Woman Warrior Wednesdays #10 by Kate Krimson

Spider-Girl: The End-Marvel-$3.99

4.5 out of 5 stars




Auntie M has been teaching children about the “final age of heroes.” She tells them the next thing they will discuss is the death of Spider-Girl. Spider-Girl’s real name is May Parker and is also known as Mayday. Spider-Girl had one enemy that was hard to conquer, April Parker a.k.a. Mayhem, who is a clone of May. April had the same powers as May, but no real concept of right and wrong. April lived with the Parkers (Peter, Mary Jane, May, and Benjy). April disappears one night causing destruction around town. May’s friends, Davida and Courtney, ask her about the whole situation. Davida says May is better off without April and Courtney just wants to make sure that May is feeling ok. They run into a guy named Wes and invite him to go with them to a café. Wes is apparently in the comic book business. On their way to the café, May’s spider-sense goes off. April is following her. She tells her friends that she forgot a book at school, so she can take care of the April business without endangering her friends’ lives.


April says that she’ll let May live if she admits that she is not the original Spider-Girl. Before the reader knows what to expect, April and May start fighting. April sees herself as good because she’s killed bad guys like Tombstone and Hobgoblin, and May sees April as evil because she doesn’t believe killing is the answer. Their fight causes a fire. May tells April that they need to get out of the building, but April won’t listen. May gets trapped under some wood because she pushed April out of the way of the collapsing roof. May blasts April out of the building with her web and then the building explodes. Auntie M has to stop the story so the kids can go to bed. Torus Storm tells Auntie M, who the reader now finds out is April, that Bio-Preds are closing in on them.


After May died, April tried to replace her, but there was no fooling her family. Then, April began killing as many villains as she could. Some superheroes tried to stop her and she killed American Dream by accident. Bio-Preds were mercenaries that were supplied with the “Carnage symbiote” in order to stop April. The Bio-Preds killed everything in their way. April was the only thing that stopped them from killing everything. She saved the human race. Unfortunately, people have to live in the sewers to be safe from the Bio-Preds.


The Bio-Preds break into sewer home. Torus starts to fight them, while April goes to find her friend, Cassie, whom she has been working with on a plan to stop the Bio-Preds.


This all ends up being a vision that April had the day she was fighting with May in the burning building. because of this vision she saves May and leaves herself in the burning building. May mourns the loss of April with her family. Wes shows up to make sure that May is ok, because he knows that May is Spider-Girl and wants to make sure she didn’t get harmed. Wes tells May that he’ll keep her secret identity secret, since he has one too. His real name is Reynard, which I think means he is the son of Reynard Slinker, the thief and enemy of Spider-Man. May and Reynard kiss.


Writers (Tom Defalco and Ron Frenz): Although the story is a bit hard to follow at sometimes, it is definitely never boring. The unexpected is constantly around the corner. Almost every flip of the page reveals something new and surprising.


Illustrator (Sal Buscema): Buscema’s work is great. His costume for April is beyond amazing and his depiction of the two girls’ reactions to seeing one another die is heartbreaking.

Woman Warrior Wednesdays #9 by Kate Krimson

Witchblade: Due Process-Top Cow/Image-$3.99

3 out of 5 stars


Summary: Sara Pezzini, the bearer of the Witchblade and police detective in NYC, is trying to right the wrongful imprisonment of William Hicks, who has been in prison for 10 years. Pezzini presents evidence at Hicks’ preliminary hearing that shows that Hicks is innocent. She says that the police officers who arrested Hicks did so in order to cover up their selling of illegal drugs and their murdering of their fellow officers. The board says they need 30 days to review these facts.


Hicks gets stabbed by his cellmate. Hicks is able to kill his cellmate without living a trace because he has received powers from a monstrous demon.


Three months later Hicks is released. Pezzini tries to help him, but he doesn’t want any help from the police. The demon shows itself to Sara and she tries to kill it with the Witchblade, but that doesn’t work. The demon says since it is only a voice, it can only be killed with words. The demon’s name is Agares.


William goes to see his “brothers,” others who are under the spell of the Agares. They tell him he has to pay for the protection Agares has given him and his family by collecting souls.


A lot of people think Hicks is a skinhead, because he has a shaved head and he has a cross tattoo on his neck that has swastikas around it (this is the mark of the “brothers”). Hicks goes to see his family but they don’t want to see him because of what he has become. A few black men see him and think he is a skinhead and make a remark about turning his daughter into a prostitute when she is older. William starts shooting at them. Sara tries to stop him. Hicks and his wife get killed by the thugs. Their daughter, Rebecca, is now an orphan. Both Agares and Sara give Rebecca an option for being with a new family, but it ends without revealing her choice.


Writer (Phil Smith): The storyline is pretty gripping. The reader hopes that Hicks will defeat both his actual demon and his personal demons, but he dies before being able to overcome either of them. Reminding us that time is too limited to keep on making the same mistakes. Rebecca’s choice also being left open-ended is interesting because she could take the same path as her father, Agares’ road, or the road that he denied when offered, Sara’s road. The reader gets to picture that she made the right choice, but also has to imagine that maybe the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.

One thing that did bother me however was Phil’s spelling errors in the section “The Demon Agares,” where he discusses what helped him create the character.


Illustrator (Alina Urusov): Alina’s drawings are amazing, especially the cover art, her depiction of the horrifying demon Agares, and the way she captures the actual terror Rebecca has when she witnesses both her parents being killed.

Women’s Equality Day by Kate Krimson

August 26th is Women’s Equality Day, which celebrates the passage of the 19th Amendment. The 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year.


Here are several ways to celebrate:


1. Make a Mix CD of Pro-Woman Songs


               Here are some of my song selections:


                        “I Am Woman” by Helen Reddy


                         “The Pill” by Loretta Lynn


                        “She Works Hard for the Money” by Donna Summer


                        “Respect” by Aretha Franklin


                         “Just a Girl” by No Doubt


                         “Can’t Hold Us Down” by Christina Aguilera and Lil Kim


                         “You Don’t Own Me” by Lesley Gore


                        “Too Big for My Skin” by Desdamona


                        “Stupid Girls” by Pink


                        “9 to 5” by Dolly Parton


2. Watch a feminist film


             Some of my favorites include A League of Their Own, 9 to 5, and Thelma and Louise.


3. Read excerpts from the works of inspiring women


            Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou


           Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan


          A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft


4. Volunteer at an organization that helps women

Woman Warrior Wednesdays #8 by Kate Krimson

Morning Glories #1-Image Comics-$3.99

4 out of 5 stars.


Summary:


Man opens piece of paper with “for a better future” written on it. A doctor takes him to check on a woman.


Akiko is caught passing a note in Miss Daramount’s class. Akiko put a highly explosive liquid on the chalkboard, which only needs a little pressure to explode. When Miss Daramount goes to write something on the chalkboard, everything goes kaboom.


Vanessa and Brendon are running in the hall. They kiss and then go their separate ways. Brendon seems to have found a book with something troubling in it. Then a monster man shoves his hand through Brendon’s skull.


Chicago: Sixteen-year-old Casey is about to head off to new prep school.


Manhattan: Ike and his mom are discussing his troublemaking at school and elsewhere. Somehow he has managed to get accepted by another school, after being kicked out of seven.


San Diego: Zoe says goodbye to her multiple rich boyfriends before going away to school.


Toronto: Hunter is teaching his stepbrother how to play a video game. He tells his dad goodbye, but he doesn’t seem to care that he is going.


Des Moines: Jade is writing about how she’ll miss Marcus, a man who is either her boyfriend or a teacher filing a restraining order, while at a distance her dad and her brother talk about her in not the kindest words.


Fukayama Jun is picked up at an airport. He is going to be attending Morning Glory Academy. He falls asleep in the academy driver’s car. Then, we see Jade, Hunter, Ike, Zoe, and Casey all in their separate rides with the driver and they all miraculously fall asleep.


When Casey arrives at the school , she is greeted by Miss Daramount. Behind her, academy staff are removing a dead body and the monster man also lurks behind her.


Zoe, Ike, Hunter, and Casey are all in a classroom together. Ike hits on Casey. Zoe snubs Hunter. The teacher has a projector set up. Two images that stick out on the projection are one of a man slitting a goat’s throat in front of a child and another that says “for a better future.”


Ike, Hunter, and Jun are roommates. Casey, Zoe, and Jade meet their overly ethusantic R.A, Pamela. Jade realizes that her notebook is missing and calls her dad to ask him to mail it to her. Jade finds out on the phone call that her dad has forgotten who she is. Hunter and Casey literally run into each other in the hallway. Hunter begins having a crush on Casey, even though she’s not looking for a relationship.


It also turns out that everyone has the same birthday, May 4th, which in the comic is the current day. The only person who doesn’t know her real birthday is Zoe, because she was adopted.


Casey talks to Pamela about the weird birthday thing and about Jade’s dad not remembering her. It turns out it is all standard procedure at Morning Glory. If students’ parents don’t act like they don’t know you, they will make them. Casey’s parents weren’t up to this task, so they killed them. Casey finds this out when Pamela leads her to a dungeon with their dead obviously tortured bodies.


Writer (Nick Spencer): Even though the comic is at first hard to follow, because of the multiple storylines in the comic, Spencer is still able to draw the reader into the story because people want to know what is really going on at this mysterious school. Although some stuff is not explained, the readers can make some of their own conclusions on the left-out info from the info that is provided.


Illustrator (Joe Eisma): Eisma’s drawings definitely bring the characters and the sick twisted nature of the school to life with each little pencil line that he created.


Cover Art (Rodin Esquejo): The cover is good, but the kids look like their 13 or 14 not 16 or 17.

Kate Krimson’s Recommendations

* Comic Book: Scarlet by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev features a kick ass redhead, who is trying to change the world by teaching all bad guys, including bicycle’s thieves, that no bad deed goes unpunished.


*Magazine: The Summer 2010 issue of Ms. Magazine, which discusses the horrors of the sex-show industry in Thailand (“Ping Pong Hell” by Deena Guzder) and the child prostitution that is happening in the U.S. (“Jailing Girls for Men’s Crimes” by Carrie Baker). Both of these articles are eye-opening and make the reader want to take action to end these atrocities.


*TV Show: On Rizzoli and Isles, Jane Rizzoli (Angie Harmon) is the cop and Maura Isles (Sasha Alexander) is the medical examiner. These two women combine their skills to stop crime in Boston. Catch it on TNT at 9pm Central on Mondays.

Woman Warrior Wednesdays #7 by Kate Krimson

Sorry about the delay. This week has been crazy busy for me, but I have a comic book review for this week.

Spitfire #1 (“Living in the Ruins”)-Marvel-$3.99

3 out of 5 stars


Summary of Background Story:


Spitfire’s real name is Lady Jacqueline Falsworth. Her dad is the British superhero Union Jack. During World War II, she was bitten by a vampire and given a blood transfusion from the Human Torch. The vampire venom plus the blood of the Human Torch apparently equals speed. After the war, Spitfire and her brother (Union Jack II) fought evil doers together. Later in life, she got hurt fighting Namor. Human Torch gave her another blood transfusion. Blade, a vampire hunter, tried to kill her when she started displaying some vampiric traits: fangs and regenerative powers. She forgave him for trying to kill her and they began a romantic relationship. They joined the MI:13, a British Secret Service agency and later defeated Dracula and his Vampire Nation.


Summary of Comic Story:


In Kent, Pete Wisdom, Spitfire’s boss, introduces Spitfire to Ms. Amelia Bertram-Hayes. They are at a vampire shindig that is comprised of vampires that left Dracula’s little club. Blade is there.


In New York City six years later, Blade and Spitfire are looking for Hayes. Spitfire senses her presence in the city first and leaves Blade to find her. Spitfire crashes through a vampire bar wall with Blade following behind her. Inside they find out Hayes has been there before and that she used to spy for the Nazis. They go to Hayes’ place. Hayes traps Blade with a cross-shaped “Spellcaster.” Spitfire and Hayes fight. Of course, Spitfire wins. Blade and Spitfire give each other a victory kiss. Spitfire suggests going out for a “real beer.”


Writer (Paul Cornell): The story although interesting is a little too short and lacking in details. Considering Hayes’ Nazi past, readers are aware that is Hayes is far from being good, but we are not entirely sure why Blade and Spitfire are hunting her down. Pete Wisdom does not come into the picture in New York City. Did Spitfire drop him as her boss or is he not necessary for this mission? He could have have died in the past six years and we just don’t know.


Illustrator (Elena Casagrande): The illustrations are good, especially one of Spitfire zooming freely through New York City.


Cover Artist (Jenny Frison): Frison makes Spitfire look as though someone has managed to take a photograph of her running with the wispiness of her hair, and her arms and legs in the running position.