I'm Reading Comeeks

Beauty is a fairy tale in the Grimm style.  Coddie, an ugly (was she really that ugly, I didn't think so) girl bemoans her life de-scaling fish and being pushed and bullied by pretty much everyone in the village where she lives.

When she sheds an understanding tear on a toad the 'ugly' animal is transformed into Maab, a powerful, but mischievous fairy.  Maab grants Coddie's wish to be beautiful, and casts a powerful glamour upon her so that she appears to all as a vision of the utmost beauty, though in truth her body and appearance remain the same.

Almost immediately things go poorly for Coddie.  When she returns home she is nearly assaulted by the first dude to clap eyes on her.  This, of course, sparks jealousy and hatred in the other women and Coddie is cast out.  She runs through the forest pursued by a gaggle of drunken and desirous men.  

After her rescue by the local Lord she soon develops a taste for riches which lead her into further peril until the local world is cast into chaos and war due to her devastating looks.

Even after she realizes that her new looks have brought a curse upon both her and her homeland it is too late, she once again has no control over her fate, Maab has control over her.  What can she do to stop her curse!?

A very nicely illustrated work, with a dark premise that explores the nature of beauty, love and power.  I really thought the way the story went really did a great justice both to classic fairy tales, but also to a dark exploration of the nature of humanity.

Serenity Firefly Class 03-K64 #1 Leaves on the Wind (that was a mouthful) wasn't quite all that for me.  I, like many out there, loved the cult-hit t.v. series Firefly.  Loved the characters, loved the world, loved the story.  This comic picks up right after the movie Serenity leaves off.  And just does not have the charm of the television show. 

Everything seems overly complicated at one turn and too simple at others, none of the characters get to shine like they did in the show.  Mal had very few lines and it seemed like ended every scene in bed with Inara.  Inara seems to have lost her identity and is just set dressing.  I remember that Simon fixed the new girls head, but other than that where was he?  The focus left what worked for it in the show, the great character development, and went to place that was all about showing an epic universe wide plot, but it all fell short for me.  

I got bored reading it truthfully and skimmed a bit.  The art wasn't my favorite, it's always difficult when the art is trying to represent real people and in this case (unlike say the Guild comics) it just fell short for me.

Also, if you have an entire room of teen-aged super soldiers waiting to be released...why only release one...?  And please tell me why they are all teen-aged girls...I mean come on.

The Wicked + The Divine Vol. 1

The art in this one was great.  The story, a bit confusing, but I'm looking forward to it making sense eventually.

The story is about teens who've been selected to be the reincarnation of various gods, from all over various cultures.  They will live as these gods for two years and then die, to be reincarnated again 90 years later.  Why it is this way, I do not yet know.  

In this volume we focus on Luci (Lucifer), Amaterasu, the Morrigan, with brief appearances by some others including Baal, Baphomet, Sakhmet.  Although they know they are gods, it seems like as of yet they aren't in full control of their powers, or they don't yet know the extent of their powers, still have memories of when they were normal humans and don't seem to have godly memories.

Our kid in the field is Laura, who is a regular teen, well, except for the fact that she is a super-fan of these God/pop-stars.  At one of Amaterasu's concerts she meets up with Luci and becomes embroiled in a strange mystery, a brutal murder, obviously done by a god, but if it wasn't Luci who was it and why did they frame her?

It's kind of noir, meets pop-star, meets bizarre prophecy...I like it.  I also loved the diversity of the characters in this series, finally something that represents real people in comics and not just the one demographic of straight white men.  Also, the cover of vol. one looks like this: