This little book follows Harry Houdini’s plunge from the Harvard Bridge in Cambridge in 1908. It’s a very small story, but told well. I like how Houdini is shown as a rather small, not especially handsome, but certainly determined man. He was a superstar in his time, but didn’t look like an action hero.
There aren’t any real plot twists in the book (though Houdini does trick his audience and fret over his possibly waning fame), but it is solidly illustrated. Houdini’s escape towards the end, which is as certain as the Titanic sinking, is gripping.

Like Quicksilver, this book exists for little reason than to be dreary and somber.
Most of the mutants lost their power as a result of House of M. The X-Men respond by making the X-Mansion a mutant reservation, and are attacked by the Sapien League. The new government agency ONE responds by sending human-piloted Sentinels to man the perimeter of the X-Mansion. Begrudgingly, the X-Men accept. Then, in the last two issues, Polaris and Havok go on a road trip and meet one of Doop’s relatives.
I enjoyed seeing Chris Claremont bring back Trish Tilby, who was Beast’s girlfriend forever ago, but most of this book is pointless continuity building. Peter Milligan was great on X-Statix, but he just seems to be going through the motions. Same for artist Salvador Larocca.

The American Way is a great idea for a comic story that could’ve been an amazing book, but certain scenes hold it back from being ranked among the other good superhero books like Watchmen and Powers.
The American Way follows government-sponsored superheroes (under the decidedly unheroic but bureaucratic name the Civil Defense Corps) in the early 1960s (just as Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were resuscitating the superhero genre) that has two big problems: they’re all white, and they’re all a sham. The Corps, especially its Southern Defense Corps branch, is as racist as many Americans were during the 1960s, and all the Corps big battles are government-staged theatre to placate the population fearful of the Red Scare. The book follows a former advertising executive who joins the CDC and tries to integrate the group while maintaining their secret.
When I looked at the American Way trade paperback, I quickly noticed that the first half of the pages have white edges and gutters, while the second half is black. That does reflect a darker turn in the book’s plot, as the villainous Hellbent and virulent racism rips the teams apart.
Both of the book’s twists-the racism and the fake battles-are very excellent ideas. Some of the Southern heroes (which also includes a sage, still-living Mark Twain) spew N-words and other epithets without conscience in ways that you don’t see in early Spider-Man comics, but were common in the South. And if a government were to create superheroes, why not use them as propaganda?
While the ideas are great, the execution falls flat in places. Writer John Ridley makes some crucial scenes (like the Wanderer going crazy) a bit too confusing. Throughout the book, he packs in a few too many characters, and as a result some are merely analogues of DC or Marvel characters with similar powers. Ole Miss is an intriguing character, as is the racist Human Torch-esque Southern Cross, but I barely picked up any character from X-15 or the East Coast Intellectual. Georges Jeanty does a serviceable job on the book, though none of his character designs are that iconic.

returned to the library, page 163.

Son of M follows Quicksilver after the events of House of M, when he helped his sister The Scarlet Witch recreate the world, and ended with her depowering most of the world’s mutants, including him. The good first issue of the series follows Quicksilver as he copes, with Spider-Man guest-starring. It reminded me a lot of Peter David’s issue of X-Factor where he showed that Quicksilver is always agitated because he goes faster than the rest of the world. His depowering brings him down to the level of everyone, and he’s bitter.
However, his bitter turns to crazy, as he seeks sanctuary with the Inhumans, spending time with his wife Crystal and daughter Luna. He steals the Terrigen Mists, carelessly exposes his daughter to them, and winds up making both the Inhumans and his dad Magneto mad.
On the whole, he’s just a big troublemaker, for no good reason, and, thus, not a sympathetic character.
The only thing about the book I enjoyed was Roy Allan Martinez’s art. His take on the Inhumans reminded me of Ladronn’s miniseries.

The Hellions are supposed to be the antagonists to the New Mutants team that is the star of New X-Men: Academy X. This book takes place right after Volume 3 of that series, as the Hellions crash at the house of their leader, Hellion. They get caught up in a monkey’s paw like scenario with a guy called The Kingmaker that the writers try to make enigmatic by having him always wear sunglasses.
There are several nice character moments, with Dust, the Afghani, burka-wearing mutant (who disappeared in the last couple volumes of the regular series) reuniting with her mom, and Hellion decided to kind of be a good guy. Still, other characters’ plights, like Wither’s Death Touch, and Mercury’s metallic skin, are the exact same problems faced by old X-Men, Rogue and Nightcrawler, respectively. Rockslide’s decision to use his power to become a wrestler completely rips off Spider-Man and The Thing’s wrestling aspirations. At the end of the four issues, guess what, the Hellions learn that maybe they shouldn’t sign a contract with an enigmatic dude, and being good isn’t so bad.
Clayton Henry has a nice fluid style that works well on Marvel’s second-tier superhero books. He makes reading books like this and Alpha Flight easy, and once or twice an issues draws something really fun.

Stuck in the Middle mixes well-known artists (Joe Matt, Daniel Clowes) with less-known artists, to talk about how much middle school stinks. Most but not all of the stories are (or feel) autobiographical. While the subject matter seems rather narrow-focused (though “middle school” can cover lots of agony), the selected artists had a nice array of style, from Clowes’ cold, almost-ugly style to Eric Enright’s blob figures and Cole Johnson’s big heads, and Robyn Chapman’s lack of backgrounds that reminded me of Eisner’s later work. I especially liked Aaron Reiner’s uplifting story “Simple Machines” about how he turned his doodling into stage design, and Jim Hoover’s “A Relationship in Eight Pages” which is a clear example of why dating licenses should be handed out with drivers’ licenses. Editor Ariel Schrag does well by placing her extremely uncomfortable story “Shit” at the very end of the book, so people don’t get too hopeful after reading Reiner’s story. Middle school stories shouldn’t end happily.

Brownsville follows the criminal career of Allie Tannenbaum and the Jewish mafia in Brooklyn in the 1930s. Writer Neil Kleid does a good job stressing the differences between Tannenbaum’s real family and criminal family. It was a breeze to read through the story of Tannenbaum and his complex relationship with “Kid Twist” Reyes. Jake Allen’s black and white art is serviceable, with lots of nice shading and several good panoramic shots of old New York.
I wish Tannenbaum’s personality jumped off the page a bit more. He was drawn into crime at a young age, and I would’ve liked to see more how he became a trusted member of his gang. Also, his real family disappears through the second act of the book—I wish his wife was seen as more than a nag.

With all the good pop economics book coming out, I really beginning to choosing to study political science rather than the Dismal Science.
More Sex is Safer Sex treads the same path as Freakonomics, The Wisdom of Crowds, and The Undercover Economist, all of which do a better or more entertaining job of tying economic principles into everyday life. Steven E. Landsburg revels in coming up with unorthodox solutions to problems—truly charitable people should only give to ONE charity, racial profiling ISN’T a terrible thing, and the titular solution of encouraging certain people to have more sex to prevent spreading STIs.
All of these are thought-provoking, though I think Landsburg drops the ball in his explanation his solutions. I can see that there’s solid math behind his arguments, but after reading through them, many, especially the section on charity, still weren’t completely clear to me. Perhaps this is a personal failing, but I haven’t had this problem with the other pop economics books I mentioned. One section that was quite clear to me was his tirade against xenophobia, calling it the new racism.
Also, Landsburg’s most common way of remedying problems is either having the government tax or subsidize good behaviors, but in the last section, titled “Things that make me squirm,” he references a chart that shows that economic openness leads to a stronger economy. Thus, subsidies that encourage the behavior he wants would hurt the economy as a whole. This puts a kink in many of his solutions that he doesn’t iron out.

Before opening this book, I only knew Paul Horn… er, Hornscheimeier’s name because he works in the same studio as Jeffrey Brown, whose raw, autobiographical and satirical comics I really enjoy. Hornscheimer’s a completely different story. This collection of 1-6 page strips has beautiful artwork with varying levels of detail (much like The Perry Bible Fellowship) that alternate between quick gags and more meditative pieces.
I have to find more of Hornscheimeier’s work—I already have “Mother, Come Home” checked out from my library.