Batman: Black Mirror [Hardcover]

This hardcover collects seven months of batman stories published in DC Comics. The collection is organized into sets of smaller stories, with an overarching plot from one story arc to the next. The artist change from one story arc to the next, but the art does not suffer with this. The more self-contained parts of the story are quite interesting and present newer additions to the Batman mythos. The overarching story is one of the best Batman yarns I have read in the last couple of years. An old enemy who was not an enemy returns and creates problems not only for Batman, but also for Oracle and for Commissioner Gordon. The ending is chilling. Overall, very enjoyable.
Story:4.5
Art:4
Overall:4.25

Al Nordeste de Arzew

This is a graphic that, as far as I know, is being published originally in Spain first. The art team is Spanish, while the writer is French. It is an interesting effort that tells the story of a group of families whose immediate ancestors immigrated to Argelie, which has now been their home for 1.5 generations. The time is the late fifties-early sixties, when Argelie became independent from France. The story focuses on a few kids and on how they live the transition from being in their home to being invaders and having to go back to France, where they are also looked at as invaders. It is an end-of-innocence tale that is beautifully told, without sentimentalism or easy tears. The story is well written and the drawings and colors are impressive and evocative. Read it if you can.
Story: 4.5
Art: 4.7
Overall: 4.6

Le Bel Age

This is the first of a series of french graphic novels about the (origin of) friendship between three girls that will come to share a life. It all starts when one of them gets into trouble because she decides to share her flatmate's boyfriend. Another of the three is a Ph. D. student who his fighting to complete her thesis and the third is a young women who decides to return to college. This first volumes ends when the later two come to visit the former's apartment in order to become her flatmate(s). It is difficult to tell whether this is worth it or not. I very much enjoyed Merwan's Pour l'empire. That is why I gave this book a try. The drawing is excellent. I will have to wait for the second volume before deciding whether to see this series to completion or not.
Story:2.5
Art: 4
Overall:3.25

Moriarty: The Dark Chamber

This is the story of what happens to Prof. Moriarty after surviving his final showdown with Sherlock Holmes. In a not so surprising turn of events he becomes much more like his opponent than he might have expected and starts to lead a (sort of) honorable life. Then, things change and while fighting for his life he learns that maybe, just maybe, his nemesis in this fight may not be who Moriarty thinks. It is a good Sherlock Holmes story, that reads quite well. However, the drawing are too crude for my tastes and even though they help the story flow, it took me more than 70% of the book to not notice them and just enjoy the story.
Story: 4
Art: 1
Overall: 2.5

A Red Mass For Mars [Paperback]

A Red Mass for Mars collects the comic book miniseries with the same name, from Image Comics. It is a story about how the world ended, then got better and is now about to end again. It ended as we might expect it to end tomorrow if we look at world politics today, although there is a twist to it. It got better thanks to "a few good and powerful men", some of which turned out either to be too powerful or not to be so good. These men split and went into different states of isolation. The second ending is now coming and those who are left need to band together again to avoid the end and/or rebuild. I liked the story quite a lot. Lots of shades of grey and preciously few black and whites. Johnathan Hickman does another superb job writing and Ryan Bodenheim drawing are perfect for the tale. Go read it.
Story: 4.5
Art: 4.5
Overall: 4.5

Sherlock Holmes: Year One TP

Sherlock Holmes Year One is the collected edition of the six first issues of the comic book series with the same name. It basically deals with the life and times of Sherlock Holmes right before and up to his first meeting with Dr. Watson. There are mysteries, crimes, smugness, bedrooms that look like pig-houses, and all we came to expect of Sherlock. It is an entertaining read, although I don't think it brings anything new to the myth. Sherlock solves a couple of crimes, and the series ends with the beginning of "A Study in Scarlet". You could do worst with your time than read this.
Story: 3
Art: 4
Overall: 3.5

Who is Jake Ellis?

Who is Jake Ellis is the collected paperback for a five issue miniseries from Image Comics. It is the story of a spy who becomes a criminal and is kept one step ahead of trouble by an imaginary friend that somehow always tells him what he should do to escape the situations he gets involved in. As the book progresses, they approach the crux of how they come to be and we get to find out whether the imaginary friends is real or not. It is a classical spy yarn why some brush strokes of sci-fi. It reads well and the drawing is quite good. If you like spy thrillers give it a shot.
Story: 4
Art: 4.5
Overall: 4.25

Everlast

This is a story about a group of "beings" with human aspect that go about saving the few elected human from the end of the world. They take the electeds to paradise, or a paradise. Once the final elected is in paradise (or maybe because the final elected is in paradise) the world will end. The collectors betray each other, fall in love, have doubts about themselves and their jobs, and every other cliche you can come up with. The writing is terrible. The story is as derivative as they get. The art is inhomogeneous in a bad way, although I like many of the artists contributing. Furthermore, it is often detrimental for the understanding of the story, as one page is followed by another without any relationship to it. Avoid.
Story:0.5
Art:1
Overall:0.75

X-Men: Prelude to Schism [Hardcover]

This is the compiled hardcover for the miniseries Prelude to Schism. This miniseries is about how and what the leader of the X-Men, a group of super-powered mutants, decides regarding how to deal with a looming menace that threatens to kill all members of the group. This is not a book where you see the whole process or what the menace is. You just know that it is coming, it is deadly, and a decision has to be made in a short time. Each part of the story focuses on how one of four members of the team lives that short time. As a TV show or as a serial of four comic books (which is the original format of the series) this plot device might have worked better than in a compiled edition, where a lot of it seem repetitious and been there done that. The story is competent and the art is very inhomogeneous, as artists change from one part to the next. Read it if you are a die hard fan of the X-Men.
Story:3
Art:3
Overall:3

Criminal, Vol. 6: Last of the Innocent

Criminal is an ongoing American comic book series by Ed Brubaker and Sean Philips. This is the sixth volume, which finishes off the story started in vol. 5. It reads pretty well as a stand alone book. This book is a crime story about an husband that marries into money and is widowed into even more money. As opposed to most crime stories, in this one crime does pay off and enables the criminal turning the clock back on a life and relive it again in a different way. It is a nice read with good, functional art.
Story: 4
Art: 4
Overall: 4

El abrazo de Neptuno

This Spanish comic book, by Calo is about nothing, really. A somewhat psychedelic story about a group of young people who decide to travel through southern Europe during summer and have their van stolen. Then, they have to continue travelling any way that they can. In the mean time one of them is lost and finds he is related to an old European deity. All in all the drawing and colours are nice but the story is quite bland.
Story:1.5
Art: 3.5
Overall: 2.5

Dentro de la noche

This is a Spanish black and white comic book by Eduardo Gonzalez. It is a collection of short horror stories that are nicely done, both story wise and drawing wise. The horror is, for the most part, psychological and you don't see a lot of blood and guts. The stories are very much in the vain of urban myths and the whole thing reads nicely, without being excessively original.
Story: 3.5
Art:3.5
Overall:3.5

Quai d'Orsay, tome 2 : Chroniques diplomatiques

This is the second volume of a graphic novel series about the foreign affairs minister (equivalent to the american secretary of state) of France and the comings and goings of his team, all of it seen from the eyes of one of his junior speech-writers. The minister is thinly disguised Dominique de Villepin and the president is thinly disguised Jacques Chirac. This volume follows the times immediately before the Iraq invasion by the USA, with all the maneuvering that went behind curtains to get the UN's approval for the invasion. It is highly entertaining and every single characters is extremely engaging. The writing is superb. The writer is an anonymous diplomat that writes this series under a pseudonym. He seems to have been right in the middle of it all, making for a very "true" book. The art is also perfect.In general I do not like Blain's art, although I like his books. However, in this case, his art serves the story so perfectly that any change would have made for a worst book. Go read it
Story: 5
Art: 4.8
Overall: 4.9