Manhunter, Vol. 4: Unleashed, from Marc Andreyko (DC Comics)

Hi, there! Today I’m going to review my very first heroes comic book ever! As I had no clue for where to begin on comic book reading matters, I asked for a sweet and helpful guy to pick a Wonder Woman volume for me on the last comic book fair that I’ve been to, last June. The guy picked me up Manhunter, volume 4: Unsleashed. It’s the Wonder Woman trial ❤ Months passed and I finally got around to read it and the results are not quite what I expected.

from my Instagram

The Story

(Goodreads blurb)

Collecting issues #24-30 of the acclaimed MANHUNTER series, written by Marc Andreyko! Manhunter Kate Spencer takes on her biggest case yet with Wonder Woman as the client, but the stakes are higher than anyone knows! Is the Amazon princess guilty of murdering Max Lord?

The Analysis

Just remembering that those were my impressions and opinion as a reader 🙂

So, I wanted to make some things clear before starting my review. First, this was my first hero comic book ever, but not my first comic book ever. I’ve been reading those since I’m a child: Tex, the Texas Ranger; Asterix and Obelix; Garfield comic books; Disney and children’s comic books. I’m not completely clueless of the genre. At the same time, I didn’t use to have the habit of taking comic books seriously, unfortunately. I promise that I have changed, but it was only recently that I gave a serious thought to starting a “serious” comic book reading. Third and last thing: I watched so many hero cartoons when I was a child (sometimes I still do; all it takes it’s for them to be on the tv, haha!) and still watch a lot of heroes movies, so it made sense to finally give a try to heroes comic books. From this, this read was born.

I know that reading a comic book isn’t always something neat and organized or ordered at all, so I had a had time adjusting to the fact that I was starting to read something that wouldn’t give all the previous information that I needed to have a perfect understanding of the storyline in any moment at all. Also, I had to brace myself for loose ends, as I only bought volume four for Manhunter. I mean, okay, the trial of Wonder Woman is a “closed story”, but one inside a big picture. Now add all of this to my high criticism of the art on this volume (in which sometimes women looked like dudes or drag queens in the worst way possible) and the fact that the story kept coming and going to other parts of the plot instead of focusing on Manhunter and Wonder Woman’s problems and you have a highly disappointed reader.

Even if I had the opportunity of picking up the other issues of Manhunter, I wouldn’t. I gave it three stars on Goodreads because it was my first time and this comic book managed to keep my attention while I was reading, but I don’t think I’ll re-read it or trying a new hero comic book again in a while

As I already said, the narrative kept coming back and forth between Kate (Manhunter’s actual name) and her attending to Wonder Woman’s case and this random guy in another part of the world. Besides, the story wouldn’t stop coming back and forth in the past without even a note or subtitle to indicate it. Seriously, this drove me mad. I had to re-read several pages until I understood a little where I was 😦

The plot was simple, as Kate had to prove that Wonder Woman was innocent of Max Lord’s murder and we all already know how this ends. I can’t say much more because I sincerely didn’t understood the rest of the plot to form an opinion about it.

The characters are the only thing that kept me reading this comic book. I loved Kate and Diana’s relationship and how Kate was deeply attracted to Wonder Woman (in case you’re new to the heroes world, Diana is Wonder Woman’s real name <3). Also, Batman was hilarious on his few scenes, haha!

As I already mentioned as well, I didn’t really liked the art, but I really loved the original cover for this volume:

And, of course, some pictures inside of the volume were brilliant, but I can’t give more than three stars for the art as a whole 😦 It was too bulky.

Overall, I think this was a good experience. I don’t know if I’ll be reading more heroes comic books for a while, but I tried.

That’s it! Thank you for reading 😀 Do you read comic books?

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, graphic novel from Ted Andersen and Katie Cook

Hi, there! Hope everybody is having an excellent Wednesday! I just got over my finals and I think I rocked them out, haha! YASS, I’M GRADUATING, BABY!

Also, today I’m doing my first graphic novel/comic book review for this blog! Yaay! Lots to celebrate, haha! I received a copy of My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, from Ted Andersen and Katie Cook, through NetGalley in exchange of an honest review. Thank you! Let’s go 😀

From my Instagram: My Little Pony notebook ❤

The Story

The graphic novel has two stories based on previous movies from the franchise.

In the first one, Sunset interviews Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack and Pink Pie to discover how they met and became friends. When remembering all that they went through together, the bond between the five girls gets stronger.

The second one is about the spirit of holidays. When Sunset tells Applejack that she never has a proper holiday time at home, the girls arrange their schedules for Sunset never to be alone during the date. However, as the girls open up with Sunset, their secrets start to pop up in their school. Now they have to decide whether they believe Sunset’s claims for innocence or not.

The Analysis

Just remembering that those were my experiences and opinion as a reader 🙂

I’ve been in love with My Little Pony for a long time now, but I confess that I never watched the cartoons – I only have this notebook from the picture and a toy, oops! Haha! So, when I saw the opportunity of reviewing this graphic novel at NetGalley, I jumped on it ❤ Oh boy, I regret nothing! The draws were amazing and the stories were so cute! Definitely they are meant for teenies, but you are never old enough to like something, haha! I wish I had a physical copy of this, as it is awesome. A fun and fast read with lots of laughs: 5 stars!

The narrative wasn’t build on the mainstream style of graphic novels or comic books: on the first story, the girls share the narration with Sunset, that guides their story. On the second one, the narrator is almost completely absent, only marking passages of time. I liked that style, it worked very well for me ❤

On plot matters, the first story is more interesting, as it is build on the girls’ memories, so you don’t know exactly what to expect until they become friends – or maybe you can if you watched all the cartoons, I don’t know, haha! I had a good experience with it and, as some parts were very predictable, others were very surprising. The second story had a more sophisticated plot, as there is a mystery to be solved. I had my theories, but I wasn’t sure until the end who had done it. Again, maybe I would know if I watched the cartoons, oops! 😡

I like the girls a lot, they remind me of my personal group of friends (we also are five and the personalities have a big match, haha!). Rarity is my favorite and I think that’s who I would be if I was 10 and wanted to call deeds on a My Little Pony character (I guess I just did it with 21, but anyway). I think they all are fun and with the perfect touch of imperfectness, haha! Also, they show that the villains of the day can be people very close to you, so it is good to always keep an eye open.

Also, the illustrations were marvelous. Tony Fleecs and Andy Price rocked this as much as Ted Andersen and Katie Cook rocked the script /o/ A strong point of this graphic novel is that the illustrations were very colorful and alive, but the draws weren’t completely feminine, even that My Little Pony’s target is girls. The draw style is more relaxed and fluid, creating harmony with the vibrant colors. I just loved it! Look at there:

a glimpse of page 31 of the graphic novel ❤

Ps: I erased the lines as to not spoiler anyone, as this is just an example of illustration 🙂

Overall, I loved this and will love to get to know more about My Little Pony’s world!

That’s it, thanks for reading! Who is or used to be a fan of My Little Pony here??