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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
I vaguely remember this when it first came out but I was twenty-one at the time, and I think I was busy being twenty-one and prepping for med school. I had nearly forgotten Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean had done anything in the traditional DC Comic book universe. This one had hints of Batman in it but as a mere vehicle to the main storyline. (ditto the Swamp Thing and a few Arkham Asylum residents). Lex Luthor plays a more pivotal role.
Black Orchid has made a miscalculation that will cost her her life but she isn’t all she seems. In fact, she isn’t even human. At her death another of her sisters awakens, having more to do with the title orchid than she does with humanity. She only has partial memories and her creator tries to help her but the woman she was based on has a bad past and it comes back with sheer destructive force.
Left without answers she needs and with a child version of herself attached to her for guidance, Orchid goes on a quest for answers.
Overall I’d put the art at 5 stars. McKean’s dream-like art and its muted palette won’t be to everyone’s taste but I remember when this style dropped into the oft-times garish world of superheroes. It was revolutionary. It takes me back to when I was young and bright eyed. I will always have a soft spot for it. The story is more of a 3 star for me. I found it a bit slow, a bit fragmentary and too heavy on Lex Luthor and his ugliness. It’s still a graphic novel worth the reading.
Black Orchid has made a miscalculation that will cost her her life but she isn’t all she seems. In fact, she isn’t even human. At her death another of her sisters awakens, having more to do with the title orchid than she does with humanity. She only has partial memories and her creator tries to help her but the woman she was based on has a bad past and it comes back with sheer destructive force.
Left without answers she needs and with a child version of herself attached to her for guidance, Orchid goes on a quest for answers.
Overall I’d put the art at 5 stars. McKean’s dream-like art and its muted palette won’t be to everyone’s taste but I remember when this style dropped into the oft-times garish world of superheroes. It was revolutionary. It takes me back to when I was young and bright eyed. I will always have a soft spot for it. The story is more of a 3 star for me. I found it a bit slow, a bit fragmentary and too heavy on Lex Luthor and his ugliness. It’s still a graphic novel worth the reading.
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
frankly it loses a lot of points just for having been written by neil gaiman
Black Orchid is a unique superhero-ish comic with classic Neil Gaiman flavour, featuring a plant woman who "blooms" without much of a sense of who she is or what she is supposed to do, after her "sister" black orchid is killed investigating a corrupt enterprise. With another "sister" bloom she tracks down some key people who help fill in the gaps and point her on the right path for her. It's a dark story starting with a violent death in the first few pages, and including mentions of child abuse and intimate partner violence, and murder of Indigenous people as the bad guys try to track down the protagonist.
The story itself is interesting and I appreciate that Gaiman doesn't over-explain everyone's thoughts, but there were a couple of points where I felt the pacing dragged. The art by Dave McKean is stunning and though I'm not a fan of the particular style and sometimes couldn't tell certain characters apart, I couldn't help but admire his use of colour and creative page layouts.
The story itself is interesting and I appreciate that Gaiman doesn't over-explain everyone's thoughts, but there were a couple of points where I felt the pacing dragged. The art by Dave McKean is stunning and though I'm not a fan of the particular style and sometimes couldn't tell certain characters apart, I couldn't help but admire his use of colour and creative page layouts.
Love it for its beauty and charisma, but also for the end notes that reveal Gaiman's thoughts, his first editor's letter and other early documents.
The art is achingly beautiful, the story is haunting, there is a seemingly unimportant side character who makes a big difference, and the ending is hopeful. I quite liked this story.
Beautiful artwork, but not my favorite Gaiman? I don't know. I couldn't get into this one in the same way. I much prefer Sandman and whatever happened to the caped crusader.
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Dave McKean's art is GORGEOUS, no question, and even on his least good day, Neil Gaiman is still Neil Gaiman. But... this was just sort of depressing for me. There are four versions of Susan / Black Orchid with page space:
- OG Susan gets beaten and raped by her dad, then beaten and killed by her husband, then has her DNA harvested by her childhood friend.
- The crimefighter Black Orchid has a whole three pages where we get to see her in action and-- hahaha I'm kidding, she gets caught infiltrating a criminal organisation, tied to a chair, shot, burned and exploded... which, yes, I'm aware this is the inciting incident of the story, but because we don't get to see her do anything effectively heroic, and because most readers will be lacking in any prior context for her, it looks like she's just a really shit wannabe.
- The main character version of Black Orchid just gets shunted from event to event, getting spoonfed the next plot point by the nearest available man (Phil Sylvian,
Batman, Swamp Thing ) - even her adopting young Suzy and taking on the role of mother was done because Suzy straight-up asked her to. - Suzy is the best of the four because at least she is interested in butterflies and turtles, which - and I am not exaggerating even a little bit - is more personality than any of the others have.
I get wanting to challenge the genre conventions, and this was released in 1988 when this was all still very clever and avant garde, but beginning with the villain saying "I've read comic books... I'm not going to put you in a death trap, I'm just going to kill you" made me cringe. And the ending, where Black Orchid
I feel like my 3-star reviews always read like hatchet jobs, but that's just because I can separate the craftsmanship from the end result: in this case, a dull, depressing story told by two masters of storytelling.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Murder
Minor: Pedophilia, Sexual assault
Wasn't expecting this to be set in the DC universe proper, but I guess its always fun to see a Batman cameo. Kind of weird and not very tightly plotted but enjoyable, and the art is fantastic.
It was ok. It was also trying too hard to be deep and meaningful and spiritual. The art was cool, the writing was cool, the story was...eh. Just eh. I was a bit bored with it and have read better work by Gaiman and seen better art with him too. I think part of the problem was that (for all its attempts at mysticism) Black Orchid, as a character, was a snooze. Whichever incarnation was front and center at the time, she was a dud. Gaiman is better then this.