It was interesting to see how well the Netflix show adapted elements from Jessica Jones' comics origin. I have a real soft spot for Malcolm. Jessica is so done with him and yet he's such a fan of her work that he still answers her case phone calls. There are still elements of her trauma present in this first volume and her complicated relationship with the Avengers and Miss Marvel specifically. I'm looking forward to see her development in the next three volumes. A great start.

I had a friend highly recommend this book to me, so I picked it up. I'm not usually into sci-fi, but I have to say the author does a good job with the world building. Where the story really had issues was the characters for me. I wasn't super invested in them, and I think part of it may have been on purpose. The world the characters are in is so disconnected from the act of socializing that it makes them hard to relate to as a result. I still think that it would have helped the story be more impactful if I was able to care more about the well being of the characters. Whenever they were in danger or or threatened I didn't really care all that much. Most characters in the book don't have real life friends because they spend so much time online. Whenever they are described there is very little we know about them. A lot of the information we get is about their gaming habits and their knowledge on pop culture, not actually personality traits. On a nicer note, the book does have a good lesson in the end, which is that just because technology allows so many advances and conveniences, It doesn't mean we should forget about the real world. Wade definitely develops as a character throughout the book as he goes from being someone who didn't have any real life friends and was afraid of the real world to someone who starts actively building real relationships. He even starts taking care of himself going from being an overweight teen to someone who works out and loses weight to deal with stress. Again, because I couldn't relate too much to the characters since there wasn't much to relate to, the romance didn't really do much for me either. I'd say the strongest points of the story is how action packed it is and the interesting world and pop culture references the author makes. Not a bad book, but don't go in expecting anything life changing either.

Jessica is investigating a case in a small town. It was interesting to see how quickly a lot of the nice church going people in the town revealed themselves to be racist and prejudice towards mutants and in part, people of color. The girl that's missing has a really dysfunctional family and really doesn't seem to belong in that small town. Jessica is able to resolve the case after jumping through quite a few hoops. I liked to see the frustration behind a character like that that has really outgrown the town she's in and definitely needs to get out. Scott Lang spends some time calling her to go out on that date Carol tried to set up, and seems like an all right guy. He actually gets Jessica to not drink on the date because he wants to get to know her better and the date seems to go pretty well. I'm looking forward to see if that goes anywhere. By the end of the volume, she ends up being a bodyguard for Matt Murdock and ends up bumping into Luke again. Seeing them communicate a bit and clear up some misunderstandings was interesting. Honestly, I'd like to see them share some more scenes together to see where that goes more than I'd like to see her dating Scott.

This is an interesting start to this story. I don't know much about The Question in the comics, my exposure to him being limiter to the animated series I've watched that featured him. However, so far this first book is full of political intrigue and a complicated relationship between Vic and his mentor, Dragon. I have a feeling Dragon knows something Vic doesn't and give is going to find out about it the hard way. Too bad Book 2 doesn't come out until January. The wait is going to be agonizing. Great start so far. It has my attention and I need answers to a lot of questions!

Best volume yet, I think. It was great to see Jessica legally scam J. Jonah Jameson. He's has such bigotry against anyone with superpowers that I'm glad someone gave him a taste of his own medicine. Jessica is a much kinder and compassionate person than she seems and it really came through in this issue. She could have pocketed the money Jameson was paying her and instead did full time charity work with a good chunk of the proceeds. She also could have completely dropped the case of Mattie's disappearance after Jameson literally accused her of kidnapping her. Instead, she went out of her way to find her and put herself in a very high risk situation to do so. It was interesting to see her meet Jessica Drew as well. They seem to have a lot of friends and acquaintances in common, but have never actually met. They made a great team in this volume, though, and Mattie is safe after all that debacle. Scott and Jessica's relationship has taken an interesting turn and I actually like them together. Jessica obviously isn't completely ready to open up with him, but she's warming up to him and I hope this relationship at least helps her grow a bit and navigate her trauma a bit better. Looking forward to the last volume of Alias.

For those of us who have been waiting for more questions to be answered as far as what is going on, many answers are revealed in this issue. That's all I can really say without spoiling things.

Just an annual focused on Arthur's dog, Salty. It's just a nice feel good story about friendship and getting along. A good intermittent story.

This is one of the best endings to a trilogy that I’ve read in a long time. This book felt like it wrapped up most of the loose ends that were left over from the previous two books and I was extremely satisfied. I have a pretty unpopular opinion about Locke’s death offscreen. I think having him die offscreen was the most fitting way for him to go because he was such an attention whore while he was alive that it makes me happy to know how much it would have irked him to know he wasn’t even important enough to have a scene dedicated to his death. However, maybe I’m just more petty than the average reader. I do think that Taryn and Jude’s reconciliation happened pretty quickly. However, I think that has to do with the fact that Taryn’s actions speak louder than her words. Through the act of killing Locke it displays that she understands that he was not worth betraying her sister. She was infatuated with the idea of Locke and once married to him had a very rude awakening to how miserable being married to him was. I don’t think she needs an entire redemption arc because it is heavily implied. Taryn also is a beautiful reflection of someone who saw her mother’s mistakes and opted to not repeat them. She didn’t need Locke to be her Madoc with her being pregnant and all. In some manner I think her pregnancy is a good way of symbolizing the beginning of her new life. 

The best part of this last installment by far was the development of Cardan and Jude’s relationship. The argument they had about him banishing her was the best married couple spat. I still can’t believe that he banished her to impress her. He’s obnoxiously adorable and loves his wife! I think she should have been able to figure Cardan’s loophole out, though, but I think that her lack of security in his love for her is what stopped her from going back for so long. That and the fact that Cardan’s love letters to her were intercepted. I know that maybe calling them love letters might seem like a stretch for some people, but coming from Cardan, they read like love letters. Jude doesn’t spend as much time scheming in this book, but it’s mostly because she has found her place in Elfhame at Cardan’s side once they reconcile. She is in a position of power when she returns and has found a sense of security within her relationship with Cardan, which is nice because they were both being stupid about it for a long time. 

The prophecy plot twist was something I didn’t see coming, at least not in the way it was manifested. I would have never guessed that Cardan would be cursed by breaking the crown. I’m glad the perpetrator of the curse died immediately after that because he deserved it. Jude got a huge amount of character development in this final book which as a result helped her solidify her relationship with Cardan. She could have chosen to enslave him to her which is something I’m sure she would have done in the first book. However, by now she has grown to love and trust him enough to prefer him dead and free rather than enslaved, even if it was to her. Her hunger for power is no longer her priority like it was before. Everything resolved beautifully and came full circle when the end of the prophecy came to fruition and Cardan was returned to his faerie form. This is how a book trilogy should be concluded, I think. All the loose ends that were most important were concluded and yet I was left with enough threads open ended that it doesn’t feel like everything was too perfect in the end. One of the best reads of the year for me. 

I won this graphic novel in a Goodreads giveaway a while ago and hadn’t gotten around to picking it up. I’m glad I finally did. The comic jumps back in forth through time but does it incredibly seamlessly in a way that ties the story together very well. The entire concept is crazy but also feeds the cynical conspiracy theory goblin inside me. There is essentially an organization of people that have sworn fealty to a pagan god, Mammoth, in exchange for power over things like the stock market and economy in the world. This of course comes at a heavy price and it’s incredible to see these people get away with murder left and right and have such ridiculous amounts of power. This group of people are responsible for previous stock market crashes such as the 1929 Stock Market Crash. It’s a crazy concept, but so interesting. Detective Dumas is investigating a murder and is a part of one of the subplots. He has no idea what he is getting himself into with all this. Maybe he will also become corrupted like the same people he’s trying to find. I’m not really sure where the storyline is going at the moment besides that, but I can tell you that this comic has me hooked. I’m looking forward to reading Volume 2 when I get to it. For anyone into dark noir alternative fiction, this is something I’d recommend.