Dustin Nguyen (1) (1976–)

So fun! I love Dustin Nguyen and Derek Fridolfs "Lil Gotham" and this appeared to be just as delightful.

did not disappoint. It's a fun what if of the school AU variety that is very popular in fanfic, reimagining the Caped Crusader, Man of Steel and Amazonian Princess as elementary school kids investigating super shady shit at their new school. Like NINJAS. So. Many. Ninjas.

Anyone with passing familiarity with the universe with recognize the students and teachers alike (Pamela Isley? Victor Fries? Brainiac?) and guess the Principal's identity, but as a primer for the young set this will appeal to them I think.… (meer)

I've been reading a whole bunch of great comics recently and I can confidently say that this is one of the best I have ever read! As we all know, perfection is a myth, but this is literally in spitting distance.

I was calling this watercolour Mass Effect when I started because it shares a lot of DNA/ Codex with the sci-fi future with a multi-planet government with a variety of aliens, the Harvesters are big, largely artificial harbingers of apocalypse, much like the reapers, there's an adversarial robot faction, though they seem more like the Underground Railroad than the Geth. You get the picture. I was a disrespectful summer child, this is so much more than Mass Effect in so many ways, and I loved the trilogy (friendly reminder, ACAB includes everyone in those games, but especially your space boyfriend, Garrus. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news). There is also an Aliens/ Promethius element, which is really cool. It's kinda got elements of Brazil and Star Wars too... What I'm saying is, like pretty much every work of Sci-fi in at least theast 100 years, there's a lot of influence and inspiration. The things about good sci-fi is not it looking like or doing something you've seen before, but taking all those elements and exploring human questions and telling exciting stories with new perspectives. Descender absolutely has that in spades!

There's something for everyone:
- Hopeless Doctor
- Grumpy military femme and her rock meat friend (he's human, he just looks like rock meat)
- Adorable and genuinely heart-wrenching robot boy
- Cute and annoying, but in a lovable, not done to death Star Wars kind of way, robot... Dog?
- Big ole prejudiced working class killer robot with a heart of gold
- An empire compromising purely of Tories
- Govermental-Military-Family dynamics and nepotism
- ancient anvanced robot mystery
- genuinely full on gore and action
- Great scripting and storytelling
- possibly the most original, effective and fucking gorgeous art a comic has ever had.

As you can tell I'm absolutely obsessed and will be consuming all of this and the sequel Ascender, as soon as possible!… (meer)

Four stories take the familiar faces of Gotham and transplant them into classic fairy tales.

In the first story (and the strongest one in my opinion), young Damian Wayne is stuck home sick and falls asleep while trying to read "Pinocchio," resulting in him dreaming of a "Waynocchio," a little wooden creature who dreams of being a real "boy wonder" one day who can fight crime alongside his doting parents.

The second story involves the GCPD interviewing "the usual suspects" after a jewel is stolen and each one of those telling a tale tall of their own, with riffs on Jack and the Beanstalk and more. With all the stories within the story, this one will appeal to readers who enjoy the Rashomon-style of storytelling.

The third story finds Alfred in a "topsy-turvy" world after he drinks some poisoned tea. This tale was pretty entertaining too, with all the Bat-universe characters taking on roles from Alice in Wonderland, which is particularly fun given how much Lewis Caroll's work inspired various Batman villains over the years.

In the final story, Batman travels alongside a mysterious snow queen to find a frozen man he needs to unearth and reanimate. This one was based on The Snow Queen, which is a fairytale I have no familiarity with so it was entirely lost on me. It was also a lot darker and more serious than the other stories, with the lovelorn Victor and Nora Fries as main characters.

Overall, this was a fun read. It definitely will go over well with older kids (and adults) who are familiar with the original fairy tales as well as a wide berth of Batman characters. The illustrations are really interesting, sort of cartoonish but more sketch-like and watercolor-based than animated.… (meer)