This is a bit of a departure for me - a graphic novel. I don't normally read these things, mostly because, well, I don't know why. I just never got into this genre. (My sis is another story, and my go-to-gal if I have questions about a series). I am, however, a huge fan of Briggs' Mercy Thompson series, so I thought I owed it to myself to pick this up. It's supposed to be an Origin Story, something that Briggs states this genre handles quite well.
There's not much here that will be really new to fans of the series. We are introduced to the key players, Mercy, Adam the werewolf, Stefan the vampire, Zee the mechanic (and fae), etc. Samuel is missing, as he's not yet arrived in the Tri-City area. Mercy arrives and immediately has problems fitting in, botching an interview for a teaching job. She's about to head back home when her car is in need of repair (mostly body damage, thanks to a werewolf pack); she ends up at Zee's place. And as we all know, she ends up working there.
As I said, there's not much that's really new to myself or anyone else already reading the books. It was interesting to see how the illustrators drew characters I've been seeing in my head for the last few years. Let's just say I'm not seeing what they see, except for Zee; he looks pretty much as I imagined. My biggest complaint is that Mercy is naked in almost every chapter at some point. Now, hear me out - the nudity makes sense, to a point. The scenes all have her changing into her coyote form or back into her human form, and if you know anything about shape-shifters (or weres, or whatever you want to call them), you know that clothing doesn't survive the Change. I'm OK with that. What I'm not OK with is that there are male werewolves in pretty much the same boat, and they are not nude in any scene. The most you get is Adam from the waist up. Yes, I realize that most graphic novels are not aimed at a female audience. But I think what was missed here is that a lot of the built-in audience are female, at least, from my library experience. Plus, Mercy on the cover looks very much like a slightly younger version of the book covers. Open the thing, and wow! Instant boob job. I know, I know - gotta appeal to the young teen boys that will most likely be looking at this. Still..... it just doesn't sit quite right with me.
Overall, I'm not sorry I picked it up. It was different, a bit interesting, and only took about an hour to read. But in the future, I'm going to stick with the novels, as I feel they have much, much more to offer.
There's not much here that will be really new to fans of the series. We are introduced to the key players, Mercy, Adam the werewolf, Stefan the vampire, Zee the mechanic (and fae), etc. Samuel is missing, as he's not yet arrived in the Tri-City area. Mercy arrives and immediately has problems fitting in, botching an interview for a teaching job. She's about to head back home when her car is in need of repair (mostly body damage, thanks to a werewolf pack); she ends up at Zee's place. And as we all know, she ends up working there.
As I said, there's not much that's really new to myself or anyone else already reading the books. It was interesting to see how the illustrators drew characters I've been seeing in my head for the last few years. Let's just say I'm not seeing what they see, except for Zee; he looks pretty much as I imagined. My biggest complaint is that Mercy is naked in almost every chapter at some point. Now, hear me out - the nudity makes sense, to a point. The scenes all have her changing into her coyote form or back into her human form, and if you know anything about shape-shifters (or weres, or whatever you want to call them), you know that clothing doesn't survive the Change. I'm OK with that. What I'm not OK with is that there are male werewolves in pretty much the same boat, and they are not nude in any scene. The most you get is Adam from the waist up. Yes, I realize that most graphic novels are not aimed at a female audience. But I think what was missed here is that a lot of the built-in audience are female, at least, from my library experience. Plus, Mercy on the cover looks very much like a slightly younger version of the book covers. Open the thing, and wow! Instant boob job. I know, I know - gotta appeal to the young teen boys that will most likely be looking at this. Still..... it just doesn't sit quite right with me.
Overall, I'm not sorry I picked it up. It was different, a bit interesting, and only took about an hour to read. But in the future, I'm going to stick with the novels, as I feel they have much, much more to offer.
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