BOOK / GRAPHIC NOVEL/ DVD: JUST ARRIVED

Death Note was an impulse buy because it was cheap and sounded fun. It also turned out to be part 1 of what is really a 4-hour movie based on a popular manga series -which I knew anyway. While it isn't quite as good as I hoped, I ordered part 2 just to find out what happens. It's a much darker piece than I was expecting as the protagonist who writes the death notes turns out to be a complete and utter psycho rather than an anti-hero and at the end commits an action so vile that you completely loathe him.

Here's the Amazon review I wrote for Madame Xanadu: Disenchanted. Strictly speaking she should be called Mademoiselle Xanadu as she isn't married -as far as we know.

This is one for regular fans of DC and Vertigo. Madame Xanadu is a minor but long-running magical character from the DC Universe. Now, courtesy of talented writer Mat Wagner (Grendel, Mage, Batman, etc) and the talented artist Amy Reeder Hadley (who is unfamiliar to me but has an attractive indvidual style) Madame X is brought into the realms of Vertigo which also happen intersect with the DC Universe.

What we have here is an origin story which spans around 1300 years and involves close encounters with The Phantom Stranger (who would appear to be her nemesis), The Demon, Neil Gaiman's perky Death, Zatara (father of Justice Leaguer Zatanna who happens to be a close friend of John Constantine), and finds herself involved in the Jim Corrigan incarnation of The Spectre and in settings which include Camelot, the Mongol Empire, Revolutionary France, Victorian London (just guess which historical character is the focus, and I doubt if you'll be surprised), and America on the verge of entering the Second World War.

All of the first ten issues are included making this a good value package and worth picking up. To be completely honest though, it's really a three and half stars rating as the stories aren't quite as satisfying as they should be. There's something about them which just doesn't fully work and, thinking about it, I feel it's the constant going round and round in circles with The Phantom Stranger. However as that seems to have been resolved by the end, future issues (if it isn't cancelled before its time as so many Vertigo titles are) should see an improvement. The art is consistently good.

Worth a punt.

It's self-explanatory what the computer book is and why I bought it. Windows 7 is still stable since Friday and shows no sign of destabilising, though it does have a disconcerting habit of going into hibernation very quickly but restores easily. On a similar note I've also ordered Dummies Guide to Office 2007.