Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Lumberjane Standalone

Lumberjanes: THe Infernal Compass by Lilah Sturges, Polterink

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Bingo 16 (Illustrated) I really liked the first few installments of the Lumberjanes series, and then things started to get uneven, both in terms of art and the story. Then came Lumberjanes: The Infernal Compass. This volume isn’t part of the main series exactly, it’s a stand-alone graphic novel, but it seems to go back to the original spirit in ways I really appreciated. A significant bit is dedicated to a single story that’s not an obvious episode (a good thing). The basic story focuses […]

New generation of Avengers, with Kamala Khan’s Ms.Marvel and Miles Morale’s Spider-man (bonus review from Ysakitty)

All-New, All-Different Avengers Vol. 1: The Magnificent Seven by Mark Waid (author), Adam Kubert (illustrator), Mahmud Asrar (illustrator)

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Teenage, Pakistani American Kamala Khan’s turn as Ms. Marvel and Squirrel Girl drew us into the Marvel comic books.  Previously we were primarily familiar with the Marvel movies.  Then Into the Spider-verse came out and we went to find the Miles Morales comics that inspired the animated movie.  In our last trip to the library we came across the All-New, All-Different Avengers which features both Ms. Marvel and Mile’s Spider-man.  This graphic novel starts with a standalone comic featuring Scarlet Witch and Vision and then issues one […]

X-Men Teens Fight Some More!

X-Men Blue - Toil and Trouble (Volume 2) by Cullen Bunn

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Weak collection of X-Babies stories. I want to care about this – I really do! It just always seems like nothing ever matters in these books. People die until they are needed and then miraculously survive/reincarnate/clone/whatever. People are evil until they have a change of heart and then go back to being evil. It’s all just so frustrating. Writer Bunn pushes his wooden characters around until the chapter ends and it’s all so angsty and unsurprising. Hank (Beast) finally learns the problem with his magic […]

Kill Your UltraTelevision

X-Men Gold - Mojo Worldwide (Volume 3) by Marc Guggenheim & Cullen Bunn

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This graphic novel collects a crossover between the Gold (Adult) and Blue (Teen) X-Men teams as they battle against interdimensional entertainment entrepreneur Mojo. Once again on the hunt for ratings, our villain destroys a section of NYC to trap our heroes in an ever-escalating battle against current and classic foes. There are deaths until there aren’t and our heroes are losing until they deus ex machina themselves out of another jam, defeating and exiling Mojo to our planet, cut from his feed. Erstwhile Blue Team […]

Some Things Happen To The X-Men?! Really?!

X-Men Gold - Evil Empire (Volume 2) by Marc Guggenheim

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A rather thankless collection of short stories, biding their time until it gets to a more interesting section of the X-Men’s timeline. Some important things happen but nothing that is commensurate with the $18 list price. We get introduced to the new X-Cutioner but without any explanation of how he got his gear or his martial arts skill, just his beef. He successfully lays out our heroes until he doesn’t, which is par for the course. Kitty Pride is now a ninja so yay! Glad […]

Hello, Charlie!

Astonishing X-Men - Life of X (Volume 1) by Charles Soule

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Interesting and yet, overly-confusing and FULL of plot holes. This graphic novel uses a nice plot device to set up a typical gang X-fight against an overwhelming opponent but creates a number of gaping leaps in logic and reality. The Shadow King is taking out the Earth’s psychics to force his way onto this planet and, needless to say, is unsucessful (or is he?). The X-Men’s leader, omega-class psychic Charles Xavier had been murdered by former student Scott Summers (Cyclops) back during the AVX story […]



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