Friday 13 May 2011

Heroes Vol 1 & 2 - Various authors.














Welcome back everyone! Seems I lost all my comments from yesterday so I apologise now that I haven't responded to your BTT or to your comment. These things happen I suppose and at least the post itself is back (which I was beginning to think wasn't going to happen). If you are on blogger I can't leave comments yet.


Anyway, I decided to review these books together since essentially they are the same thing. Also I am still not 100% sure on how to review a graphic novel so I apologise now if I don't cover things I should be covering.


Essentially these two volumes are a collection of short stories. They feature the main characters to an extent. Giving them more depth than the tv show was able to. Essentially though they are about the minor characters. Giving them a back ground and reasons behind their actions in the television show. I liked it for this and I really do wish I had read them whilst I watched it. I think I would have enjoyed them all the more. Most fans must have felt this way and the artists/writers saw that because the second volume is almost entirely dedicated to these minor characters. Only Claire has a couple of her own stories and those are linked to someone else. There were actually a few I didn't recognise and I am tempted to go back and watch the first few seasons again.


I'm not sure I enjoyed them though. I just couldn't get excited about it. My interest in the show stopped round about season 3. I don't remember if I even finished watching that one. For this reason and because you are expected to know at least some of these characters I recommend the books only to the fan. I don't think anyone else will really get much out of them unless they want to get into the show themselves.


As for the art work. I am in no way an expert to judge. Each story was written and illustrated by different people which was easy to see in both writing style and art. I couldn't tell you if it was done well or not. In my limited knowledge I can say that I preferred the darker and more realistic artwork within the books over the cartoony style (I am sure that's a technical term). Overall though I much preferred the images in 1602.


These haven't sold me on graphic novels but to be completely honest I didn't expect them to. As I have said I would have liked them when I loved the show. One thing that did amuse me was that Volume 2 outed Benjamin Franklin as a potential Hero.

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