bookmonkey98's review
3.0
This is a tough one. I read the first several issues years ago, and I really liked the idea, and the creativity and the darkness of the title. I have wanted to read the rest of the series since. The wiring doesn't hold your hand. You have to intuit lots and examine the art closely to see what is happening. But the art starts to fall apart after 8 or 9 issues and become less clear sometimes. And the concepts and events get wonkier. I still got the general gist of the story and the heroes dialed are still interesting, but it starts to feel rushed and not make enough sense.
It could have been really great, but has to settle for just good. But I would rather read this than a generic superhero book these days.
It could have been really great, but has to settle for just good. But I would rather read this than a generic superhero book these days.
cetian's review
4.0
By far, the weirdest thing I read from Miéville. A great job from ilustrators to bring to (visual) life a wild imagination. I do not know the original story, and can only write about this one.
The premise is quite interesting.
The hero part of someone is an identity. Superheroes often lead double lifes. That is the classic way. Bruce Wayne has a secret identity, Batman. And his daytime self feeds on and feeds his mask-and-cape self. It's like a split personality, or a life that is dual. In the case of Superman, Clark Kent is the alternate personality (not the other way around), as other people have pointed out.
But be it a power that comes from birth or a changing event (radioactive spider bite, ect), whatever defines the alternate personality becomes part of who the person is. And in some cases, there is conflict. The gift is taken as a curse. All this is the classic way to build superhero stories. The stuff I usually have no patiente for.
Here, the hero is contingent. It's not an identity. You dial and the hero that shows up and becomes you is random. At one point, we discover different dials, so "hero" and "sidekick" are fixed roles, but they just refer to the relationship between whoever becomes one or the other, temporarily. And it is when one of the main characters starts believing too much he is the heroes that keep being dialed that he starts losing himself. For that, the other main character has a trick, one identity that overshadows all heroes, a constant to all the heroes that become her.
It is a weird, bewildering, fast-pace, halucinatory, deranged, story about superhero identity as something fluid.
The premise is quite interesting.
The hero part of someone is an identity. Superheroes often lead double lifes. That is the classic way. Bruce Wayne has a secret identity, Batman. And his daytime self feeds on and feeds his mask-and-cape self. It's like a split personality, or a life that is dual. In the case of Superman, Clark Kent is the alternate personality (not the other way around), as other people have pointed out.
But be it a power that comes from birth or a changing event (radioactive spider bite, ect), whatever defines the alternate personality becomes part of who the person is. And in some cases, there is conflict. The gift is taken as a curse. All this is the classic way to build superhero stories. The stuff I usually have no patiente for.
Here, the hero is contingent. It's not an identity. You dial and the hero that shows up and becomes you is random. At one point, we discover different dials, so "hero" and "sidekick" are fixed roles, but they just refer to the relationship between whoever becomes one or the other, temporarily. And it is when one of the main characters starts believing too much he is the heroes that keep being dialed that he starts losing himself. For that, the other main character has a trick, one identity that overshadows all heroes, a constant to all the heroes that become her.
It is a weird, bewildering, fast-pace, halucinatory, deranged, story about superhero identity as something fluid.
More...