81.
Title: [Catwoman: Selina's Big Score]
Author: Darwyn Cooke
Genre: Comic
Medium: Paperback
Acquisition: Library Book
Date Completed: September 20, 2016
Rating: ***1/2

A re-read, with some interesting history

82.
Title: [Catwoman: Vol. 1 the Game]
Author: Judd Winick
Genre: Comic
Medium: Paperback
Acquisition: Library Book
Date Completed: September 21, 2016
Rating: ***

Another reread.

83.
Title: [Victorian Fashion]
Author: Jayne Shrimpton
Genre: Fashion History
Medium: Paperback
Acquisition: Library Book
Date Completed: September 23, 2016
Rating: ***

Jayne Shrimpton's slim volume is a brief introduction to the forms and functions of fashion; its greatest value is that it does not limit its object of study to women's fashion, as is common, but rather extends her subject to men and children as well. Some interesting trivia is included for the more-familiar, such as the inspiration for men's facial hair, and the origins of the term "crinoline," but the text is more greatly geared towards the curious but uninformed. While it does not suit my current purposes, it is a charming little book.

84.
Title: [Victoriana]
Author: James Laver
Genre: Material Culture, History
Medium: Hardback
Acquisition: Library Book
Date Completed: September 25, 2016
Rating: ***

James Laver’s Victoriana is a companion history for aspiring collectors of Victorian kitsch, broadly identifying artistic movements and points of taste. The content of the book is a glossing of material culture, more useful for its illustrative presumptions and suppositions, often reading objects at face value (such as fashion plates representing “real” life) and thereby articulating cultural beliefs that may run contrary to the lived experiences of even the Victorian middle class.  Much of this use value is expressed in Laver’s introduction, which both defines “Victoriana,” and offers such keen insights as “the collapse of Victorianism …[and] the end of the Patriarchal System” thanks to the “New Woman” (25), and “the result [of the emancipation of the servant class is] that all women are now back at the kitchen sink” (25). That these two statements occur in parallel paragraphs speaks pretty greatly to the cultural moment of the 1960s, and undoes the argument that Victorianism and the Patriarchal system have collapsed.

77.
Title: [The Perfect Gentleman: the Pursuit of Timeless Elegance and Style in London]
Author: James Sherwood
Genre: Fashion History
Medium: Hardback
Acquisition: Library Book
Date Completed: August something, 2016
Rating: ****

The introduction to The Perfect Gentleman develops a personal narrative which clearly situates the subject of the volume with the author's own experiences and romanticization of his subject (which is not, I should clarify, a criticism of the author or his text, but rather a recognition of a personal investment which often seems to drive fashion historians). Recognizing the role of materiality and commercialization in the establishment and maintenance of the identity of a British gentleman, Sherwod offers in his volume a series of brief histories of accouterments now closely aligned with the social role, so as to be indistinguishable from the signified. Though Sherwood asserts that the text is academic - and no doubt his research itself was an academic endeavor - the volume produced is much more of a fleshy coffee-table book - a collection of stories and histories interesting to fashion enthusiasts, but not deeply academic or useful for true research. Thus, it illustrates, but does not advance, the field.  I loved the trivia it offers, such as the origins of the expression "mad hatter," but theses stories are more delightful quips than actually useful to the project at hand. Still, if you're interested in gloves and hats and tobacco, and just why certain brands are associated with high class gender construction, this is a fun book to pour over. Recommended for pleasure, but not research.

78.
Title: [Suicide Squad: The Nighshade Odyssey]
Author: John Ostrander, Luke McDonnell, Bob Lewis
Genre: Comic
Medium: Paperback
Acquisition: Library Book
Date Completed: September 2, 2016
Rating: **

The Suicide Squad is built on the premise, as Amanda Waller is so fond of repeating, that its members are expendable; criminals are sent on dangerous missions of questionable integrity by a manipulative government, upon which relies their freedom and their lives. Literally sent to die in some cases, they fight not for integrity or a sense of right and wrong (despite the assertions of their "leader," who is given a cheap form of guilt morality), but for a chance to escape confinement, or to win aid in unfortunate personal trials. The premise itself remains intriguing, as it brings into question the assertion of villainous identities - who is named a villain, who names villains, and who can really determine what is "right" - but the second volume clearly believes its characters are just as expendable as Waller asserts. Without characterization, without any level of humanity, without any interest these blank humanoid figures are sent out and recalled, fight and share horrible snippets of melodramatic dialog, perhaps with a moment of personal angst from a figure or two. They are, nearly to a one, nothing, and there is very little to engage the reader. I'm actually glad now that the series has caught popular attention, because it means DC will take the property more seriously, and therefore produce stronger books with a great idea.

I'm not sure what counts as spoilers for comics readers; I tend to treat them like Shakespeare and other classic literature, in which the conclusion is already widely known, even by those who haven't actually read the book.  I don't think I've "given away" anything extraordinary here, but my apologies to any who disagree.

18.
Title: [Death of the Family]
Author: Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo
Genre: Comics
Medium: Paperback
Acquisition: IS Research
Date Completed: March 20, 2016
Rating: *****

I'm finding it difficult to review this book casually; every time I begin writing I come to conclusions and observations I wish to save for the paper I'm crafting, and so I come back to square one.  The basics are straight forward: this New 52 title is a play on its predecessor, Death in the Family in which the Joker violently beats Jason Todd to death (at the encouragement of fans who voted, if I'm not mistaken).  Though this may read, and in the moment does, as a hugely significant narrative moment, for the Joker death is just another day at work, and play.  His history is tumultuous, with a few constants: mayhem, Arkham Asylum, and Batman.

In this new arc the Joker escapes one and uses another in order to achieve the full attention of the third, targeting the "Bat family" in the belief that they have sentimentalized Batman, and therefore made him weak, and thus less of a capable adversary. For an antagonist who identifies so intensely with his protagonist, this holds serious implications, and a year after disappearing from the asylum he sets out to "right" their dynamic through exceptional violence worthy of the most psychotic Joker arcs.

I sought out this book specifically looking for a moment of violence - when the Joker has his face removed by the Dollmaker, leaving it on a wall as a bloody calling card; this is apparently viewed as a moment of "rebirth" for the figure, and it's pertinent to my current research to think about what this means.  This moment proceeds the current book, but that doesn't detract from its interest. One point of contention I have is a major missing story - that of Catwoman. Though the Joker singles her out as a member of the "family," she is suspiciously missing from the final reunion.

Most of my conclusions and observations will (hopefully) end up in a paper this term, so I'll just end simply: I liked it.  More so, I think, than The Killing Joke, and certainly more than Death in the Family.