses an even greater power in order to defeat Hordak.  Power, when used for the best of intentions, corrupts, and that road leads Adam to be a dictator.  And so Adam makes the difficult decision to snap his Sword of Power.  Teela rejoices, saying the Goddess has been waiting for Adam because there is something special about him.  But unbeknownst to the two of them, Hssss, the King of the Snakemen, has been hiding inside of Adam.  Remaining He-Man kept him at bay, but now he is free to destroy Adam from the inside!

I'm not going to lie, this story really felt like it went all over the place, and was sometimes a bit hard to follow.  It really liked to flash back in time, especially at the beginning, which definitely didn't help (like when Adam and the armies were marching to battle, the story would jump back a few days to show what had happened that led to that moment, rather than just showing it chronologically.  The same thing happened when it showed how She-Ra started on her quest for the second Eye of Grayskull). There were also so many threads to the story, that at times it felt like one part was completely forgotten (although they weren't - one example of this was when Man-At-Arms disappeared after falling back to Eternia from space - that happened around the midpoint of volume 1, and we didn't get to find out what happened to him until about the midpoint of volume 2.  But at least the story eventually came back to him!)

I'm not really familiar with the Snake Men, so that didn't help either.  

So all in all, I thought that He-Man: The Eternity War was just okay.  It had an interesting enough story, particularly once it got into Volume 2 and Skeletor really got going, but overall it felt like it had too many characters and plot threads that were all over the place.  The ending, after the very epic battle, also didn't feel super satisfying.  So definitely not my favourite He-Man story.  But it might be a lot more satisfying if you read He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Volumes One and Two before it.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Lost Chronicles Volume One

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Lost Chronicles Volume One was a fun and really quick read. It's an anthologu collection of 12 short Power Rangers stories by different authors and illustrators. The stories take place across all different times and places, and generally feature the original 6 Rangers, although a number of them also feature various villains (and Bulk and Skull even get recruited by Zordon and Alpha to vecome Power Rangers!) My favourite was definitely "Sabrina's Day Out," where Goldar and Scorpina end up taking the day off to play carnival games. "It's Putty Time," which featured a putty in love with the Pink Ranger, was also super cute (although Tommy was kind of an ass in it). The Finster origin story was also super interesting, and I didn't know that Goldar had a brother (Silverback).

All in all, I really enjoyed this collection, and look forward to reading Volume Two!

Championess

 The library started getting some nonfiction graphic novels in and I snagged a couple.  The first one I read was Championess by Tarun Shanker and Kelly Zekas.  This is the (based on a true) story of Elizabeth Wilkinson, an eighteenth century female bare-knuckle boxer in London.  I'd never heard of her before, so this seemed like a really interesting read!

Elizabeth is determined to fight.  She's convinced that she can be a champion, having been undefeated in the barroom and back alley fights she's participated in.  Her dream is to win big and get her sister out of debt.  When her sister gives her the money to approach James Figg and ask him to teach her, she jumps at the chance.  But Figg refuses, and doesn't even really take her seriously because she's a woman.  So in a drunken inspiration, Elizabeth publicly challenges another female boxer to a match, claiming to be training under Figg!

I had never heard of Elizabeth Wilkinson before, so thought this would be a great way to learn about the female bare-knuckle boxer. I don't know how accurate this story is though -  I looked her up after finishing reading Championess and it sounds like a lot of the details of her life are rather sketchy (although interestingly, she was well known for quite awhile, but then forgotten in favour of James Figg because society was more focused on gender roles, which she defied).  I also later found this article on thegruelingtruth.com which sheds some interesting light on her and how she most likely was using a stage name as boxing was illegal at the time.

I quite enjoyed the relationship between Elizabeth and James Stokes, the boxer who Figg gets to train Elizabeth.  They both start out thinking they are better than the other for various reasons, but end up learning a lot from each other (in real life, it sounds like they married at some point, too).

Unfortunately, it appears that a lot of the story of Championess is fiction.  I found no record of Elizabeth having a sister (there seems to be little information about her outside of the documented fights).  

There also appears to be no convincing evidence of her background being anything other than English, but I suppose that is open to speculation because so little is known about her.  That being said, in making her heritage half Indian, Championess make for a more nuanced story, adding racism into the mix along with the sexism Elizabeth experiences (and adds in that dimension to Stokes as well - I did a quick search and couldn't find any information on his background, so I do not know if this is historical or fiction). 

While I do believe Championess is a mostly fictional account of Elizabeth Wilkinson's life, I did really enjoy it.  I also enjoyed how it opened all these research doors for me.  It's just a shame that so little is known of her life that this story couldn't have been more factually based.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Vol 7-10

Continuing reading through the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series of graphic novels at the library, I'm now at volumes 7-10, which cover the Shattered Grid and Beyond the Grid story lines, so these four were all rereads for me.  I wasn't sure what I would think of them on the reread (and after reading Masters of the Multiverse, which I seem to have forgotten to talk about on this blog - I loved it though, and will write about it when I reread it!)  But if anything, I actually enjoyed Shattered Grid more!  I felt like I had a better handle on all the characters this time around, and even caught a few things I missed the first time I read it!

And of course, unlike last time, I now know the events that led up to Shattered Grid.  I saw the first time the Rangers tangled with Drakkon, how he was being held by Grace's company, and exactly how he escaped.  So that definitely gave me a better grounding in the story than the first time I read it. 

This read-through also reinforced just how much I love Lord Drakkon as a character.  The idea of an evil Tommy Oliver who remained with Rita Repulsa is just so good!  I love how very flawed he is, and how he just doesn't understand the other Tommy Olivers of the Power Rangers multiverse, and how they can all be so "weak" because of their friends (even though it is their friends who give them their power).  And even at the very end, he refuses to let anyone in and change.  He's such a fantastic villain, and Kyle Higgins did such a great job with all of his nuances.

But one thing that struck me on this time around was that the Ranger Slayer doesn't appear in the story at all prior to Shattered Grid.  I expected to see her in one of the earlier volumes with Lord Drakkon (and to see how she broke free of his mind control), but that didn't happen....but maybe that happened in the 2018 annual comic, which wasn't included in these volumes (that issue also included Lord Drakkon infiltrating a group to steal something from them - he shows Finster Five his spoils of war, but that's all I really know - it seems like that story took place between Drakkon escaping from Grace and Shattered Grid beginning).  I'm going to try to get a hold of that comic issue to see if that fills in the remaining gaps.

Likewise, Beyond the Grid was better the second time around, especially the beginning.  Knowing who Grace was seemed to help a lot - she was the Red Ranger for a team Zordon pulled together in the 60's.  Her team didn't know each other and had no training.  While their mission was ultimately successful, three of her team died.  She's carried this with her, and built everything from her company to her space ship to make the world a safer place.  She's also relentless in her belief that no one will be left behind.  It's knowing Grace that I think makes the beginning of Beyond the Grid a better read, even though the story is ultimately about the other Rangers with troubled pasts who come together into a team.

I also really like the friendship of the Ranger Slayer, Cameron, and Heckyl.  Kimberley and Heckyl in particular have similar pasts, and manage to find both forgiveness and friendship together.  I think that is one of my favourite parts of Beyond the Grid (especially the interlude where Heckyl explains his past - the three of them are having snacks together, and he specifically invited them to that little party to let them in on who he is, and they are both okay with him).  It ties beautifully into the whole theme of Beyond the Grid about second chances for everyone (and the right to choose a better path for everyone).

I'm now excited to read what comes next in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers story.  What happens to the Rangers on board the Promethea?  Do they go back to their worlds without remembering each other?  Do they come together as a new team?  Hopefully volumes 11 and 12 will answer these questions!

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Volume 6

 

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Volume 6 is the last one before Shattered Grid.  I wasn't really thinking of it as a bridge to that story line when I started reading it, as it was continuing the story of Finster's monsters who were disguised as humans.  The Rangers have agreed to work with Grace, a woman who was previously a Red Ranger for a somewhat disastrous mission (her team didn't train together or know each other at all - while they ultimately saved the world, three of them died, and as the Red Ranger and leader, Grace bears that burden even though it was Zordon's fault for sending the team in unprepared).  She has dedicated her life to making the world a safer place, building Promethea to accomplish that task.  Her people have discovered how to track the monsters when they're getting ready to transform, and so the Power Rangers agreed to work with her.  

In good news though, Alpha Five and Saba have discovered how to return Zordon to the Command Centre!  

Meanwhile, Rita Repulsa has returned from a mysterious errand.  She recalls Finster (that was a really neat scene - he was able to escape the pocket dimension basically whenever he wanted to, and the Rangers still don't know how he pulled it off!) and orders him to set off all his hidden monsters, forcing the Rangers to separate.  Unfortunately, she also made them all grow and their forms weren't able to take that, so the Rangers are able to easily defeat them.

While trying to track down the hidden monsters though, Billy returned to Promethea to boost their scanning equipment.  While there, he discovered that Promethea runs on very little power, but most of that power is dedicated to a particular wing.  Doing some sleuthing, he discovers the reason why: Grace had captured Lord Drakkon after the Rangers' last battle (he was pulled through the portal with them)!  

And that's how we tie into Shattered Grid.  I'd forgotten that Drakkon had been pulled through the portal.  But by the end of this he was able to return to (presumably) his own dimension (with a headless Saba...) and start the events of Shattered Grid!