A review by cathepsut
Angel Catbird Omnibus, by Johnnie Christmas, Margaret Atwood, Tamra Bonvillain

lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

0.25

This starts like a typical superhero comic. Ordinary guy, something unusual happens and he turns into a superhero — in this case he shapeshifts. The process goes pretty quickly. Dude plus cat plus owl… it‘s a flying cat-bird!

More to Issue #1…

No deeper thoughts or elaboration, one cliché follows the next. Simplistic story telling. Feels like middle-grade/YA. No surprises, no tension, it sort of pointlessly ambles along. The bad guy is obvious, because ugly. Women traipse around half naked in their shapeshifted half-forms. The MC has a silly name. And why is there a vampire in this? Seriously, this comic is silly.

I expected interesting story telling from Margaret Atwood. This is as shallow as it can get, one-dimensional and formulaic. What was she thinking?

So much for Issue #1. Why on Earth is a story this shallow taking so many pages? It‘s not as if there is any character development or decent world building happening. Normally I would toss this, but as it‘s a buddy read, I will proceed to Issue #2… ★★☆☆☆

Onwards to Issue #2!

Oh good, the evil rat-guy tells us exactly what he wants to do to our heroes. Suspense, where art though? Ok, the rats doing charades with him, because they can‘t talk—that was pretty funny… other than that this issue was pretty much a waste of space. Seriously, the meagre plot could have been told in a third as many pages, because the artwork certainly didn‘t make up for the almost non-existent story. I skimmed through half of this. Boo-Hoo Mew Mew! ★☆☆☆☆

Issue #3! Sigh…

Yeah, no. I skimmed though half of this, then fast forwarded to the end. This is too daft to read. The artwork is getting sloppier as well, with less and less detail. Last words of the one-dimensional bad guy: „I will return!“ Please don‘t, this was no fun. And 70 pages of additional artwork etc., you have got to be joking. This is an embarrassment for any self-respecting pulp fiction. ★☆☆☆☆