Marvel Comics from Diamond Distributors for April 18, 2018

MARVEL COMICS

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Comics, Magazines and Books from Diamond Distributors for April 18, 2018

COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS

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Book Review: TO DIE BUT ONCE (Maisie Dobbs)

TO DIE BUT ONCE
HARPER (HarperCollins Publishers) – @HarperCollins @HarperBook

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR: Jacqueline Winspear
ISBN: 978-0-06-243663-4; hardcover (March 27, 2018)
336pp, B&W, $27.99 U.S.

To Die But Once is a 2018 novel from author Jacqueline Winspear.  It is the 14th novel in the series starring “psychologist and investigator,” Maisie Dobbs, a former British nurse whose adventures begin during World War I and continue in the decades that follow.  To Die But Once finds Maisie investigating the disappearance of a teenage apprentice working on a hush-hush government contract, while Great Britain prepares for an attack from Germany following Britain's declaration of war.

To Die But Once opens in May 1940.  It is spring and the worries of a nation at war blooms as much as,  if not more than the flowers of the new season.  A neighbor of Maisie's, Phil Combes, the landlord of a pub, visits her and asks the respected investigator to look into the disappearance of his 15-year-old son, Joseph Combes.  Young Joe is an apprentice of a painting concern, Yates & Sons, which has gained a government contract to go about the countryside and paint a special fire retardant chemical on important and strategic governmental and military buildings.

Maisie's investigation takes her from the London underworld to the countryside of rural Hampshire (a county on the southern coast of England).  There she will find wartime opportunism and the biggest banking institutions, reminders that money and war are inextricably linked.  Meanwhile, the son of Maisie's closest and dearest friend makes a monumental decision, one that will affect him and his family forever.  Meanwhile, Great Britain worries as word reaches British shores that her fighting young men and women are stranded on a beach in Dunkirk, France.

To Die But Once is the third Maisie Dobbs novel that I have read.  It seems like it is the most personal, and while the central mystery is quite engaging, the novel grapples with so much more.  To Die But Once is a story of the family ties, those family ties that bind, family obligations, the burden of a family legacy, and the creation of a family outside of blood ties.

To Die But Once is at once poignant and then, absolutely thrilling.  I found myself tearing through the book to discover whodunit, but I was eager for the twists and turns of the family melodrama.  Not to mention, but I must mention:  To Die But Once is also a rousing story of Great Britain coming together in the early months of its war with Germany, and it is also a recollection of how the people of the United Kingdom worried about their boys trapped at Dunkirk.

The previous novel, In This Grave Hour, was a straightforward murder mystery, although the novel dealt with themes concerning families.  To Die But Once is a straightforward family drama, period piece, and historical novel, but it also offers some of Maisie Dobbs' most wily moves as an investigator.  To Die But Once is every bit the great read that In This Grave Hour was, and at times, for me, it surpassed anything of Jacqueline Winspear's that I had read prior to it.  So I eagerly await the return of Winspear and her first lady of period mystery, Maisie Dobbs.

10 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

----------------------------

Review: BANE: Conquest #1

BANE: CONQUEST No. 1
DC COMICS – @DCComics

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

WRITER: Chuck Dixon
ARTIST: Graham Nolan
COLORS: Gregory Wright
LETTERS: Carlos M. Mangual
COVER: Graham Nolan with Gregory Wright
VARIANT COVER: Kelley Jones with Michelle Madsen
32pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (July 2017)

Rated “T+” for Teen Plus

Bane created by Chuck Dixon, Doug Moench, and Graham Nolan

“The Sword” Part 1

Bane is a DC Comics character and super-villain.  Created by writers Chuck Dixon and Doug Moench and artist Graham Nolan, Bane is primarily a Batman adversary known for his brute strength and exceptional intelligence, with his strength enhanced by “Venom,” a strength-enhancing super-steroid, which can be highly addictive.

Two of Bane's creators are the creative force behind a new 12-issue miniseries starring the character, entitled Bane: Conquest.  It is written by Chuck Dixon; drawn by Graham Nolan; colored by Gregory Wright; and lettered by Carlos M. Mangual.

Bane: Conquest #1 opens on the sea, in international waters off the coast of Gotham City.  A shipping vessel laden with the weapons of war is headed for the city, or at least the crew thinks they are.  They are actually headed towards a rendezvous with Bane, the boss of Gotham's criminal underworld.  However, Bane has no idea where his assault of this shipping vessel will take him.

Bane: Conquest is a 1990s comic book, at least it seems that way to me.  I think Chuck Dixon and Graham Nolan (an artist that I have always liked) had their best years in the 1990s – Batman and Punisher comics for Dixon and Batman and Hawkworld for Nolan.  Dixon is a serviceable-to-dependable, but not particularly imaginative and inventive writer.  At his best (on DC's Hawkworld comic book series), Nolan was a rock solid storyteller who used stylish compositions to evoke not only mood, but also to reveal the inner workings of characters.

Bane: Conquest seems like the blending of Dixon's leftover 1990s scripts for Batman and The Punisher, with Bane as The Punisher on a mission to destroy gunrunners.  Honestly, this first issue is not bad, but its goodness is not worth the $3.99 cover price.  Just in case I am wrong, however, I will try another issue or two.

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2017 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: LIFEFORMED: Cleo Makes Contact

LIFEFORMED: CLEO MAKES CONTACT
DARK HORSE COMICS – @DarkHorseComics

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

STORY: Matt Mair Lowery
ART: Cassie Anderson
LETTERS: Cassie Anderson
COVER: Cassie Anderson
ISBN: 978-1-50670-177-6; paperback; 6” x 9” (September 13, 2017)
192pp, Color, $12.99 U.S., $$17.50 CAN (September 2017 – First printing)

Age range: 12; Genre Science Fiction, Action/Adventure

Lifeformed: Cleo Makes Contact is a young adult, science fiction graphic novel from writer Matt Mair Lowery and artist Cassie Anderson.  A paperback original, this graphic novel was first published by Dark Horse Comics in September 2017.  Lifeformed: Cleo Makes Contact follows an 11-year-old orphan and the shape-shifting alien she befriends as they travel the countryside in the wake of an alien invasion... and fight back.

Cleo Elward can be described as the typical 11-year-old girl on the verge of teen brat-hood.  Her single-father, Alex Elward, is loving, doting, and involved; the two of them are making the best of life.  Then, suddenly, unbelievably, the sky is filled with strange airships, heralding an alien invasion, and Alex is killed during first wave of the attack.

Just as suddenly, an alien arrives and approaches Alex Elward's body and then shifts its form so that it resembles Cleo's father.  Aided by this alien shape-shifter, who turns out to be a rebel, Cleo escapes the invasion by traveling the countryside.  It is not long, however, before she must join “alien dad” in fighting the invaders.  Can Cleo work through her grief and find the courage to fight back?

Earlier this year, Matt Mair Lowery, the author of Lifeformed: Cleo Makes Contact, made contact with me via Twitter.  He offered me a PDF copy of his graphic novel for review.  I was surprised that I had never heard of it, as I have been perusing Diamond Distributors weekly comics shipping list and posting it on my blogs and at the Comic Book Bin for almost a decade.

I am glad that Lowery reached out to me because he and artist Cassie Anderson have created in Lifeformed: Cleo Makes Contact one of the best young adult graphic novels that I have read over the last few years.  Lifeformed's themes of courage and choice resonate throughout the narrative, and the story ponders the questions of what it means to be human without being heavy-handed.

Cassie Anderson's illustrations and graphical storytelling are powerfully dramatic, but, at the same time, they are lively and colorful, going down the old gullet of the reader's imagination smoothly.  Anderson's clean drawing style is easy on the eyes, but also depicts the characters' emotions in a varied manner that gives the characters' personalities depth.  I found myself in love with these characters, and Cleo is even more lovable when she is being annoying and bratty.  That is the joy in reading Lifeformed – loving the heroes and being intrigued by the villains.

I hope young readers discover Lifeformed: Cleo Makes Contact.  It is not to late to discover this enjoyable YA comic book, Lifeformed: Cleo Makes Contact.

8 out of 10

Cassie Anderson:
cassieanderson@wwdb.org
https://twitter.com/CassieDoesArt

Matt Mair Lowery:
mattmlpdx@lifeformedcomic.com
https://twitter.com/mattmlpdx
http://www.lifeformedcomic.com

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Book Review: BLACK FORTUNES

BLACK FORTUNES
HARPER/Amistad – @HarperCollins @AmistadBooks

[This review was posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR: Shomari Wills – @ShoWills
ISBN: 978-0-06-243759-4; hardcover (January 30, 2018)
320pp, B&W, $26.99 U.S.

Black Fortunes: The Story of the First Six African Americans Who Escaped Slavery and Became Millionaires is a non-fiction book written by journalist Shomari Wills.  Black Fortunes tells the story of the first six African-Americans who were born into slavery and then went on to become millionaires

According to Black Fortunes, there are an estimated 35,000 black millionaires living in the United States.  That includes celebrities like Beyoncé, Will Smith, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James.  Some are billionaires (Oprah Winfrey) or are near billionaires (Michael Jordan, Jay-Z).

However, these rich folks are not the first black people to become the “one percent.”  Between the years of 1830 and 1927, there was a small group of people among the last generation of blacks folks born into or during slavery.  Smart, tenacious, and opportunistic, these daring men and women broke new ground for African-Americans by attaining the highest levels of financial success.

These are the first six to escape the holocaust of American chattel slavery of African-Americans and find wealth:

1. Born in Philadelphia in 1814, Mary Ellen Pleasant built her wealth in California during the “Gold Rush” and used that wealth to further the cause of abolitionist John Brown

2. Born in 1939 on a cotton plantation outside Memphis, Tennessee, Robert Reed Church was the child of a slave who was a fair-skinned black woman and a married white man who owned a fleet of steamships.  Church would go on to become the largest landowner in Tennessee and a man of such political influence he was acquainted with President Theodore Roosevelt.

3. The daughter of a respectable professional family in Philadelphia, Hannah Elias, was the “Black Cleopatra” who “exhibited a peculiar influence over white men.”  She became the mistress of a New York City millionaire and used the land and money her lover gave her to build a real estate empire in the city, and in Harlem, in particular.

4. Born in Illinois in 1969, Annie Turnbo-Malone was an orphan who dreamed of making a business of doing people's hair.  She became a self-taught chemist and went on to develop “Poro,” the first national brand of hair care products and a franchise of beauty shops.

5. Initially an employee of and salesman for Annie Turnbo-Malone, Madam C. J Walker began her journey to riches by stealing her employer's hair care formulas to start her on hair care business.  She would go on to earn the nickname America’s "first female black millionaire,” and she openly flaunted her wealth.

6. The son of slaves, (Ottawa) O. W. Gurley was born in Huntsville, Alabama on Christmas Day 1868.  He moved to Oklahoma during the “oil boom” and using his business acumen and political savvy he developed a piece of Tulsa, Oklahoma, into a “town” for black craftsmen and tradesmen and wealthy black professionals.  Named “Greenwood,” this unofficial town that would become known as “the Black Wall Street,” before jealous white racists looted and destroyed most of it.

The astonishing untold history of America’s first black millionaires is now told in the new book, Black Fortunes: The Story of the First Six African Americans Who Escaped Slavery and Became Millionaires.

We need books like Black Fortunes, and by “we,” I mean Americans in general, and black Americans specifically.  American history as taught to me at the elementary and high schools I attended was piss-poor.  Every school year, we began with Christopher Columbus and had barely began studying the 19th century by the time the school year ended.  I think we only once got anywhere near the Civil War, and slavery was touched upon only a few times.

Luckily, I had Black History month and African-American teachers who had graduated from Southern University and A&M College (in Baton Rouge, Louisiana) and legendary Grambling State University who were determined that we ''learn about our ancestors and the people who came before us.”  In spite of their best efforts, I found that white kids from pricey private and parochial schools knew more about “Black History” than I did.

I have learned a lot from books like Black Fortunes, which are both history and story books.  And the truth is that Black Fortunes and books like it tell stories that are as much American as they are specifically African-American.  In the case of these six individuals here, their lives are often in the center of the maelstrom that was the time period from the administration of President Andrew Jackson to the 1920s (the “Roaring Twenties), a time of great change and growth for the United States of America.  You cannot read this book and understand these six individuals and the scope of their achievements without grappling with the larger context of a turbulent 100 years.

On an individual level, the thing that surprised me most about these men and women is how much they hustled.  The term “hustler” has a negative connotation, being related to black criminals and male sex trade workers.  But the stars of Black Fortune were always hustling more jobs, investments, and opportunities.  Mary Ellen Pleasant was a rich woman in California, and she was still catering on the side.  Robert Reed Church was a real estate magnate, a rich landlord, and he still operated his bar/jook joint from behind the counter.  The black women chronicled here built mansions and took in tenants to earn some extra cash?!

There is a lot to learn from Black Fortunes.  The history of black Americans is America's history.  The most important thing that one can learn from this book is this:  always hustle, grab that extra job, snatch  every opportunity, embrace a helping hand, and don't stop – even when the racists and haters are trying to hold you down.

I will also go so far as to say that every black high school student in America should have a copy of Black Fortunes.  It should be required reading for incoming freshmen at all HBCUs and at many other American universities and colleges, especially the ones that benefited from slavery and the oppression of black folks.

10 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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BOOM! Studios from Diamond Distributors for April 11, 2018

BOOM! STUDIOS

FEB181245    ADVENTURE TIME COMICS #22    $3.99
FEB181246    ADVENTURE TIME COMICS #22 SUBSCRIPTION DEWEY VAR    $3.99
DEC171236    AMORY WARS GOOD APOLLO TP VOL 02 (MR)    $14.99
FEB181232    DODGE CITY #2    $3.99
JAN180020    FCBD 2018 BOOM ADVENTURE TIME FIONNA & CAKE SPECIAL    $PI
JAN180002    FCBD 2018 BOOM MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS SPECIAL SG    $PI
FEB181206    PLANET OF THE APES URSUS #4 MAIN & MIX    $3.99
FEB181207    PLANET OF THE APES URSUS #4 SUBSCRIPTION CAREY VAR    $3.99
FEB181185    ROBOCOP CITIZENS ARREST #1    $3.99
FEB181186    ROBOCOP CITIZENS ARREST #1 RUBIN VAR    $3.99