2018.006 Hawkeye: Kate Bishop Vol 2: Masks

This book proves you can have a book that's smart, funny, serious and well executed without invalidating any of those things.  I loved this.  Kate Bishop is quickly becoming my favorite Marvel hero.  Kelly Thompson is doing magic with her.  Kate looks and sounds and acts just like the Kate from the previous Hawkeye series she shared with Clint Barton.  She didn't get reinvented when she got her own series.  Just given a new setting.  I don't know why more creators can't do this.

We get to deal with a lot of Kate's past in this book.  Her relationship with her father and mother take the spotlight for a good deal of the book.  I want more of this.  MORE!!

Hawkeye: Kate Bishop Vol 2: Masks

Written by: Kelly Thompson

Illustrated by: Leonardo Romero, Michael Walsh

Marvel Comics

134 Doctor Who - Tenth Doctor Vol. 4: The Endless Song

For the most part, I really like the Doctor Who comics.  Especially because there are so many more things they can do here than they can do on tv.  But just because it's something you can't pull off on tv doesn't mean you should attempt it in the comics.

This starts with an awful story about living music creatures or some such bullshit.  Honestly, I hated it and didn't finish it all the way through.

Thankfully it's followed up with an earth based story involving cavemen.  And a side story about Cindy, friend of the Doctor's current companion, which expands into the next volume

But all in all, this book felt like a waste of my time.

Doctor Who - Tenth Doctor Vol. 4: The Endless Song

Writer: Nick Abadzis

Artist: Eleonora Carlini, Elena Casagrande, Leonardo Romero

Titan Comics

101 Hawkeye: Kate Bishop Vol. 1: Anchor Points

If you've noticed my reading history, I mostly read DC books.  I've got a bunch of Marvel books, too, but DC is my jam.  But if you look at my Marvel books, a big chunk of them are books like this.  Female superheroes, down to earth stories, day in the life type heroes, fun and light.  And this book is no exception.

Kate Bishop decides to set up shop (kind of) as a private investigator.  She immediately starts building an offbeat, quirky supporting cast.  This book is fun, it's funny, it's a joy to read.  Kate really doesn't quite know what she's doing, yet she still succeeds at what she's not all the great at.  At least not yet.  I really hope this book has legs, because I need more of this light-hearted stuff in my library.  It really picks up in tone from the previous Hawkeye series that Kate shared with Clint Barton.  But she's all on her own now and I like that.

Books like this fascinate me in one aspect.  When DC decided to pull their New 52 bullshit, they wiped out anything having to do with Legacy.  At the same time, Marvel was actively building up their line in that department.  We wouldn't have Kate Bishop if not for that.  Now, Marvel has also gone out of the way to fuck that shit up, too, but right now they still have a slight edge over DC in my book.  But not for long, as Rebirth unfolds and Legacy returns to the DCU.

Hawkeye: Kate Bishop Vol. 1: Anchor Points

Writer: Kelly Thompson

Artist: Leonardo Romero, Michael Walsh

Marvel Comics

099 Doctor Who - Tenth Doctor Vol. 3: The Fountains Of Forever

I'm still trying to play catch up with posting my finished books here.  I'm down to about a dozen, plus whatever I'm finishing while I still have this queue.  Anyway....

I mentioned in my last Doctor Who post that I've fallen behind on the Tenth Doctor's adventures because my comic supplier never got the second volume.  Now that I've finally finished it, I felt free to start reading the small backlog I have of this book.  

What I like about this volume is that it could very easily have been an actual television story.  The amount of special effects it would require doesn't seem like it would be enough to break the tv show's budget.  The cool thing about the modern revival of Doctor Who on tv is that moreso than in the classic version, it works at building up the backstory of the companions.  This is no different.  A new companion was created for this series, Gabby Gonzalez.  This story we spend a lot of time with her best friend, something you'd never see in the classic series.  We get to see this story through a fresh set of eyes.  Gabby's friend Cindy realizes that Gabby isn't making up crap about what's been going on with her as she witnesses it first hand.

This is a fun story involving an aging Hollywood actress and an ancient extraterrestrial artefact.  This series makes me realize exactly how much I miss David Tennant's Doctor.  At least we still have new stories, albeit in comic format.

Doctor Who - Tenth Doctor Vol. 3: The Fountains Of Forever

Writer: Nick Abadzis

Artist: Elena Casagrande, Eleonora Carlini, Rachel Stott, Leonardo Romero

Titan Comics