It’s been a busy week with lots of good comics and such starting up. Make sure you go back and check out some of the reviews that we have been doing this week. But first, check out our Staff Picks of the Week.
Hafsa’s Pick
Big Hero Six: The Series
Although cartoons are meant to be for kids, this show is great for adults too. (I resent the fact that cartoons are meant for ‘only’ kids). The show is amazing! It has the depth of the movie as well as its lightness. The series has an overarching narrative with episodic problems the group must face. This format will hopefully connect the story to the bigger picture of the Big Hero 6 franchise. However, as a stand-alone, it is a great experience into the character’s world, including their growth and development. The series is a really light-hearted story and a great way to take a break from all the drama in the world!
Josh’s Pick
Altered Carbon
This week I’ve been hardcore binge watching Altered Carbon. The short description: Ghost in the Shell without the whitewashing. Long description: Humanity has discovered the secret to immortality using alien technology. They’ve downloaded their consciousness into something called “Stacks” which are placed into bodies or “Sleeves.” It created a social shift where the rich got richer and more powerful than ever before, and the poor got poorer. The poor were lucky if they could re-sleeve into a body that matched their age or sex, and without problems like addiction.
Takeshi Kovacs is a guy who fought 350 years ago in a civil war against the Protectorate and the use of immortality. He was re-sleeved to solve the murder of a rich man that police deemed to be suicide. The unique thing about this show is that people can be murdered and be re-sleeved into a new body. Murder cases are usually open and closed unless the stack is destroyed. Destroy the stack, and the person is dead for good unless their memory is backed up. Kovacs has to solve a murder in the moments before this guy’s memory was backed up and navigate this new world. With a cop harassing him every step of the way.
This is a show with such a rich mythology and history. It deals with religion, sexuality, and the social structure in the face of this newly attained immortality.
Brooke’s Pick
Unnatural
The comic that has me excited for new comic book day is Mirka Andolfo’s Unnatural. The gorgeous artwork is what first caught my eye; Andolfo’s colourwork is superb, and her’s are some of the best looking anthropomorphized animal character’s I’ve ever seen. I often find myself just staring at the page, drinking in the illustration, or finding certain panels pop into my head long after I’ve finished reading. I love the strength and sensuality she gives her female characters.
Unnatural is a story about a dystopian world where an authoritarian government closely regulates the creation of “natural” families and makes inter-species/same-sex relationships illegal. As someone whose marriage would result in jail time in this world, the story particularly hits home. This week’s issue, the second in a series of twelve, really starts to flesh out the story beyond the premise set out in issue one, with wonderful results. I love seeing Trish enter a bookstore like it was a strange foreign land and the revelation about her opinion on the government controls. We finally get to see some of the government match-making system that got Leslie so worried at the end of the first issue. I’m definitely invested in this story, and this world and I eagerly await each issue.
