Book Review – The Punisher MAX: The Complete Collection

The Punisher MAX: The Complete Collection, Vol. 7 by Jason Aaron
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Though this review appears on Goodreads for only the seventh volume in the set, it’s intended to cover the entire series. And an uneven experience it was. One expects some variation in the quality of the writing and the art, though overall both were good. What caught me by surprise was the variety of the hero’s targets. Though originally at war only with the Mafia, it’s natural enough for the Punisher to branch out to newer, less cliché opponents. Some are obvious enough, such as Russian mobsters, drug cartels and sex traffickers. Others are more exotic, including redneck cannibals and an ENRON-esque corporation. I admit to having less affection for the episodes in which Frank Castle goes to work for the government as a special forces operative (though the Born series was good), nor did I like the story lines in which he was sidelined or entirely absent. Overall, however, these thousands of pages of vigilante violence hit more often than they miss.

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Review – The Quatermass Xperiment

Though clunky by modern standards, this is a revolutionary blend of space travel and cosmic horror from Hammer Films way back in 1955. The notorious Dr. Quatermass shows a stereotypical scientist’s disinterest in the human effects of an unauthorized space travel experiment that kills two astronauts and turns the third into a human-alien blend. This would have gotten a higher rating if not for all the animal deaths. Also released as The Creeping Unknown. Mildly amusing

Review – The Resonator: Miskatonic U

Nostalgic for the heyday of Full Moon Videos? Apparently you aren’t alone. This is a semi-loving homage to what Stuart Gordon did with H.P. Lovecraft’s “From Beyond,” complete with rubbery effects and gratuitous boob shots. See if desperate

Abandoned movie – Riddick

Ten minutes in, the relentless animal death showed no signs of stopping. The fact that all the animals were obvious CGI didn’t make it any better.

Book Review – Domina

Domina: The Women Who Made Imperial Rome by Guy de la Bédoyère
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Writing a history of women and power in Roman history is tricky business. Contemporary accounts – and subsequent versions based on now-lost documents – are almost universally sparse and antagonistic when dealing with anyone other than men of senatorial rank. Nonetheless, Guy de la Bedoyere does a competent job of gleaning what may be considered accurate and recognizing problems with the rest of the record. Though the book’s title implies an ambitious ambit, most of the focus is on the Julio-Claudians (with a relatively brief epilogue devoted mostly to the Severans). The author makes some excellent points about the importance of matrilineal lines of descent and the tricky business of women exercising control of a system that denied them all official forms of authority. My only gripe is that this could have been a considerably shorter work. Much of the text is repetitive, and frequent numismatic digressions vary between historically significant and irrelevantly trivial. Overall, however, this is a worthwhile read.

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Book Review – The World Remade

The World Remade: America in World War I by G.J. Meyer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a worthy follow-up to A World Undone. For the US side of things, G.J. Meyer justifiably focuses a lot of attention on Woodrow Wilson. Fans of the 28th President be warned: Meyer’s view isn’t exactly anti-Wilson, but he openly explores his faults and the troubles he caused at home and abroad. The book also covers plenty of other topics, particularly in the interludes between chapters. After Meyer’s first consideration of the Great War stressed social change wrought by the conflict, I thought his emphasis here might have been somewhat more concentrated on similar alterations in the fabric of American society. However, as a general history of the time and place this functions quite well.

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