Sean Murphy (1) (1980–)

So first off this is volume that brought memories from works like Wolverine Weapon X and Silent Dragon. Entire look and feel, overall story, makes this book feel like something from decades ago, not from 2017.

First thing is art - truly great. Level of details, panoramas of the LA and Tokyo areas .... they are just beautiful. Assault scene, ambush on Led Dent in Tokyo, it is not just event on small piece of land, it moves across the shore of the river and then moves over the waterfall to the rocky coast below where blades flicker from every direction cutting everyone, our heroes and assailants. Entire look and feel is epic, cinematic.

Story wise book also holds its own. We are shown near future where LA is broken into smaller Islands after the world level catastrophe (rest of the world is also changed, it seems like every nation is controlled by its own warlord). Everywhere technology rules and people have lost their jobs because there is no need to work anymore. To keep them busy with something, nations have given their populace to indulge in sensory overloads - idiotic shows, sex overload, murders, mayhem, destruction, bullying, just think Clockwork Orange to the Nth degree, but with government encouraging such behavior. And to keep people even more under control they are given Juice, nanite machines that put people even more under the influence of media and general sensory stimulation. To enforce the rule new order is created, Constables, humans enhanced by the nanites, grown up in size and muscle but basically made zombies and almost terminally addicted to juice, executing people without even being aware of what they do.

So when two constables, Led who is under full spell of Juice, and Debby, Led's lover truly devoted to him but not a Juice user )only one in the force), are sent to Japan to prepare ground for the invasion it is tragedy in making. Sent by the LA warlord Flak, they will try to find the refuge in Japan (since it is protected from the technological invasion). Unfortunately Flak is not that trusting and he causes Led to fall back and ...... lets say it ends with a heart break.

Cybernetic implants, people going crazy from the use of the nanites and changes done to their bodies, murderous - no, maniacal - cyborgs, ordinary people mowed down without any thought - dystopia in its fullest.

Excellent book , highly recommended.… (més)

After rather serious vol 1 (weird outfits a la Clockwork Orange aside) this volume starts as weird as nightmare caused by overeating at night - Led Dent, now back as Constable high on Juice as always, engages the terrorists from Humpty Dumpty and Alice [from Wonderland, although Cinderella seems to be there too :)] and, while showing Flak's determination not to negotiate with terrorists, basically kills off all the hostages together with terrorists in an epic conflagration.

Flak, with d**k swinging right and left decides to leave for Tokyo, where he built the safe haven for rich with clean water and food, and he brings with him murderous maniac Davey and Led in case muscle and firepower is required [and of course all the rich selected by IQ meter at the entry into the ship - this made me laugh I almost choke myself :)]. But what he did not expect is return of Debbie, new protector of Tokyo - she is on the warpath seeking revenge for destruction caused to Tokyo at the end of vol 1 (and if you wondered - she is the ghost from the title).

Art as always is great, panoramas - Flak's residence but also sea beaches of Tokyo - are just wonderful. As I said lots of d**ks and boobs swinging around and we see in general nudity and complete debauchery of the ruling elite (hentai octopus was weeeeeiiiiiiirrrrddd) , but I guess idea is to show how consumerism basically eats and consumes itself. That aside action scenes are just great.

For me this book went a little bit sideways toward cuckoo land, half of it is happening in minds of lunatics like Davey. But the end is good, balances a lot of things (epilogue was buhahahaha moment), we leave Debbie with a loss she needs to come to terms with, and she decides to cope with it through helping others after the events of this book.

Very good SF dystopian book, with accent on how technology is a good slave but terrible master.

Highly recommended.… (més)

DNF 23%

I hated the first volume on Libby, which I read because I got this volume in a random pull of a bunch of comics from the library. I knew I shouldn't pick this up, but I am a ratgrrrl with zero impulse control, so I thought I would give it a go. It couldn't be any worse...

Maybe it's worse, or maybe after finishing the first volume and reflecting on how much I didn't enjoy it, I had no more scales on my eyes and goodwill in my heart, but I am now happy (read: sad) to now confirm that these comics absolutely suck.

I hate being negative and generally make a point of avoiding being disparaging or insulting, but these comics are such purile frash that rhwh are insulting to read, so they started it. I wish there was a word for what cringe is attempting to convey, but fails as we are all incredibly cringe and life if better when we accept that. We are also all trash and I absolutely enjoy some trash, as a treat, but this is not good trash or even the good kind of bad trash. It's just such massive edgelord dudebro energy that I am flabbergasted Image publish it and genuinely can't imagine anyone not on the fedora forum on fucking fourchan finding this the least bit amusing.

The art is still rather pretty, but the fucking stupid shit the artist is made to draw...

The writing continues to sound like a joke writer fired by Andrew Dice Clay and the Grand Theft Auto 'comedy and parody' writers team for their work being too obvious, obnoxious, and lowest common denominator.

This comic continues to be an insult to the concept of cyberpunk and I hate it very much.… (més)

I really wanted to like this...

But it is just just edgelord sci-fi with cyberpunk aesthetics, including the orientalism that seems so important to those who are just using Blade Runner as a basis.

The art is really something, but art does not a comic make, and the characterisation, dialogue, narrative vacillate between copying homework, uninspired, or just plain bad.

I don't even have the energy to get into things more deeply, because it doesn't warrant it, but women don't need a lifetime of abuse to develop a sense of self, there's some real weird consent stuff, it's absolutely laughable that something ostensibly cyberpunk would have a whole riff about how there used to be good cops, like her dad...in the future! (there have never been good cops. Ever. The only good a cop can do is to stop being a cop. ACAB), neo-busbido in a beautiful, magical samurai garden in Tokyo because it just wouldn't be 'cyberpunk' without fetishising and/ or demonising Japan. I could go on...

One more thing, I swear a fuckload more than I probably should in my reviews, updates, and general speech, but the 'ha ha petite and attractive woman who likes the sex and swears like a caricature of a sailor with tourettes' is the most dudes rock, teenager-brained men writing women shit ever. Yeah, a lot of us fuck and say naughty words, but we generally don't sound like ten year old who have first got their hands of swearwords. The male gaze 'strong female protagonist' manic pixie dream girl energy is through the fucking roof!

I read this on Libby and ended up with the second volume in a random stack of graphic novels from they library, but I genuinely don't know if I'll bother. If it it wasn't already in my house, I definitely wouldn't.

Image and comic readers are better than this. We should celebrate schlock. We all enjoy a bit of schlock from time to time, as a treat, but everything, besides the artwork, gives scholocn a bad name.… (més)