Two-Fisted Science

If I wasn't such an admirer of Richard Feynman, I think I would have been annoyed to no end with this graphic novel. Two-Fisted Science is a 2001 anthology series devoted to anecdotes and historical accounts of some of the world's greatest scientists. Galileo, the eternal rivals Sir Isaac Newton & Robert Hooke and Niels Bohr are featured in this collection featuring the talents of Steve Lieber (Whiteout), Jim Ottaviani (Hawking) and Colleen Doran (Amazing, Fantastic, Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir). But the big star of this book is Feynman!

Two-Fisted Science is 128 pages, plus material on both inside covers. There's an entire section that's over 50 pages long starting Feynman, plus a story that is spread out through the whole book in multiple parts. That means about 75 pages of this book is devoted to the bongo-playing, safe-cracking renegade of the Los Alamos division of the Manhattan project. Over 50% of a book about different scientists through is history is about 1 Nobel Prize winning physicists!

Again, for a fan of Feynman, I don't mind the extra attention on him. But that really throws off the pacing of this book. I think the multi-parter alone would have been just fine to keep things on track. Lots of anthologies do this in order to have a running thread that helps keep readers grounded to the central theme of the collection. Lots of anthologies will also have a single section that might be devoted to just one person or event. Either literary device is perfectly acceptable in the execution of a collected work. But not both. 

Quite a bit of the Feynman material seemed familiar to me. I've read a couple of books about him as well as the Manhattan Project. I had thought maybe that would explain the deja vu. However, upon checking through the archives of this blog, I've discovered that one of the books I've read, Fallout: J. Robert Oppenheimer, Leo Szilard, and the Political Science of the Atomic Bomb, was written and illustrated by a team that featured Ottavini, Lieber and the creator of the segmented Feynman story, Bernie Mireault. I've got a feeling that some of the material of that book was used here. However, I don't own a copy of Fallout, so I am not really sure. But I really think I've read some of this material before!

A very good read. It was just unevenly edited and may have featured material previously published elsewhere. And let's be honest here- isn't that EC Comics homage cover just freaking gorgeous? 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Whiteout

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you'll know that I tend to be a big fan of a lot of things. I know you might think when I say this that I am blowing smoke. But what I am about to say couldn't be any truer that anything I have ever posted on this blog.

I want to live in Antarctica!

 I love snow. I love the cold. I love the isolation. A dream job of mine would be to do a 9 month shift during the winter months as the head chef of a research station cafeteria or canteen. 

One of the big selling points is that all stationed on a research station on the frigid continent must read for 2 hours a day! It's scheduled so that you keep your mind active as cabin fever and trouble adjusting to permanent dark can screw with a person's mental state. And you get paid to read during that 2 hour window! 

Throw in a cat and this scenario would be heaven for me. And for lead character Special Deputy U.S. Marshal Carrie Stetko, her cushy job at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, is a dream assignment. That is until she literally stumbles upon a pair of deep-froze corpses.

The discovery marks the first suspicious deaths on neutral Antarctica. As the only sanctioned law-enforcement on the frozen plain, Carrie's not even allowed to carry a sidearm, least she violate countless treaties. But as the body count begins to mount, Stetko will find herself teetering the edge of diplomacy as her investigation takes her to the research stations of several other nations. 

With her superiors breathing down her neck, Carrie has the added pressure of finding the culprit before all of the compounds clear out in time for the winter purge. Agent Stetko will find help and hindrances along the way. But her biggest nemesis will be the forbidding ice and cold of the South Pole! Can Carrie solve this tangled web of crime before the clues are buried under a blizzard of snow and deceit?

I saw the 2009 movie starring Kate Beckinsale and I loved it. I also had read the first 1 or 2 issues of this story and again loved it. But I never could get my hands on the last two chapters. Finally, I just recently got this collected edition and Wow! I was freakin' blown away by it. Greg Rucka's writing is much more gritty than the R-rated live-action version. And I love it!

The artwork by Steve Lieber (Hawkman) was fantastic. I didn't realize that those research stations were such a dump. That's definitely one thing that was over-glamorized in the film. This book is from 1998. So despite the grime, as long as smoking has been banned at the South Pole, I still wanna live there!

A great frozen crime thriller that doesn't end up as a cold case. And with 2 more miniseries continuing Stetko's tenure down under, I still have some more sub-zero mayhem to look forward to!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Adam Strange/Future Quest Special #1

In this story, after a Zeta Beam malfunction, Adam Strange is sent back to earth. Only this is unlike any earth that the space travel has ever known. On this parallel earth, there is no Superman, Batman or Wonder Woman. But there is a daring young boy named Jonny Quest who just might have the means to get Adam back to his universe. 

Then in the back-up feature, that sly feline Top Cat is detained by the Batman. Here, Top details how a talking cat wound up in Gotham City. 

Both stories were quite good but the Jonny Quest story was better. It takes place almost immediately after the end of Future Quest. I've not read all of that story yet. Thankfully, this book really doesn't spoil too much so I still have the rest of that amazing miniseries to finish someday. This book also takes place right after the Death of Hawkman mini. I hadn't been keeping up with that, so any spoilers revealed that might ruin reading that book, I am unaware of at this point.

Top Cat's story was very interesting. I didn't so much get the feel that it's going to inspire a sequel like the Jetsons reboot has in the pages of the Booster Gold/ Flintstones special. But the seamless blending of cartoon funny animals with the gritty DC Universe has led me to believe that this was in some way the inspiration for Tom King's brilliant crossover of the Dark Knight and Elmer Fudd.

When this book debuted in March there really wasn't a lot of press. This Hanna-Barbera reboot crossover was a underrated delight to read. Marc Andreyko's ability to blend the worlds of Adam Strange and Jonny Quest was masterfully done and I thought the art in both stories was quite exceptional. Phil Winslade and Steve Lieber do great jobs on their persepective tales. But look at this cover by Evan 'Doc' Shaner. Wow- that's great stuff. I wish he had done the Future Quest story inside as he was the main artist on that project and did a kick-ass job.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.