Takeshi-Miyazawa

Code Monkey Save World #1 Cover We tend not to focus on comic reviews here at Comic POW! We like to take a look at how books or story arcs fit into the greater medium and society. But every once in a while we do take a look at an individual issue and I think Code Monkey Save World presents a great reason to do so. Code Monkey Save World is a mini-series based on a universe derived from the songs of Jonathan Coulton. If you’re not into hyper indie nerd rock, you may still have come across Coulton’s work if you played Valve’s Portal and Portal 2 as Coulton wrote the songs that play over the credits of those games. Jonathan Coulton is quite the world builder; while most pop and rock songs revolve around love between a couple of everyday Joes and Janes, Coulton imagines a romance between an evil mastermind and a woman he’s captured or a literal code monkey and office secretary. Greg Pak has combined all these elements into one universe and the result is something that would probably make a pretty awesome Point and Click Adventure game. (I kept thinking of Sam and Max as I read this first issue) If you’re willing to suspend your disbelief (which, to varying degrees is required of every comic reader), I believe this series can be enjoyable by anyone, whether or not they are a fan of Coulton’s songs. The first page is a great example of this: ...

[caption id=“attachment_523” align=“alignleft” width=“197” caption=“Generation Hope #16”] [/caption] Eric’s Book Eric: I was spoiled for choice this week. Out of the seven books I read, I felt that four of them were POW! Worthy. And, in the end it was a fight between Batman, X-Factor, and Generation Hope. I decided to take your tactic, Dan, and choose something that hadn’t been in the POW! yet. Dan: I’m glad you did. You inadvertently created our first theme week here at Comic POW!: Isolation Week! The week where two books about isolation are chosen. Ok, that tagline isn’t that great, but I think you’ll agree that this week is about two characters who have difficulty relating to their teams and, perhaps, other people on the whole. ...