The Glass Looker Volume 2 details the treasure digging activities of the young Joseph Smith. (I wasn’t able to read Volume 1 since it’s out of print, but Volume 2 made sense to me on its own.) The artwork is great, especially the scary-looking toad. The end of each chapter provides quotes from the historical record so you know Elwood isn’t just making this up. Of course, the historical accounts are often contradictory and a lot of information is missing, so Elwood provides extensive notes in the back of the book justifying his narrative decisions.

In many ways, this is a typical superhero comic with people not guessing the secret identity of the hero even though it should be obvious, the main villain starting out as a friend, gratuitous cameos from other superheroes, and so forth. Also, as a middle-aged man, I don’t exactly fit into the target demographic since it’s about a high-school girl with high-school problems like falling in love for the first time and going through the awkward transition into adulthood. (In fact, her shape-changing superpower makes a great metaphor for the bodily changes teenagers go through.) Continue reading →

This is a basic haunted house story, but I really liked it. It starts, like many similar stories, with the main character seeing things other people don’t, so her sanity is questioned and so forth. However, the fact the main character is a Muslim makes the story stand out from other similar stories and it does a great job building tension by having racism and paranoia divide the neighbors of the apartment building from each other. Continue reading →

I originally didn’t intend to write a review of Batman: White Knight. The premise is Joker becomes the hero of Gotham, which drives Batman crazy, thus reversing their roles. I felt like it was a nice palette cleanser after reading The Dark Knight Returns (which is inexplicably considered the best comic ever written by many people), but I didn’t have much to say about it other than that. Continue reading →

The Dark Knight Returns was originally published in 1986 and is largely considered one of the best comics ever written. I somehow never got around to reading it until now.

The premise is that Batman decides to retire from crime fighting after the death of the second Robin. However, without Batman, crime in Gotham skyrockets, so he decides to dawn the bat costume once again, despite now being in his 50s. Continue reading →

I read this to prepare for the upcoming movie. I know the movie will end up being completely different, but one thing they absolutely, positively have to keep the same is Dr. Strange’s mustache. If Dr. Strange doesn’t have a mustache in Avengers: Infinity War that automatically makes the movie worse than the book. If they let Thor keep his beard too, that would be icing on the cake. Continue reading →