quetzelish's review
3.0
The Infinite Loop is a book that, in concept, should be very good and very interesting. Unfortunately, in execution it falls a little flat. Let's start with the good things. The artwork is very good, with beautiful pastel-like colors. The characters feel distinct and, for the most part, convey emotions well. While mostly consisting of light colors, the darker ones do shine through. Additionally, the romance between Ano and Teddy feels well done, albeit in a love at first sight kind of way. It could have used a bit more development as a romance for us the audience but that didn't seem to be the point of the book. The point was to talk about gender and sexuality. The first issue sets us up with who Teddy is, what she does, what anomalies are and what the Infinite loop is.
Now that's all well and good but this is where we begin to run into problems. The sci-fi aspect of this story is bad. And maybe that's just because I don't understand time travel as well as I thought I did but all of the time travel stuff is way too confusing. Instead of being explained well, it's shown in images and adventures but because the rules of time travel aren't native to our everyday lives, it becomes much harder to make sense of all the jumping around and the affects that it can have. It started out very well, keeping it simple with Teddy taking care of time anomalies. Then the romance begins, which diverts from the sci-fi and the decision tree of Teddy's thoughts is very well done and interesting. Some of the best parts of this book are the way that Teddy's thoughts are conveyed to us.
But once Teddy begins her romp through time once again, the book begins to unravel around its own concept. Time travel needs to be explained well and it just isn't here. However, that isn't the main collapse in premise that occurs.
Once we get to where issue 4 would be, the subtleties of book become very overt and very heavy handed. At its heart, The Infinite Loop is a romance with a heavy emphasis on addressing the way that American culture deals with sexuality and gender. But by the end, you feel like you're being beaten over the head with the message (with pages that literally just contain quotes from Malcolm X or Harvey Milk) and combined that with a confusing actual plot, and what's left is a bit of a confusing mess. I'm glad I read this, as the ideas were really good. But the pacing was unbalanced and the ideas presented in too much of a confusing way. I hope to see more of the artist and writer as time goes on, refining what they learned from making this. They know how to get romance down, all that needs to be done is fitting it in a less confusing framework.
Spoiler
to kill Ano and to use the reaction to the deathNow that's all well and good but this is where we begin to run into problems. The sci-fi aspect of this story is bad. And maybe that's just because I don't understand time travel as well as I thought I did but all of the time travel stuff is way too confusing. Instead of being explained well, it's shown in images and adventures but because the rules of time travel aren't native to our everyday lives, it becomes much harder to make sense of all the jumping around and the affects that it can have. It started out very well, keeping it simple with Teddy taking care of time anomalies. Then the romance begins, which diverts from the sci-fi and the decision tree of Teddy's thoughts is very well done and interesting. Some of the best parts of this book are the way that Teddy's thoughts are conveyed to us.
But once Teddy begins her romp through time once again
Spoiler
to save Ano with herself from other timelines (see what I mean by sci-fi confusion) and break the infinite loop by...resetting the universe which is still part of the infinite loop?Once we get to where issue 4 would be, the subtleties of book become very overt and very heavy handed. At its heart, The Infinite Loop is a romance with a heavy emphasis on addressing the way that American culture deals with sexuality and gender. But by the end, you feel like you're being beaten over the head with the message (with pages that literally just contain quotes from Malcolm X or Harvey Milk) and combined that with a confusing actual plot, and what's left is a bit of a confusing mess. I'm glad I read this, as the ideas were really good. But the pacing was unbalanced and the ideas presented in too much of a confusing way. I hope to see more of the artist and writer as time goes on, refining what they learned from making this. They know how to get romance down, all that needs to be done is fitting it in a less confusing framework.
garibae's review
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
velvetvan's review
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
vasha's review
4.0
Ah, Teddy -- what a warrior for social justice (take that, those of you who use SJW as an insult), fists clenched, wielding time disruption like a bomb in the cause of love and understanding, determined to forever destroy the infinite loop of hate. It takes her a while, in this book, to start fighting, though.
Teddy was born in a future where danger, darkness, and negativity have been abolished, and so has love -- too disruptive. Freedom and knowledge are too dangerous, too. Time travel has been invented; Teddy works for an agency that aims to prevent anyone using time travel to change the future; whenever there is a time disruption something comes into existence, an "anomaly," usually an object. A woman named Tina runs the agency and invented a gadget that erases time anomalies (and has more sinister effects, as we learn) -- it's her creed that the present state of the world is perfect and the future must never alter. Teddy has been obediently agreeing, and living a drab life, although she may be the world's most powerful time-manipulator; but then one anomaly turns out to be a purple-haired woman (dubbed "Ano" short for anomaly), who Teddy falls instantly in love with and will not agree to erase. Teddy wants the two of them to hide in a backwater of time, but Ano has more revolutionary ideas, and so do a multitude of other versions of Teddy....
I can't praise the art and visual storytelling here enough. Making a story this complex comprehensible, with its leaps in time, multiple timelines, multiple versions of the same character, is no mean challenge; Elsa Charretier does it with dazzling brio, establishing visual cues to guide the reader, such as shapes and color schemes, and filling the pages with dynamic motion that tells the story. Plus there are creative ways of representing Teddy's thoughts such as decision trees and conversations with other versions of herself; it's humorous, colorful, and vivid.
Then there's the story; as much a manifesto as a narrative, but what a well-written one. Characters are somewhat caricatured, but they play their parts well enough, and the love story of Teddy and Ano is pretty touching. The plot development is what it takes to shake Teddy out of her pessimistic conviction that human nature never changes, an infinite loop; after all, even in her "safe" time people are hated (time agents call Ano an "abomination"). Given that the struggle for racial civil rights is a recurring theme in this story (a key event in Teddy's career was witnessing an act of Klan violence in 1964 Mississippi), it's with conscious irony that the authors made Tina black. The reason the loop is infinite, after all, is that anyone, no matter what exclusion they or others like them have suffered, can and usually will turn around and find someone else to exclude. So believing that tolerance can keep expanding takes a real leap of faith.
I have only one real complaint, and that's the translation; it would hardly be going too far to call it dreadful. I have only been able to find bits and pieces of the French version on line, but just looking at the English shows a multitude of faults. What exactly is a line like "Passiveness and cowardice are parents of humanity" supposed to mean? There were at least a half dozen times I wished I could check the original to figure out what was really being said. A couple of times Ano apparently cracks a dirty joke, but it's incomprehensible in English. The French version calls people creating time anomalies "forgeurs"; this is simply translated as "forgers", but that is not quite an equivalent word. Anyone with a basic competence in English should know we no longer use "men" to refer to all humankind, even if "les hommes" is still acceptable in French. And on and on.
Well, even if the words get a bit lost, the story and the art are there... and can be thoroughly enjoyed as a funny, exciting, militant experience.
thecolourblue's review
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
So I will start this out by saying I’ve never been the biggest fan of time-travel stories, but that said I really wanted to like this comic. And I did enjoy it to an extent. The bright art style and trippy multi-reality sequences are a lot of fun (so long as you’re not thinking too hard about paradoxes).
But the letdown is the characters themselves. The antagonists are cartoon bad guys and love interest Ano is rarely more than an emotional prop for the protagonist’s own arc. There’s potential here but it’s not realised in a way that gave any sort of emotional payoff to me as a reader.
But the letdown is the characters themselves. The antagonists are cartoon bad guys and love interest Ano is rarely more than an emotional prop for the protagonist’s own arc. There’s potential here but it’s not realised in a way that gave any sort of emotional payoff to me as a reader.
Content Warnings
Minor: Homophobia
cada's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
heypretty52's review
5.0
The Infinite Loop did not work as a single issue comic (because issue one wasn't as much of a hook as it could have been), but as a trade, it blew my socks off. The Infinite Loop as a metaphor for never-ending fighting for equal rights sends out a call to an end to racism, sexism, homophobia, etc before our future becomes a fixed point. If only we could do as Teddy does and go back to fight and fix our mistakes.
iamrainbou's review
2.0
Trigger warning: transmisia, antiqueer comments
A science fiction comic with an f/f biracial couple that fights against hate. The story is kinda confusing at first although after some pages I felt so involved that I didn't care about anything else.
There are a lot of messages of hope and "fight back for you and the ones who can't". It was heartwarming and sweet, and I definitely appreciated these messages. There is also a genderqueer side character that calls out misconceptions and ignorance.
However, there was a horrifying transphobic scene that it was so unnecessary. It is only there to prove this side character that the guys he admires are not the good ones and he shouldn't be with them. Couldn't he figure out by himself that being homophobic is wrong? Oh no, a trans character has to die for him.
Also, a black woman as the villain left me uneasy, especially because the main character is a white woman.
There aren't enough sapphic comics and I'm here to support the few that there are. But I can't recommend THE INFINITE LOOP.
A science fiction comic with an f/f biracial couple that fights against hate. The story is kinda confusing at first although after some pages I felt so involved that I didn't care about anything else.
There are a lot of messages of hope and "fight back for you and the ones who can't". It was heartwarming and sweet, and I definitely appreciated these messages. There is also a genderqueer side character that calls out misconceptions and ignorance.
However, there was a horrifying transphobic scene that it was so unnecessary. It is only there to prove this side character that the guys he admires are not the good ones and he shouldn't be with them. Couldn't he figure out by himself that being homophobic is wrong? Oh no, a trans character has to die for him.
Also, a black woman as the villain left me uneasy, especially because the main character is a white woman.
There aren't enough sapphic comics and I'm here to support the few that there are. But I can't recommend THE INFINITE LOOP.
tillthestarsevaporate's review
3.0
Cool concept. Intriguing artwork. Fine characters. The only problem is: the time travel concepts are confusing. I mean, what's even a time-space continuum? And how come Ano, for example, keeps appearing out of nowhere? I don't get it... but then again, maybe it's just me.
I'm still going to read the sequel though (we had such an open ending; there has to be a sequel, right?)
Correction: I will read the sequel as soon as it's translated to English 🙈
I'm still going to read the sequel though (we had such an open ending; there has to be a sequel, right?)
Correction: I will read the sequel as soon as it's translated to English 🙈