Wow, this has taken a lot longer than I thought it would. Part of it is the fact that I spent an inordinate amount of time this morning on the latest issue of the adaptation of Phillip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" - the book I have the most thoughts on, as well. Lets start with some other stuff and work our way to that.
Irredeemable # 5: Mark Waid's evil Superman, the "Plutonian", just gets more evil, and more creepy, issue by issue, touching on something that is almost never explored but is blindingly obvious - if Superman really can hear everything everyone on Earth says at any given time, wouldn't it be difficult for it not to warp him in some way? After all, there are some seriously messed up things happening pretty much constantly on this planet, and constant exposure to that would be pretty tough to swallow. The story with the supporting cast trying to figure out a way to stop what is, essentially, a god, is interesting, and finally seems to be moving somewhere, but its not as fun as watching the Plutonian toy with the general population every month.
X-Factor # 47: This book is generally entertaining, but this particular plot-line has dragged on a bit too long. The one additional thought I have on this one is that some complaints I've read about Longshot's lucky shot in this issue seems to miss the point of his character -- his power's are luck-based. Which can lead to either some good storytelling, or become a recurring deus ex machina, depending on the writer. Here, its still leaning toward the former.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep # 2: Fascinating "adaptation." I put the scare quotes around adaptation, because this series is a word-for-word graphic illustration of Dick's novel - no writer is credited other than Dick himself. This leads to a really wordy, and actually almost schizophrenic book, with the pictures alternating between directly illustrating the words and providing atmosphere to some of the more expository passages. When the art actually follows the literal arc of the words, there is a kind of dual tracking feeling that happens, like you are seeing and being told of the same events, yet the perspectives are just a bit skewed and don't exactly match up. I'm not at all sure this is purposeful, but it works really well with this particular story. This issue also includes a very good essay by Matt Fraction (even if he does cheat and talk about the film "Blade Runner," which was based on Androids, rather than the book itself). This book is absolutely worth your time as a celebration of, and way to gain a bit of new perspective on, Dick's works. It certainly has inspired me to go back and re-read some of his other books. If you've never read Androids, though, I recommend you pick up a cheap paperback and do so before committing to this series. As a fan of the book already, though, I have to say I am really impressed by this work, despite some reservations I had going in -- the combination of the original text with visuals, plus the so-far excellent and illuminating essays by top comics creators, really shine new light on the text in a way that is very surprising.
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