Ink of Blood

(I received a free copy of this book, through NetGalley, in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

While I haven’t heard of Vampirella, I have seen most of the movies in the Alien franchise. It was an interesting take, to see a vampire having to deal with the devastation caused by the aliens.

I would have liked to see a bit more background to Vampirella and perhaps something of the background of the characters on Mars. I would have liked to see a bit more in the way of character interactions, since even though the horror elements were good, there was too much in the way of characters I didn’t really care about getting hurt or killed.

It was interesting to see the prejudices people had towards Vampirella’s kind. I was also intrigued by the ancient civilisation that was found… and it was even more interesting that they had the chance to meet one of the members; though I didn’t really much like him at first. I was a bit thrown by how he kept on referring to humans as cattle… but that did make sense, as the attitudes of his kind were clearly very different to how Vampirella viewed humans.

I was a bit confused by the random garden area that the aliens were able to attack and the characters who had been killed. It was good to see Vampirella able to grow her own wings and I thought they looked really pretty. I also thought that it was good she had weaknesses and that she couldn’t just fight; she had to run and shelter. Even though it might have been cool to see an alien and a vampire battle it out, I appreciated the fact that it was as realistic as it could be, considering the supernatural/science fiction elements.

I liked the artwork and I felt the aliens’ scary appearance were portrayed particularly well. I knew what was coming several times, which made me tense up… especially in the scene with the face-huggers.

There were some nice human elements and while I didn’t get to know the secondary characters well, I had little trouble with the main characters. I’d be interested in seeing more of Vampirella in other comics.

(I received a free copy of this book, through NetGalley, in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

When I saw the cover and blurb for this comic book, I was immediately intrigued, considering I enjoy reading books with modern-day paranormal aspects to them. And I like comic books, too, so this was particularly good.

Although the plot of having a police officer involved in paranormal crimes wasn’t a unique one, I did think that having a witch as the police officer was an intriguing idea. And although I would have liked to know a bit more of Rowan’s background, I did like the fact she was a tough person and I had the impression she could take care of herself.

I was a bit confused about what the rules of the world were and I would have liked some more detail about who knew about Rowan’s ‘other’ life and who didn’t. For instance, it seemed like at least one of her fellow officers knew… but her partner didn’t.

I thought it was interesting to see something of Rowan’s friendship with the leader (priestess?) of her coven, but I didn’t see much in the way of conflict between her two lives. I did find it interesting to see something of how her magic worked, but I would have liked to get a bit more detail about how her and the priestess were different to Wiccans. I also would have liked to see a bit more of the other Coven members.

There was a lot of tension in this comic, especially towards the end… which was really quite creepy, even though I didn’t really know what was going on. And I wasn’t really sure how Rowan had known what was going on. I kind of felt very much like I’d been thrown into the middle of a storyline… and because it didn’t really let up, I wasn’t given much of a chance to get to know the background and characters well enough to empathise with them. But I did really like the fact that there were strong female characters. And it was pretty cool to see the priestess interacting with someone from the church.

I’d like to get a bit more background to this world… but I’d probably read other comics in this series in the future.

(This review may contain spoilers).

It was especially intriguing to see Batman realise he had a son… and considering he had a playboy reputation, I was a little surprised he didn’t have more illegitimate children.

I thought it was particularly interesting to see how Batman was interacting with Tim. I really didn’t like Damien, even though I did feel a bit of sympathy for him and I would have liked the opportunity to see a bit more of his past and interactions with his mother and parents.

I did feel sorry for Tim at points in this book and I thought that Batman didn’t seem to act like much of a guardian towards him. I would have liked to see a bit more of Tim and Damien’s interactions… without Damien trying to kill everyone close to Batman, even though it was somewhat sad to see how desperate he was to prove himself to his father. However, I wasn’t sure if he really wanted to help Batman… even though I would have really liked to see him spend more time with Batman and the others and learn a different way of life. It was disappointing that Batman didn’t really say much to him about hurting Tim… almost like Bruce didn’t think Damien was able to be saved.

I was intrigued by the differences between Talia in the first set of comics and her personality in the final one. It was interesting to see her introduction… but she seemed like a much tamer person in her first appearance. I would have liked to see if that was just because different writers changed her… or if she changed due to things that happened. It would have been good to see something of her motivations, though.

I thought that there was a lot of tension in the first set of comics, but not as much in the second comic. I did find the storyline easy to follow and it was really good to see Bruce interacting with Alfred and having to act to make sure his reputation remained intact. While there wasn’t a lot in the way of the contradictions in Bruce’s personality, there was enough that I was very interested in seeing the different aspects of his personality.

(This review may contain spoilers).

I don’t really remember at what point I was introduced to Batman. I vividly remember watching an older film that had Catwoman and the Penguin in it, but I couldn’t pinpoint exactly when I became aware of the Caped Crusader.

This wasn’t the first comic book in the collection, but it was the one I read first, due to the blurb. I was very intrigued by the potential issues of trust and betrayal in the mains set of comics.

It was very interesting to see Batman unable to trust even those who were supposed to be his allies. I did feel a bit of sympathy for him, as I think not being able to trust is a lonely existence… but even if he had reasons for keeping files on the JLA, I didn’t think he should have gone as far as he did.

It was heartbreaking to see how badly affected the members of the JLA were by the traps utilised against them. While Superman was the only other hero I knew particularly well, I thought that the traps showed their weaknesses really well… and while I was confused about some of the switches between the characters and who was grouped with who, I thought this was a really good way to allow me to get to know some of the members of the JLA.

Even though I didn’t know all of the members that well, it was good that I was able to get some details about them in the first set of comics, at least. I liked being able to learn things about the characters, such as the Green Lantern being really artistic… and it was awful to have him lose his sight. And I couldn’t help feeling sympathy for Aqua Man, as even though they all went through awful things, forcing Aqua Man to fear what he needed to survive.

The most awful thing to see was Superman’s weakness, even though I wasn’t completely sure how it had affected him without outright killing him. And it was interesting to see how Wonder Woman’s weakness seemed to be as much about her being unable to surrender. But I could definitely understand why they took a vote at the end of the comic.

The second set of comics were intriguing, though they were very different in style. It was good to see the JLA having to battle alongside each other against an early threat.