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100% by Paul Pope - 4 out of 5 stars
Oh Boy! The Grumpy Man got his hands on a good one. Technically this is a science fiction story. The title, 100%, refers to the idea that in the future men will become board with strip clubs where you can see “everything” and will want more. The solution is a club where the dancer performs behind a scanning device that allows the audience to see through the dancers skin.


The audience sees 100%. Despite the slightly deranged premise this book is actually about New York twenty somethings who work at one of the clubs. Paul Pope’s artistic style is kinetic, wild and fluid. It propels the characters through a future world that is not at all unlike now. Young people fall in love, get scared, fight and wash dishes all to back drop of a same old scuzzy New York with shinny new toys. While not completely top tier 100% is purely cool enough to get the Grumpy Man’s nod.

Batman 100 by Paul Pope - 5 out of 5 stars

Hello!! Comic book writers! Hay! If one of you jerks is going to rewrite a well established comic book hero this is how you do it. What is it about the Batman that draws us to his story? Is it that he’s a brilliant rich guy with to much time on his hands? No, the Grumpy Man is broke and so are most comic book readers. We can't or don’t need to relate to that. Is it his tortured past full of loss. Well we have all had hard times in on form or another but that’s not quite it.

We are drawn to the Batman because in a world of God’s who walk amongst men the Batman is just that, a man. Paul Pope knows this. Pope’s Batman sweats, he bleeds when he’s wounded, he gets hungry and he needs a little help from his friends. Set in 2039 Batman 100 takes place in a world where super powered beings are nonexistent. They are rumor and myth. One myth won’t die though. One myth still strikes fear into the harts of the guilty. A man dressed as a bat who prowls Gotham at night exacting justice. Unlike allot of Batman books the antagonist isn’t a crazy in a funny suit. Instead it’s the government or, more correctly, aspects of the government who are running dirty deals. Using this Pope casts the Batman as a solo crusader vs the giant machine of a nation. And oh baby does it work. My highest recommendation. Batman 100 is a good one.

This concludes the first of The Grumpy Man reviews. The Grumpy Man is to be played for entertainment only and not investment purposes.