COMIC BINGE: Akira, Wolverine, Vol. 1: Hunting Season & Vol. 2: Killable
Another week of winter, another slew of books read in the warmth of my home. This week I finally had the time to chill and enjoy the entire Akira series in one sitting. One of the best things about manga for me is how quickly it reads. Since I was already up to speed with last week’s manga binge, it was really easy for me to plow through the halfway wordless series by Katsuhiro Otomo. I’ve seen the movie so many times I can’t count them, so for me it really has been a long time coming for me to read Akira. Now, with that said, I typically don’t fare well with manga in general, even ones I’ve seen the film or tv adaptation for. Akira is not only one of the best films I’ve ever seen, but I do now believe it is also one of the best book series I’ve ever read. Though brief, Akira packs in so much story and even more so in the books. The sheer volume of these six books is overwhelming, but all said and done it only took about 2 hours to read through them. However, this was not for lack of story or impressive artwork, especially for the time that these books came out. If you’ve never read Akira because you’ve seen the movie like me, I still highly recommend you check out the books. I will go as far as saying that Akira is to manga, what Watchmen is to graphic novels. That’s just the way I see it. Akira is a book I would tell anyone to read, and it’s a movie I think everyone should see. I guess color me Akira.
RATED : ( R )
STORY : ( 10 / 10 )
ARTWORK : ( 8 / 10 )
COVERS : ( 7 / 10 )
AWESOME : ( 10 / 10 )
FINAL RATING : ( 9 / 10 )
In preparation to read the new Death of Wolverine book, I went back and dug up some Marvel NOW! Wolverine books that I somehow missed out on when they came out. After reading them, there is no question why they never came up on my radar at all. I’d be surprised if it wasn’t the creators themselves that worked so hard to bury this effort as deeply as possible into the rejuvenated Marvel catalog. Somehow, Paul Cornell manages to start a story for Wolverine in what seems to be the middle of an action scene, and never visits the fact that this is the first in a series. I understand that not all books start at the beginning, and sometimes the story transfers, but this was the wrong way to start out. Not to mention that the artwork looks like it’s recycled from 20 years ago, or the artist used to work 20 years ago, or maybe even they’re going for that look but I don’t know why. This book just has no visual appeal whatsoever, and I can’t believe that not even until the second volume does it get even slightly better. It truly never improves, and neither does Cornell’s story. I found myself rather bored with a character that seems to entertain no matter where he shows up in the Marvel Universe. It was quite disappointing, and really has me hoping that I can find some silver lining in the Three Months to Die and Death of Wolverine.
RATED : ( PG-13 )
STORY : ( 3 / 10 )
ARTWORK : ( 3 / 10 )
COVERS : ( 3 / 10 )
AWESOME : ( 2 / 10 )
FINAL RATING : ( 3 / 10 )