A review by haia_929
Battling Boy by Paul Pope
4.0
This is a trimmed down version of my review, to view the full review visit The Book Ramble.
This comic book is set in Acropolis, a huge city overrun with violence and monsters. Their greatest hero Haggard West is killed by a local gang leaving the city unequipped to defeat the monsters. In comes Battling Boy, a God from another world, who takes the place of the hero and fights to save the city as part of his coming of age tests. This book was really amazing. The story is really interesting and the content just hooked me as soon as I started reading it.
Battling Boy is a God, which really surprised me. I didn't know what exactly he was going to be, or what the book would be about. He definitely seems to have been influenced, in terms of character creation, by the Greek/Roman Gods and other pantheon style Gods. I am a big fan of the Greek Gods and content about them so this was a huge plus for me.
The art style is a little rougher, a little more on the superhero comic side. Combined with the content of the story, the street gangs and monsters, it reminded me a little of Batman Returns with a little less of the grit that makes that comic so terrifying. (It makes sense because Paul Pope has worked on Batman comics and other super hero comics before.) That only serves to make it a little more appropriate for a younger audience. This is really a great art style for the particular content of the story.
In terms of characters I found Battling Boy and Aurora West really interesting. They're young, Battling Boy is only around 12 and Aurora's a little older, which means they're both still kind of in the "training" phase of their lives as future heros. Battling Boy is undergoing this coming of age journey to become a hero where he's sent away to perform a heroic act (very reminiscent of old Greek heroes) and Aurora has been trained to be her father's successor. It was great to see both some strong younger heroes but also strong females. Aurora and her mentor are both strong female characters and I'm excited to see them in future books.
The one bad thing about this book? It's too short! I found that not enough had happened by the time I finished, and I wished the story had been longer. Of course it's not a standalone so there is more coming, but it just felt like not a lot happened and there was a very abrupt ending to the book.
That being said, the book was amazing and I'm really happy that I've picked it up. I highly recommend this book!
This comic book is set in Acropolis, a huge city overrun with violence and monsters. Their greatest hero Haggard West is killed by a local gang leaving the city unequipped to defeat the monsters. In comes Battling Boy, a God from another world, who takes the place of the hero and fights to save the city as part of his coming of age tests. This book was really amazing. The story is really interesting and the content just hooked me as soon as I started reading it.
Battling Boy is a God, which really surprised me. I didn't know what exactly he was going to be, or what the book would be about. He definitely seems to have been influenced, in terms of character creation, by the Greek/Roman Gods and other pantheon style Gods. I am a big fan of the Greek Gods and content about them so this was a huge plus for me.
The art style is a little rougher, a little more on the superhero comic side. Combined with the content of the story, the street gangs and monsters, it reminded me a little of Batman Returns with a little less of the grit that makes that comic so terrifying. (It makes sense because Paul Pope has worked on Batman comics and other super hero comics before.) That only serves to make it a little more appropriate for a younger audience. This is really a great art style for the particular content of the story.
In terms of characters I found Battling Boy and Aurora West really interesting. They're young, Battling Boy is only around 12 and Aurora's a little older, which means they're both still kind of in the "training" phase of their lives as future heros. Battling Boy is undergoing this coming of age journey to become a hero where he's sent away to perform a heroic act (very reminiscent of old Greek heroes) and Aurora has been trained to be her father's successor. It was great to see both some strong younger heroes but also strong females. Aurora and her mentor are both strong female characters and I'm excited to see them in future books.
The one bad thing about this book? It's too short! I found that not enough had happened by the time I finished, and I wished the story had been longer. Of course it's not a standalone so there is more coming, but it just felt like not a lot happened and there was a very abrupt ending to the book.
That being said, the book was amazing and I'm really happy that I've picked it up. I highly recommend this book!