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ogreart's review against another edition
4.0
blatanville's review
4.0
ratgrrrl's review
The artwork drew me in and the potential of the worldbuilding had me intrigued, but, oofa duffa, this baby's first time playing with tropes and no Dinotopia-esque aesthetics can save this writing.
You've got your 'good' human colonists from another planet who have a matriarch and are cool with the indigenous people. You've got the 'bad' human colonists from a different planet who have an entirely racist war culture and are not cool with the native people. The main dudes, despite the 'goodies' having a matriarch, it's still a dude that is their representative, have teenage kids who are uniquely different and rebellious to anyone else in their entire cultures. You've got the indigenous people who have classic 'tribal' coding and look like a mix of D&D's Slaad and Warhammer's Lizardmen, who have the 'noble savage' thing going on. They are also keeping a big secret of ancient technology and dangerous knowledge, being charged with keeping this from the colonists, killing them of they find out.
Tensions reach a head between the colonist groups who are ready to go to war, but an act of light eco-terrorism from the 'goodies' causes massive damage revealing the secret ruins and the Romeo and Juliette teens end up bungling through a portal with one of the indigenous guys who just couldn't bring themselves to murder their friend. They are now stuck in the dangerous, uncharted South, while their parents have to settle their differences to try and find them, while the indigenous leader plans to kill everyone because secrets.
This is the setup of the first few issues and it's just bad and lazy and boring and offensive.
There is some interesting looking tech, animals, and monsters with some hinted at potentially interesting lore and abilities of the titanic psychic monstsrs that might be gods? But it's too little under this embarrassing paint by numbers narrative.
The fact that this was published by Image in 2020 is fucking mind-boggling and embarrassing. Seriously, I would absolutely believe this was written by Chat GPT with the prompt: 'Comic based on Dinotopia, Stargate and Avatar (the blue one) set in Pandora with bigger monsters'.
The art is great, but it really isn't enough to save this powerfully mediocre and derivative nonsense.
drew1013's review
2.0
The design of the skeleton gods is pretty cool, and they are by far the most intriguing part of the story. However, they don’t get much attention, as we focus instead on cardboard characters moving around the plot board.
In fact, as I was reading this I had the distinct feeling that I was reading someone’s homebrew Dungeons & Dragons campaign. The events and world building in Sonata would probably suffice for a tabletop RPG with friends, where these things are happening to you and your buddies. But in written form, the lack of innate drama, stakes, and emotional investment really stand out.
shannonleighd's review against another edition
4.0
wesleyrose's review
4.0
Here begins story arc two of Sonata. I missed this beautiful, edgy artwork and am happy for its return. We start with Sonata and Skritch searching for Treen, who seems to be dying. Next, we flashback: Pau recovered from Yarl shooting him. Pau and Sonata return to his mother. She informs us that Korbys switched sides. And Sonata and Skritch take off to see her Father and Yarl. She updates them on the current situation.
Meanwhile, the Tayan have a vast store of weapons which they practice using. Pau’s mother shoots down a lumani riding a thermasaur, much to Pau’s dismay. The lumani know of the weapons and ships and are beginning to wake the sleepers to protect them. At the end of the issue, they open a jump gate and call for the old gods.
I love this band of misfits. This issue brings you right back into every plotline you care about. I wish there had more detail about Treen other than the few pages at the beginning; I’m intrigued about that.
abhi_thelegend's review
4.0