laceblade | Entries tagged with comics: mara

• What are you currently reading?
Cross Game, volume 7. Almost done?!

A Woman Wrapped in Silence - I've mentioned this before, basically the all-in-verse fic about Mary. In the passages I read over the weekend, Jesus was born - yay!
I'm not sure how I'll feel about this long-term. As implied by the title, it's basically about the silence/mystery surrounding Mary during moments of high emotion/drama. It's not really compelling to me for a woman's silence to be the most important thing about her, ;p

• What did you recently finish reading?
Basara, volumes 25-27 - Wow, the end! Yumi Tamura really knows how to pull all her threads together. As for the past/future after-stories, I really only cared for the ones about Sarasa & Shuri and the one about Hayato (OMG HAYATO). Someone should write a paper about how Sarasa views her own gender, kthx.
I just really loved this series. Definitely one of my favorites. I'll now spend my life hunting for these volumes in used bookstores!
Maybe now I'll read her current series, 7 Seed, like all the cool kid?? It's only available to me in scanlation format, though, & I vastly prefer reading manga in paper format. Before switching to another apocalyptic one, I'd like to finish some other things I have downloaded, like Gokinjo Monogatari.

Cross Game, volume 6 - Still gr9. I was wary about Akane at first, but I like her quite a bit.

The Last of Us #4 (final) - this was good, although as predicted, now I just want to play the video game for which this mini-series is a prequel. Unfortunately, it's for the PS3. Who knows, maybe I'll get a PS3 after the PS4 comes out & there's a price drop?? WE'LL SEE. I just love Faith's art. I'll read any story she's drawn/written. Post-apocalypse is so much the better. I'm glad I read this mini-series!

Mara #5 - That's how it ends?? Meh. I won't be keeping these issues, so look for my upcoming "take my stuff" post, because my current paper grocery bag marked "sell" is full ;)

Buffy, season 9 #23/24 (The Core, parts 3 & 4) - I love that Spike has Xander entered in his phone as "Wanker," :*) UMM THESE WERE INTENSE BUT I DON'T HAVE MUCH TO SAY ABOUT THEM?! The final issue comes out today. Overall, I've liked Season 9 more than Season 8.

Angel & Faith #24/25 (What You Want, Not What You Need, parts 4 & 5) (final) - umm, wow, I just really loved Angel & Faith a lot, this entire run. Go Christos Gage for being a great writer, & I really loved Rebekah Isaacs's art, too. The characterization has been spot-on, & the emotional arc was super compelling for me (I <3 angst-ridden stuff about finding your own way/meaning in life, so ymmv).
GILES'S AUNTS! GILES'S AUNTS! GILES'S AUNTS! Also ( spoiler )
I'm sad it's over, & will definitely reread this. I loved it way more than Buffy season 8. I'm interested in the details regarding Buffy season 10 - when it's going to start, obviously, but what the partner titles will be, too.

X-Men #3 & #4 - I <3 the art in this series. I still don't know who the fuck anybody is, but I like it enough to keep going & I want to make an icon out of Jubilee working on a tablet from issue #3.

• What do you think you’ll read next?
I've been organizing/catching up on my comics (can you tell?!). I have a larger stack of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which I'd really like to read & get through, & decide whether to continue to keep it on my pull list or not.
Since I don't know who the hell anyone is in X-Men, it seems like it'd behoove me to read some more X-Men stuff -_-

Crossposts: http://mystickeeper.livejournal.com/669550.html

• What are you currently reading?
Batwoman #15

Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel García Márquez - I'm still feeling really moody about books & reading. Grabbed this out of my bedroom because it's short. I haven't yet read a Márquez novel, just some short stories. I can't even remember whether the stories I read were in Spanish or English translations.

• What did you recently finish reading?
Young Avengers #4 - so I wanted to stop reading this, but a new issue came out before I could tell my comics guy, so I bought it & read it. AND THEN IT ENDS ON A CLIFFHANGER?! LOKI WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! So I guess I'll at least be buying the next one.
Kate feels like a totally different character in this series than she does in Hawkeye. While she originated in Young Avengers, I think I like her more in Hawkeye ^^;

Hawkeye #10 - this might be my least favorite so far? Stylistically interesting, the narrative did not budge forward at all.

this is not (a love song) by

thememoriesfire - one-shot I hadn't read yet. Faberry with Quinn as a serial killer. Haunting, painful, yet still believable in its own way. Mind the tags.

Captain Marvel #12 - Still digging this. I think I'm going to be sad when they switch artists from Filipe Andrade. The current style is just...really grand. I should find some Captain Marvel icons. Before the next in the Captain Marvel line, there's going to be a crossover event called "The Enemy Within." I'm excited to see Carol interact with other Avengers (especially after seeing the Iron Man 3 movie). I'm hoping it'll be more interesting than her appearance in Avengers Assemble, which didn't do much for me (and I dropped after about two issues).

Mara #4 - There's a really epic story going on here, but unfortunately I don't really feel emotionally connected to the protagonist. At all.

Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) Rurouni Kenshi: Restoration - This was okay. It's like a retelling of the original Kenshin manga?? idk why they're redoing it, but the art is pretty great. For those unfamiliar, Rurouni Kenshin is the story about an assassin from the Bakumatsu who was fucking epic during the rebellion at the end of Japan's Edo period, getting rid of the emperor & taking shit over. However, Kenshin felt remorseful for having killed so many people, & at the start of the manga uses a reversed sword so that he can't kill anyone. His guilt/journey is appealing to me, & maybe I should read more some day? When I read it the first time, the endless battles with people never changing/etc. bugged me. Which is what bugs me about most shounen. Still, the manga is sort of a huge anti-war message, & I should probably read it.
Anyway, there doesn't seem much point in reading a retelling when I haven't read the original!

FCBD Dragonball: Harmless, but pointless, which is how I feel about all of Dragonball.

Buffy season 9 #21: "The Core" part one. We're finally in the final arc of the season! And shit is intense. ( spoilers ) There are lots of moments that I like in this, down to Andrew's Akira poster hanging on the wall.

FCBD: Mouse Guard offering - I don't buy single issues of Mouse Guard, but I do like reading the graphic novel versions when they come in at the library. Anyway, this was fine but mostly forgettable.

Glee fic, The Loneliest Number by

lazarus_girl - Set between 4.16 and 4.18. Restless and struggling to adjust to life as a single girl in New York, Santana finds an unlikely ally in Rachel. (NSFW)

Batwoman #7-11 (To Drown the World) - I've been neglecting Batwoman comics for a year, so my goal was to catch up & decide whether to keep buying or drop it. I just find this all pretty dull? idk. I like Batwoman as a character, & really liked her intro-book. But I'm just bored by this. -_-

Batwoman #12-14 (World's Finest I: Blood Tides) - This is a crossover with the new Wonder Woman series. The layouts & etc. got way more interesting in this arc, what I'd expect from Batwoman.
Batwoman's dealing with Medusa in her city, so that's why she gets Wonder Woman to team up with her. Wonder Woman's inner narrations are almost lyrical, and the way the two of them interact with & respect one another is pretty nice to read.

Lullabye for the New World Order: just gonna get my feet wet (until i drown) (aka: part 2) was posted on Sunday, by

synecdochic and this is just...OMG FIC OF MY ID. AU where Tifa meets up with Tseng prior to the start of the game, & he gets Tifa and Rufus to talk and just OMG.
In this part, they go off to Nibelheim & find the things one would expect them to find in Nibelheim and just OMG. The Nibelheim flasbacks/etc. are my favorite parts of the game, so just seeing another set of things happen there is so great, so meaningful to me.
And OMG THESE CHARACTERS. It's

synecdochic and

traxits who have gotten me to care about the Turks & Rufus & Reeve AND NOW I CARE SO MUCH?!
But Tifa especially, my favorite character of all time, and she is just SO FUCKING COMPETENT in this fic, I love it so much.
I'll be reading & rereading this forever, I'm sure. A fantastic addition. I'm so looking forward to where this story goes, and I don't care how long it takes to get there, because in the meantime I can pour over this forever.
As this all takes place before the game begins, I think people could read it without FF7 knowledge.
I'm also seriously happy to be involved in group plays of FF7 with people in town. I did that one summer in middle school & it was like, the best summer of my life. I LOVE THIS GAME SO MUCH I WANT TO SHARE IT WITH EVERYBODY OMFG.

• What do you think you’ll read next?
Well, WisCon is in a week and a half so mostly I'm thinking about a billion emails that don't actually require action on my part.

Crossposts: http://mystickeeper.livejournal.com/640368.html

• What are you currently reading?
Cyteen by C.J. Cherryh. This is the first thing I've ever read by this author. We're reading the first 1/3 of the book for

beer_marmalade.
I'm grumpy that the back cover of my copy ruins a major spoiler that hasn't happened yet in the first third of this book :[ I'm glad I powered through the first multi-page info dump. I HATE STRAIGHT-UP INFO DUMPS IN SCI-FI NOVELS UGH. I probably retained nothing.
Aside from the info dumps, this novel is dense-but-great. Lots of politics & trying to outmaneuver people. PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE. Also huge ethical issues to think about, like human cloning and etc. It's a great intersection of interesting things for me, & I sort of feel like this book was written specifically for me.
I wish my brain were a little more with it right now, because I feel like I'm missing stuff.

Anna Karenina - need to finish part 5 today. This book club meets in a bar tomorrow, instead of someone's apartment (ty baby jesus).

• What did you recently finish reading?
Captain Marvel #11. I just love this current story arc so much, & I want Filipe Andrade to do the artwork for this series FOREVER. Captain Marvel talking to her cat. Using assistive technology! Dealing with medical bullshit and mundane life stuff in addition to being a superhero. I <3 it.

The Last of Us #1 of 4. By Faith Erin Hicks & Nick Druckman. FEH is one of my all-time faves. I've been reading her stuff since Demonology 101 was being posted online (it's a web comic). This 4-part series is a prequel to a PlayStation 3 game that's coming out in June. I don't have a PS3 unfortunately, but this game looks really good. As for the comic:

It has been nineteen years since a parasitic fungal outbreak infected and wiped out the majority of the world's population. In Boston, one of the last remaining quarantine zones, a young girl named Ellie is being transferred to the military prep school that all orphaned teenagers must attend upon turning thirteen.

So, yeah. Post apocalyptic society with a group of freedom fighters in the background. Ellie fights hard, and also seems to be suffering PTSD. I loved this so much I immediately reread it. Very excited for the next issue, & sad it won't come out 'til May 29th. And now I want to buy a PS3 so I can play this game :3 (and Final Fantasy XIII, I guess)

Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Search, part 1. This picks up right where The Promise left off. (The Promise picked up right where season 3 ended.) Gene Luen Yang did a great job with the first one, & is still killing it.
We start off with a simple premise: as the gaang try to lead the Four Nations with a bunch of adults, one of the adults says that families are like nations. Zuko worries about his ability to lead the Fire Nation, given that his dad's in prison and Azula has been institutionalized. He decides to focus on his missing mother.
I'm down with finding out what happened to Ursa (his mom), but I'm a little annoyed that Zuko is at the center of the super serious plot like last time.
This series also tells Ursa's story in flashbacks, while Zuko tries to find her in the present. Grateful that Ursa is getting a lot of screentime in her own right.
Disappointed that Toph isn't around for this arc. I still feel that everyone's characterization is spot-on, as is the humor. It's like watching the show.

Mara #3 - We got a little more explanation here, but mostly I really think it'd be better to read these issues all in a row. It's getting hard to keep track of wtf is going on. This series really isn't written to be read one issue at a time. Makes me grateful for things like Saga and Hawkeye, which definitely are.

Hawkeye #1-4 - W O W. I don't even know whether I can be coherent about it.

• What do you think you’ll read next?
More Cyteen, more Anna Karenina, more Hawkeye comics.

I'll need to go buy the new issue of Saga that just came out today. The Internet says Apple won't allow people to buy it through its store due to its depiction of gay sex. They seemed to have no problem with the het sex in previous issues!
Anyway, this makes me glad to buy physical issues of comic books from the brick & mortar store a few blocks from my apartment, instead of big corporations through the Internet.

Crossposts: http://mystickeeper.livejournal.com/633615.html

• What are you currently reading?
Anna Karenina - Currently trying to make it through part 2 before Sunday, which should be easy (I'm in the middle of part 2 right now).
It's really easy to dive into this book, which I enjoy. Some of my friends have mentioned having to reread pages or passages b/c it's so dry, but I haven't had that issue at all, perhaps because the translation I picked up (most recent English one) is better, after all. It did win some awards & stuff.
I like Anna and Kitty and Levin. Kitty seems to be depressed now, :[
I love reading about the stupid men in this book, bahaha, like Anna's husband who only forms his opinions based on other people's opinions!

Related, I've recently learned that the book club I'm joining to discuss this book has actually been meeting for months, to discuss other books! Now I feel like I've invited myself/etc., but people assure me that's not true, so we'll see how Sunday goes.

• What did you recently finish reading?
Mara #2 - Not much really happened in this issue, & what did happen was weird overlord narration, not dialogue. There were lots of ads at the end & it made me grumpy. I want to know what happens to Mara! Hopefully the next issue will be more interesting.

Spike: A Dark Place #5 - I'm just glad this is over. #5 wasn't any better than the rest of them. Here's a note to myself: SELL THESE, free up space!

Civil War: Runaways/Young Avengers - (This is just the first volume; Secret Invasion will be next.) I've read this before, but it was when I didn't know anything about the Young Avengers. Umm, it's definitely more interesting this time around, although on the whole it's not great. Mostly, this just gives me lots of Runaways feelings :( I've read the Runaways since they first started coming out, and I love those kids. ALSO their outfits are better, their dialogue is better, & they're much funnier than the Young Avengers. Now I just want to reread Runaways, lol.

Geisha, a Life by Mineko Iwasaki - I ended up really, really loving this. It was hard to put down. Iwasaki's look back at being a maiko & geiko was full of historical detail, and SO INTERESTING OMG. She did spend some time detailing how clueless the women who grow up in this life are. In her twenties, Iwasaki decided she wanted to live in her own apartment so far (while still entertaining clients), so she got one. She didn't even know that vacuum cleaners needed to be plugged in order to work. Stuff like that. The women are entirely dependent on the people who care for them/their house.
Her interaction with Queen Elizabeth II was amusing (she flirted with Prince Philip b/c Elizabeth wouldn't eat their awesome food); her interaction with Prince Charles appalling (he signed her fan with his name without asking her - ruining it so that she couldn't use it at her next appointments that evening).
Toward the end, Iwasaki's decision to retire at age 29 to try & shock the whole cultural society into reform came as a shock to me the reader. She had mentioned in the book that she'd petitioned for girls to be able to stay in school longer (through high school), but I wish she'd spent a little more time discussing how she came to her decision, the reactions of all the other people in the book, etc.
I felt frustrated that it ended like a Victorian novel - she gets married & oop! Story's over! I really wanted to know what else happened in her life - I hadn't realized I'd become so attached, bahaha.
Anyway, I highly recommend this, although: warnings for attempted rape & suicide.

• What do you think you’ll read next?
More Young Avengers comics - Civil War crossover stuff, Dark Reign, and Children's Crusade (now that I figured out that it's NOT a Young Avengers title - just regular Avengers - and that's why it wasn't coming up in my searches in the library database lol).

I've still got a pile of stuff in my library basket, including Wolf Hall, which just came yesterday. I had hoped I'd have a couple months before receiving that one, but in our library, whichever branch a book gets returned at, the next person in line at that branch gets the book, even if there are ten people before them in line. If they're at other branches, then too bad! So I guess the 50-some other people with this book on hold don't go to my library -_-
Anyway, I'd kind of hoped to be done with Anna Karenina before picking this monstrosity up. At least AK, I'm reading in smaller chunks, I guess.

Also need to read a book lent to me by a co-worker and

beer_marmalade's February book, Moon Called.

I'm feeling a significant lack of manga in my life right now, so I might return to Gokinjo Monogotari.