Ms. Smarty Pants Know It All

I’ve been on a major graphic novels kick thanks to my local library. It’s so easy to walk to the section and just start pulling things down from the shelves.

There have been some very interesting self-contained works, such as Persepolis and The Three Paradoxes, but the majority are tie-ins—to a TV or comic book universe with which I am already familiar.

It turns out, the comic book ones haven’t really been worth singling out … until this one.

Identity Crisis punched me in the gut and left me broken hearted. Much like The Watchmen, it’s a book that revolves around the more mundane aspects of being superheroes. Except, the mundane aspects of superheroes are not mundane at all.

I’ve never really taken the idea of secret identities seriously until this book. I’ve never really thought much about the families and friends of these masked crime fighters either.

I think this is because the world of DC and Marvel superheroes are fictional. I suspend my belief about many things when I go to play in those worlds.

But Identity Crisis makes their world real. These costumed men and women still have to go get the milk, buy anniversary presents, and make sure super villains don’t get into their houses and kill everyone inside.

And that’s the question asked.

What do these individuals, with all their power and might, do when they can’t protect those closest to them?

This may sound really hokey in print, but trust me—the people who put this book together did an outstanding job in making everything very immediate and tangible. This universe is well defined and breathing.

Once we get into the main story a bit, another revelation comes around that once again changed how I think about comic book characters. I won’t ruin the reveal, but the issue brought up makes such perfect sense to me that I’m surprised that it surprised me so much.

I obviously am not giving the ethics and philosophies inherent in the comic book genre enough consideration. Perhaps I shouldn’t be reading through these so quickly.

You don’t have to know the DC line up of characters to appreciate this book. This is a story that could take place in any universe and, now that I stop to consider it, probably does.

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I’ve always loved libraries. As a kid, I went through the entire juvenile biography section of my local library—in alphabetical order.

(I can’t believe it took me so long to figure out that I am a history nerd.)

I loved and still love returning a huge stack of books and taking back out an even larger stack. All for free! (well, ok, for taxes)

It turns out that more book lovers are also going back to their library roots. Borders is in trouble but circulation for the Chicago Public Library has gone up 30% in the last year.

I’ve certainly increased my use. Currently, I’m burning up the graphic novel section.

CPL also reports a huge jump in their online holds system. I’m also a big fan of this function. It’s like shopping online.

I choose the books I want, and they wonderfully appear at my local branch for pick up. For me, it’s like Amazon without the paying.

I certainly couldn’t do my book club and reading challenges without it.

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Waitress is a movie I find difficult to determine if it is good or just average. I, however, do know that it is NOT bad.

Keri Russell plays the eponymous waitress and is outstanding. I didn’t watch Felicity but I can tell by this performance why she captured so many fans with that show.

Her character is in an unhappy marriage of the kind that turns me off of this particular institution. Her husband is needy, childish, and over-bearing. He demands her respect even though he doesn’t do anything to deserve it.

But, he does love her.

She has to turn all her money into him, but secretly—she’s been hiding a stash of get-away money. With her amazing talent with pies, perhaps she could make a life for herself after she gets away from him.

Life, especially screenplayed lives, however, will just insist upon obstacles.

Through it all, the story is told with a quirkiness that brings to mind Pushing Daisies, the now-canceled television show that also happened to feature pies.

Director Adrienne Shelly, who was horrifyingly murdered during the making of this film, showed a talent for creativity and visual panache in her shots. She also wrote the script, and within it, there’s a uniqueness to the dialogue while she plays with certain movie cliques. Sometimes these moments work, and sometimes they do not, but I appreciated each attempt rather than be annoyed by them.

I think Waitress is a surprising little movie that is worth watching because these days, so many movies all feel the same.

This one tells a conventional story in such a refreshing way that I can’t tell if it is legitimately good or not. I just know that I enjoyed watching it a lot.

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