Batman: Killing Time Review (Tom King, David Marquez)

Riddler, Catwoman, and Killer Croc heist something valuable from a safety deposit box belonging to Bruce Wayne, kicking off an intense chase involving backstabbing, the US government, large sums of cash, and many, many deaths. But what is the item and why do so many want it?

The Woman Chaser by Charles Willeford Review

SPOILERS

A used car salesman pursues his dream of making a movie. But when he finally makes his movie, and doesn’t get the deal he expected, he decides to enact a brutal revenge…

The Joker, Volume 1 Review (James Tynion IV, Guillem March)

The Joker’s latest atrocity is a bombing at Arkham Asylum resulting in the deaths of dozens, including Bane (we’ll see how long that sticks), before an escape to Belize. A retired but cash-strapped Jim Gordon is approached by a mysterious woman offering him a fortune to hunt down and kill the Joker. Except he’s not the only one headed to the tropics - others wanting revenge for the Arkham deaths are also after Joker. Will Jim end up killing Joker or saving him?

Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx Review

I think it’s taken me this long to read Annie Proulx’s Brokeback Mountain because the movie left such an indelible imprint on my mind that I didn’t want to have the story told again until its memory had faded a little - otherwise the two tend to blur together and I’m also a reader who craves novelty so I don’t like to read the same story over and over.

Public Domain, Volume One: Past Mistakes by Chip Zdarsky Review

The Domain is the flagship superhero character of entertainment behemoth Singular Comics, whose movie adaptations are box office hits, making the company and the character’s original writer, Jerry Jasper, rich and famous. Except for the original artist, Syd Dallas, who lives a modest life and goes largely unrecognised for his contributions to the character’s enduring success. Until one day he discovers a long-forgotten contract that says that he owns the rights to the character…

Checkmate Review (Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev)

Mark Shaw took over Leviathan which then took over every spy organisation in the DCU. Now, Checkmate reforms to take on Leviathan.

The Angel of Rome and Other Stories by Jess Walter Review

Washed-up actors, a writing student who is more sinister than he first appears, a smitten high school science teacher, a cancer patient looking to escape the confines of her parents’ house, and a pair of climate scientists stranded by freak weather - all this and more in Jess Walter’s latest short story collection, The Angel of Rome and Other Stories!

Shadow Life Review (Hiromi Goto, Ann Xu)

An elderly Japanese-Canadian widow checks herself out of the old folks’ home and goes to live by herself - much to the annoyance of her daughters! Except it’s not just the depressing atmosphere of the home she’s escaping but death itself. And guess who’s tracked her down to her new place…

Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy Review

It’s 1972 and 20 year old Alicia Western checks herself into Stella Maris, a mental hospital, where she suspects schizophrenia has taken hold of her as she has begun hallucinating visitations from an imaginary dwarfish figure called the Thalidomide Kid. The book follows a series of sessions between her and her doctor Michael Cohen.

Justice League, Volume 1: Prisms Review (Brian Michael Bendis, David Marquez)

A horned super-powered grumpy alien from another world portals to Earth and starts fighting the Justice League. No, I’m not recounting the Justice League movie, I’m describing the premise of Bendis’ super-original take on Justice League! Oh wait, the movie didn’t have his character Naomi in it. Yup, that makes all the difference. So the Justice League portal over to horned alien’s world to tell him to stop portaling over to theirs. Riveting stuff, eh?

A Man Named Doll by Jonathan Ames Review

An old friend from the force visits LA private investigator Happy “Hank” Doll with a proposition: a big payday in exchange for his kidney. And then his friend is shot dead with some shady characters sniffing around for the money. As more dead people start inconveniently popping up in Doll’s life, making the cops look hard at him to see if he’s a crazed serial killer, he sets out to avenge his friend’s death. All in a day’s work for A Man Named Doll.

Fire Punch, Volume 1 by Tatsuki Fujimoto Review

It feels like Tatsuki Fujimoto came up with the main character of Fire Punch first and then worked backwards from there. He’s a naked dude who’s on fire - all the time! - but doesn’t die somehow… and wants punch-y revenge for… stuff. And of course before he realised that he was basically writing Marvel fan fiction because they’ve got a character who can flame on, and another character with a healing factor who’s always getting bits of him chopped off (and is set to share the big screen in his third movie with Marvel’s other famous healing factor character shortly).

Best and Worst Books of 2022

So normally I give these Best of Year reviews a generic 5 stars because there’s usually been enough to say that it’s been another fine year for reading. But this year? This year has been noticeably bad for fans of culture. And not just the overall quality of books that have been published this year but all forms of entertainment released in 2022 have been crappy - movies, my god…

Keeping Two by Jordan Crane Review

Will and Connie, a young couple returning from a trip, have a minor spat before making up. Will checks his phone messages, hears about two recent deaths and becomes fixated on the Rule of 3s - who will die next? Out of food, Connie heads out to pick up groceries for their dinner, while Will stays home and does the dishes. And then Connie doesn’t return. As the hours tick by, Will’s mind catastrophizes through the increasingly terrifying possibilities of what happened to his love. What will he do without her?