Emi Lenox

First sentence: white cat
black cat
blue cat
brown cat
high cat
low cat
always upside down cat
fluffed cat
bare cat
round cat
square cat
long cat
short cat
rarely-ever-there cat

Premise/plot: Plenty of cats can be found in Catherine Amri and Anouk Han's Happy Cats. This one is essentially an illustrated poem. The stars of the show are the cats themselves, perhaps.

My thoughts: I love cats. I do. I really LOVE, LOVE, LOVE cats. Crazy about cat books as well. Most of the time. This one was so delightful. Not just because it stars cats. Not just because the illustrations are satisfying--they are though. No, I love this one so much because the rhythm and rhyme delight. Rhyme can prove challenging, but, it is so much easier to "get right" than rhythm. Rhyming can be accomplished with practice and effort. Rhythm, however, I think is more of a gift. Some rhyming books just lack all sense of rhythm. Other books just make it look absolutely effortless. Rhythm looks so effortless in this one. It is FUN. The rhythm of the text makes you WANT to read it aloud (even if you're alone). I also think the rhythm will help make this one appeal as an again-again.… (mere)

I like Yara Flor as a character, and the art is pretty darn good throughout, but the storytelling in this collection, while aspiring to be zany and energetic, just comes off as a sloppy, slapped-together train wreck. I still like the Future State: Wonder Woman chapters I had read in a previous collection, but the rest was a chore to read as characters jumped all over or disappeared or did things just 'cuz.

FOR REFERENCE

Contents:
• [Three-page selection], Infinite Frontier #0 / Joëlle Jones, writer and artist
• Homecoming Part One, Wonder Girl #1 / Joëlle Jones, writer and artist
• Homecoming Part Two, Wonder Girl #2 / Joëlle Jones, writer; Joëlle Jones and Adriana Melo, artists
• Homecoming Part Three, Wonder Girl #3 / Joëlle Jones, writer; Joëlle Jones and Adriana Melo, artists
• Homecoming Part Four, Wonder Girl #4 / Joëlle Jones, writer; Joëlle Jones and Adriana Melo, artists
• Homecoming Part Five, Wonder Girl #5 / Joëlle Jones, writer; Adriana Melo, artist
• Homecoming Part Six, Wonder Girl #6 / Joëlle Jones, writer; Leila del Duca, artist
• Homecoming Part Seven, Wonder Girl #7 / Joëlle Jones, writer; Leila del Duca, artist
• Yara Flor and the Esquecida in Legends and Aggressions, Wonder Girl 2022 Annual #1 / Joëlle Jones and Douglas Marques, writers; Emi Lenox, Adriana Melo, Sweeney Boo, Ben Dewey, artists
• Hell to Pay Part One, Future State: Wonder Woman #1 / Joëlle Jones, writer and artist
• Hell to Pay Part Two, Future State: Wonder Woman #2 / Joëlle Jones, writer and artist
• Covers, Variant Covers / Joëlle Jones, Bilquis Evely, J. Scott Campbell, Will Murai, Matteo Scalera, Jamal Campbell, Dan Mora, Jenny Frison, Stanley "Artgerm" Lau, Julian Totina Tedesco, Jen Bartel, Kendrick Lim, Carla Cohen, Rafael Grampa, Kevin Wada, Scott Forbes, Christian Wildgoose, illustrators
• Esquecida Designs / Joëlle Jones, writer and illustrator
• Yara Flor Designs / Joëlle Jones, illustrator… (mere)

Nothing exceptional. There are some interesting ideas and characterizations, but there just isn't enough time to develop them or really understand and empathize with the characters. I totally understand Teddy's desire to be a superhero, and even can see the leap of logic he makes to infuse Plutona's blood, but it was just really suddenly dropped in there and left. At the end it starts to maybe be interesting (Plutona mentions that her powers make her lose her temper, and Teddy starts to become angrier and irrational) but there's no further exploration. The relationships between the characters is very real and true-to-life but that only goes so far, and they are a little cliche. The art and coloring are very well done (I want all of Mie's clothes). The ending hits hard but left me unsatisfied also, visually, I don't understand how Teddy ended up getting stabbed, and I wish I'd gotten a panel of his dad's reaction.… (mere)