concept and execution (in two reeeeeeally different books)

Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel has a great concept - people start finding parts of an enormous ancient alien robot - but I didn't enjoy the writing at all. I'm not a stickler for actual scientific accuracy to the extent of "the math and physics all actually work", but I like the ring of truth in how scientists talk about things they don't understand (experiments! data!) and how labs operate (Agent Scully aside, big investigations have big casts!). And, ugh, so much male gaze, so many tiresome heteronormative tropes. I didn't know a gender for the name "Sylvain" when I picked up the book but it very quickly became obvious it was a dude author, confirmed when I flipped to the back flap. Too bad. Anyways, I was going to conclude this by saying it would work as an animated movie, it's got some good visuals and the cartoonishness would be forgivable in an actual cartoon (think Miyazaki's early ancient giant robot/god soldier work in Nausicaa or Laputa, or the robot would also probably look great in CGI) but in fact there isn't a huge amount of giant stompy robot bang for the buck here either.

Archie Volume One is the reboot of Archie comics written by Mark Waid (Kingdom Come, other superhero titles) and drawn by Fiona Staples (Saga) and other artists. The execution is top-notch - these are masters of comics pacing, character beats, expressive faces - but, you know, it's Archie. Really well-done, smartly updated Archie, but ultimately we're talking about a love triangle that ran for 75 years and never resolved, right? I mean, I'll probably keep reading it, but, I don't know, no-end series comics may not be for me, there's something unsatisfying about knowing they'll never resolve.