Velveteen vs. The Junior Super Patriots by Seanan McGuire

I first discovered Velma Martinez aka Velveteen about the same time as I discovered her creator Seanan McGuire.

Seanan, in addition to writing 3 book series (urban fantasies October Daye, InCryptid and the zombie apocalypse trilogy Newsflesh under the pseudonym Mira Grant), also decided to put her love of comic books (most specifically The X-Men) into print in the form of an homage and parody that she called Velveteen vs. Seanan made, and still does as far as I know, the stories free on her Livejournal and website for anyone to enjoy, and it's hard not to enjoy them.

From the time I read the first Velveteen story (Velveteen vs. The Isley Crawfish Festival) on the author's website I was convinced that it would make a great graphic novel or comic book. The first 9 Velveteen stories have been collected in book format with IsFic's limited edition (1,000 copies only were printed and signed individually by the author) Velveteen vs. The Junior Super Patriots. Reading them in this format is a pleasure and more satisfying than in their original online format.

I've been a long time reader of comics, to a certain extent my love of fantasy was probably formed by the comics I read in my pre-teen and teen years. Comic books are a form of fantasy and more and more authors are recognising that. Superhero books are forming a subgenre of their own these days and even Myke Cole's debut Shadow Ops: Control Point owes as much to The X-Men as it does to the more traditional epic or urban fantasy works that helped to inspire it. Velveteen vs. was the sort of thing I always dreamed of reading in book form back in those days and I could never understand why no one did it. No one until now.

Velma 'Velveteen' Martinez had the ability to animate toys (usually teddy bears) for as long as she could remember, but it did not become public until she managed to animate the dinosaurs in the Natural History wing of her local museum during a school field trip. An incident that brought Velma to the attention of the Marketing Department who controlled most of the licensed super heroes in the U.S. They were looking to create a junior branch of their star team The Super Patriots and a twelve year old who could animate toys was an ideal candidate.

The only problem was that Velma didn't want to be owned and she didn't want her life controlled by the Marketing Department's robot like executives. So when she was legally old enough she took off. The Marketing Department don't like anyone to escape their clutches and they're going to make life hell for Velma until she either agrees to return or dies trying to get away...unless she can make it to Oregon where the Marketing Department have no power.

Through the adventures of Velveteen vs. The Junior Super Patriots readers are introduced to Velma and her former team mates: David 'The Claw' Mickelstein; a boy fused with the body of a lobster by his mad scientist father, Action Dude, the all American dream with flight, super strength and invulnerability and Sparkle Bright with her flight, photon manipulation and photonic camouflage abilities. There's also Velma's other allies: Jackie Frost and The Princess, as well as prospective boyfriend Tag. Seanan really let her imagination go wild with Jackie and The Princess. They're not even really from this world, but they're great friends and powerful allies for Velveteen.

The 9 stories are all a true delight and any comic lover will adore them. Seanan is still writing  Velveteen vs. stories and making them available on her website, and IsFic plan the second installment of her adventures Velveteen vs. The Multiverse in August of 2013.

Shadow Ops: Control Point by Myke Cole

I was only dimly aware of what looks like being one of 2012's 'buzz' debuts; Shadow Ops: Control Point by Myke Cole until I saw a review by Jim Hines on his Livejournal. I had seen the cover various places, but it looked rather like some sort of military SF tie-in book, and that didn't really interest me. That's not a knock on tie-in fiction, it just isn't my thing. I know having said that, somewhere along the line I'll develop an interest in a tie-in fiction concept and make a liar out of myself.

Jim Hines' review made it sound like something I may enjoy and I started seeing a number of other positive reviews. It's a very strong debut. Control Point, the first of what looks like being the Shadow Ops series, is an interesting blend of military SF and urban fantasy.

The book is set in a near future earth where people have started to manifest magical talents. It's generally referred to as 'becoming latent'. Waking up with the ability to manipulate fire, magically heal people with a touch or open gates into other realities can be a rather disconcerting thing to happen, as a result a great many of these newly latent people panic and run. Once they run they're known as 'selfers' and are hunted down. The only other option is to turn yourself in and be trained in the use of your powers, more than likely for some military purpose. Of course that's if you are lucky. You could be really unlucky and get a 'prohibited' power, these people are referred as 'probes', and are regarded as almost too dangerous to be allowed to live.

Oscar Britton is a US army officer attached to the Supernatural Operations Corp (SOC) and sees firsthand how selfers are treated. When he himself manifests as a probe he understandably takes flight, and is pursued by the organisation he had hoped to give his life to.

The real story starts after Britton is taken into custody, forced to use his power of 'gating' for the military and taken to a base established in the 'Source', an magical world that magically talented humans are trying to take over. There are some parallels made here between the US military's presence in Iraq and Afghanistan made here. Myke Cole himself has done 3 tours of Iraq.

A lot of the book is taken up with Oscar's training, examining his thoughts about his situation and the moral battle he has about what he's been made to do. Readers also get introduced to the heroes and villains of the piece. I'd be willing to bet that more than a few of these peripheral characters will become regulars in the series as it unfolds.

Control Point is fast paced, although some of the training that Britton undergoes becomes a little repetitive, especially his regular beat downs at the hands of his sadistic warrant officer Fitzy. There are plenty of bangs and crashes, it's rather like a big budget, effects driven action movie in book form. It's a hard book not to like, it's just so much fun and even though characters like the love interest Therese and the bad guy of Fitzy are fairly two dimensional you can't help but be sucked in and love one, while hating the other and desperately hoping that if he isn't outright killed he does at least get his backside royally kicked.

Characterisation and dialogue are probably two areas that Cole needs to work on. Some of the characterisation is excellent, especially Oscar Britton, although he does have a tendency to become a bit whiny, and the book was wrapped up a little too quickly, with too much happening and some of Britton's actions in that section were curiously at odds with his behaviour throughout most of Control Point. Other characters weren't quite so lucky, and I've already mentioned Therese and Fitzy, as a result of this some of the dialogue doesn't quite flow the way it should.

There's been a lot of thought and research go into Control Point and Cole has obviously drawn heavily on his military background to provide the setting and the jargon for the book. Something that is particularly effective, and shows the care Myke Cole has taken into making his setting as believable as possible, are the quotes at the start of each chapter, which purport to come from newscasts, books or interviews from people on the ground in this brave new magical world.

Myke Cole seems to be a bit of a comic book fan if his comment in his acknowledgement about author Peter V. Brett being his Professor X are anything to go by. There's a rather comic book feel about the whole set up in Control Point, the magical manifestation recalls the discovery of the genetic X or mutant factor in Marvel's X-Men comic series, and the call signs that some of the magical soldiers are given are very super heroesque. Britton is Keystone, there's an aeromancer known as Swift and an aquamancer who goes by the name of Wavesign. It actually makes a lot of sense that people with abilities like this would end up being used by the military and it makes me wonder why I never thought of this when I used to read comics like the X-Men.

Control Point is a very encouraging debut and I look forward to seeing Myke Cole produce more Shadow Ops books in the near future.

Fables 16 - Super Team

I made Fables 16 - Super Team my Christmas present to myself and my wife. I could hardly contain myself until Christmas Day and after so I could get a few quiet moments to dive in to it and reacquaint myself with my friends from Fabletown and the Farm, even Haven.

When we last left the Fables they were still under threat from the evil Mr Dark and had not been able to retake Fabletown from the all powerful sorceror.

The opening issue of this collection actually doesn't cover the Fables preparing to take on Dark again from the Farm and Haven, but those still in the Woodland building, mainly the winged monkey; Bufkin. This particular bit was written by Bill Willingham, but drawn by Eric Shanower. I was familiar with Shanower's writing, as he wrote the two Oz comic collections, that I purchased at Worldcon. The only experience I really had of his artwork were the sketches he did in the books when I bought them, and he was gracious enough to sign them for me and doodle in them. His art is excellent. In this story I believe he's even better than regular artist Mark Buckingham. The story itself is about Bufkin climbing the tree in the Woodlands building to try and get home. However home for him is Oz, not Fabletown outside the building. Who knows what could happen from here on in, with Bufkin anything is possible. I also loved the inclusion of his stowaway sidekick, the Lillputian Lily Martagon.

The main part of the book is about how the Fables plan to take on Mr Dark. Flycatcher from his kingdom of Haven is managing to hold Dark back, but he weakens every day and the strain is taking it's toll. Meanwhile back at the Farm, Pinnochio has taken to getting about in a wheelchair for effect while he puts together his Fables Super Team, with the help of Super Witch...sorry Ozma. Nearly every Fable on the Farm, including one of Bo Peep's sheep; Bonny Lamb (her power is being cute), try out for the team. It becomes rather farcical until Ozma takes charge, and puts a real team together. They have the troll Grinder for muscle, Flycatcher in a magical suit of armour crafted by Weyland Smith, the badger formerly known as Stinky, now called Brock Blueheart wielding some sort of mystical blue energy formed from his faith in the cult of Boy Blue that he's begun. Ozma in her guise as Super Witch and The Green Witch (she hasn't yet been named, although Willingham has hinted that she may be Morgana Le Fay) provide magical power and Bigby Wolf has put on spandex and calls himself Werewolf Man (possibly one of the stupidest superhero names I have ever heard), Clara the dragon/crow has her fire and even Thumbelina known as Tiny Titan can come in handy, although she initially makes the team because Pinnoch...sorry Professor F, wanted a tiny person on the team as it's traditional. Interestingly enough readers never actually see the team in action against Dark, except for a story about a possible outcome told by Pinnochio. Dark does get into a major fight, but it involves Bigby's father; the North Wind, not the Fables, and that may also resolve another long running storyline in the book.

There are a few side stories running throughout Super Team, although the superhero comic parody does take up the bulk of the book. One concerns Beauty and the Beast, the loss of the Beast's power and what exactly their child; Bliss, is. Another is Mrs Spratt, who went to the dark side, and was being groomed by Dark as his wife. The former Adversary; Gepetto, hasn't gone away either and he's scheming to retake his power, as well. One possible side story that they may explore is a growing attraction between Pinnochio and Ozma, although I think this is mainly from the ex puppet than the child like witch, she did after all threaten him with dire consequences if he ever called her 'babe' again after he slipped while forming their team.

The final story in the book with pencils by Terry Moore, is about Sleeping Beauty and what has happened in the old Imperial capital since the sleeping princess put it to sleep permanently. There's a power struggle there and it may have implications for the Fables in general.

Interestingly enough despite my love of Mark Buckingham's work on Fables, I felt Eric Shanower's story was the best drawn. Buckingham in this one seemed a little sketchy and he drew Snow as less attractive than she used to be, There was a flatness that I haven't seen before. Maybe it was just because I was so impressed with Shanower's work and I've just come off Danger Girl by J. Scott Campbell which was drawn absolutely sumptously and beautifully presented.

A bit is resolved in Fables 16 - Super Team, but there's more than enough to go on with for 17, hopefully out early in 2012. I'll be lining up when it hits the shelves.