saramarie08's review
5.0
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Former cop Claire and her son Tommy are big fans of the stories of Adventureman and his squad of superhero friends, who protect a city that looks an awful lot like New York meets Gotham. The last Adventureman book left things on quite a cliffhanger that didn’t seem very favorable to the Super squad, so Claire challenges Tommy to come up with his own ending. Claire manages her boisterous family dynamic with the quiet of her late mother’s bookstore, both playing different games with her hearing aides. One day, a mysterious customer comes in and leaves an older, possibly first edition copy of Adventureman with Claire, and the fiction starts to bleed into her reality. Men made of bugs chase Claire, she finds a mysterious skyscraper she’s never noticed before, and relative strangers, who resemble fictional characters, begin to help Claire.
The beginning of this book will completely throw you off. Don’t worry, keep reading. You didn’t miss another volume, there wasn’t something that came before this, and it’ll all make sense soon. The introduction of Claire and her family is one of the most sincere, genuine beginnings of character development I’ve seen in a while. Claire's hearing loss is handled beautifully, with Cowles lettering changing to match her level of hearing - as she turns the volume down, the words become more faint
Former cop Claire and her son Tommy are big fans of the stories of Adventureman and his squad of superhero friends, who protect a city that looks an awful lot like New York meets Gotham. The last Adventureman book left things on quite a cliffhanger that didn’t seem very favorable to the Super squad, so Claire challenges Tommy to come up with his own ending. Claire manages her boisterous family dynamic with the quiet of her late mother’s bookstore, both playing different games with her hearing aides. One day, a mysterious customer comes in and leaves an older, possibly first edition copy of Adventureman with Claire, and the fiction starts to bleed into her reality. Men made of bugs chase Claire, she finds a mysterious skyscraper she’s never noticed before, and relative strangers, who resemble fictional characters, begin to help Claire.
The beginning of this book will completely throw you off. Don’t worry, keep reading. You didn’t miss another volume, there wasn’t something that came before this, and it’ll all make sense soon. The introduction of Claire and her family is one of the most sincere, genuine beginnings of character development I’ve seen in a while. Claire's hearing loss is handled beautifully, with Cowles lettering changing to match her level of hearing - as she turns the volume down, the words become more faint
jekutree's review
3.0
2.5 stars but closer to 3 than a 2 because I like Fraction. The book is beautifully rendered by Terry Dodson; the art is drop dead gorgeous. However, the story itself feels like a Tom Strong pastiche. I will be passing on volume 2.
mschlat's review
3.0
It's a Doc Savage pastiche, except that the Doc Savage analogues are far in the past and our current protagonist (Claire McConnell) is in our time and starting to notice something... off. (Could it be connected to those analogues? How could it not be?)
I found it fun, but not something I might want to read more of. Which is somewhat a shame, since the volume ends after the first four issues of the comic, and there's no real conclusion at that point. I do like Fraction's and Dodson's attention to detail --- there's a ton of complexity here (storywide and graphically), so much so that I found a reread of the first issue helpful. But that complexity meant I found it difficult to connect to the main story.
I found it fun, but not something I might want to read more of. Which is somewhat a shame, since the volume ends after the first four issues of the comic, and there's no real conclusion at that point. I do like Fraction's and Dodson's attention to detail --- there's a ton of complexity here (storywide and graphically), so much so that I found a reread of the first issue helpful. But that complexity meant I found it difficult to connect to the main story.
jugglebird's review
adventurous
funny
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? No
4.25
mewpasaurus's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
3.75
The direction that this series is taking is interesting and the art is gorgeous, but some of the panels and the "flow" of speech bubble in said panels is confusing in some parts (not a natural progression for how most Western graphic novels pace or place their speech bubbles) which led to some re-reading of the text to get them in the correct sequence.
However, I picked this up because the art and story reminded me of media like The Rocketeer and all the old Art Deco and Art Nouveau underpinnings I studied in school and that I have personal interest in. In that regard, this graphic novel series is solidly in that vein. The characters are all pretty interesting, past, present and baddies alike. I look forward to seeing where the series takes us, but I really do hope they sort out the panel flow, in particular the placement of speech therein.
However, I picked this up because the art and story reminded me of media like The Rocketeer and all the old Art Deco and Art Nouveau underpinnings I studied in school and that I have personal interest in. In that regard, this graphic novel series is solidly in that vein. The characters are all pretty interesting, past, present and baddies alike. I look forward to seeing where the series takes us, but I really do hope they sort out the panel flow, in particular the placement of speech therein.
haddocks_eyes's review
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
trike's review
3.0
I get the idea but I’m not sure I was following the story completely. The outlines of it, sure, but some of the specifics are unclear. Some of that is Fraction holding things back for later reveals, but a big part of it is Dodson’s storytelling. Everything is splash pages and beauty shots, which is great for pin-ups but not so much for conveying a sequential story.
Fortunately it gets better by the fourth chapter when Dodson stops creating jumbled pages where you don’t know which order to read the panels and settles down and just tells the story in a straightforward manner. It also helps that this is where Fraction brings many of the loose threads together. Frankly, that saved this book from getting a 2-star rating.
So we have a Doc Savage clone, Adventureman, and a team that mimics Savage’s team, which has created a superserum which allows you to do things mere mortals cannot, and see things invisible to others.
Pretty sure the ultimate takeaway is that drugs are good. Specifically steroids and LSD.
Fortunately it gets better by the fourth chapter when Dodson stops creating jumbled pages where you don’t know which order to read the panels and settles down and just tells the story in a straightforward manner. It also helps that this is where Fraction brings many of the loose threads together. Frankly, that saved this book from getting a 2-star rating.
So we have a Doc Savage clone, Adventureman, and a team that mimics Savage’s team, which has created a superserum which allows you to do things mere mortals cannot, and see things invisible to others.
Pretty sure the ultimate takeaway is that drugs are good. Specifically steroids and LSD.
koriwatson's review
3.0
This is a book in that needs not yet published later books to elevate it. Fraction believes it will all come together and I won’t believe or doubt him yet. The book is mildly irritating but I liked it more as it went on and will be reading the next volume when it’s out.