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4.31 AVERAGE
4.31 AVERAGE
My gripe about book 1 was that there were no trans women. Well imagine how happy I was to read book 2! I cried at "she's my blood but they're all my sisters."
I don’t want to give any spoilers, but I like this volume even more than I liked the first one. I want more!
3.5/5 - Very unsure on how to rate this one. Perhaps it wasn't as good as the first or perhaps I've had a falling out with comics and I don't love them as much as I used to? If this series ever comes out of its hibernation, I'd be interested in seeing where it lands because it will have been at least 4 years since this last volume was released and we're in a very different place now than we were then. I do think this has the potential to go somewhere really interesting with where this one left off. I was fully prepared to pass on my copies of this to a new home until that ending. It has so much potential and I hope it gets picked back up soon.
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Like the first volume, there’s so much dark humor incorporated into the visual storytelling, that I had to make a concerted effort to slow down and take it all in. The story begins to delve further into inmate history, and also spends time with characters who collude with the system that oppresses them - a lot of ideas to build on. As well, Facility One, where trans women are incarcerated, becomes part of the story, provoking readers to think about the overlaps between the feminist and transgender liberation movements. The story proceeds into a state of chaos, and is in a prime jumping off point for the series. Unfortunately, however, the latest installment was from December 2017, and I don’t know enough about the comics industry to feel hopeful that any new issues will ever be added. So, come for the amazing pop-art visuals, satirical humor, and provocative ideas, but don’t get too invested in the story, because it was just getting started.
I love it when a series surprises me. Not with a surprise character reveal or an unexpected death, but when a series, be it comics, TV, movie franchise, or prose, is a well done, very specific subgenre that veers wildly in another, equally well-done, direction.
This volume picks up right where the story left off in volume one, and continues to be a women-in-prison tale soon taking the journey into a classic prison break tale. This is not the surprise. This volume serves as the journey from what the comic was in volume one to, what I imagine will be, the vastly different volume three. e may even come to understand how this society came to be so misogynist and awful. No, not the society you and I are living in, the one that jails women for being "non-compliant".
I mentioned in the first volume that there was a shower scene that [a:Kelly Sue DeConnick|16587|Kelly Sue DeConnick|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1298397680p2/16587.jpg] and [a:Valentine De Landro|93099|Valentine De Landro|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png] spent months researching to make it perfectly striking, appropriate for the story, but not written or drawn for the male gaze. In this volume, we spend some time with a trans character, and it is clearly written with input from multiple trans people, rather than the usual "well, I'm straight but I met a trans person once, and I saw The Crying Game, so I feel justified in writing the motivations and actions of a trans person" bullshit. The work they've done to make this dystopian patriarchal society seem chillingly real and possible (with a huge assist from the current American and European governments) really elevates their work above and beyond most of the politically charged comics coming out right now.
I can't wait for volume three. But I will wait. Because it will be worth it.
This volume picks up right where the story left off in volume one, and continues to be a women-in-prison tale soon taking the journey into a classic prison break tale. This is not the surprise. This volume serves as the journey from what the comic was in volume one to, what I imagine will be, the vastly different volume three. e may even come to understand how this society came to be so misogynist and awful. No, not the society you and I are living in, the one that jails women for being "non-compliant".
I mentioned in the first volume that there was a shower scene that [a:Kelly Sue DeConnick|16587|Kelly Sue DeConnick|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1298397680p2/16587.jpg] and [a:Valentine De Landro|93099|Valentine De Landro|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png] spent months researching to make it perfectly striking, appropriate for the story, but not written or drawn for the male gaze. In this volume, we spend some time with a trans character, and it is clearly written with input from multiple trans people, rather than the usual "well, I'm straight but I met a trans person once, and I saw The Crying Game, so I feel justified in writing the motivations and actions of a trans person" bullshit. The work they've done to make this dystopian patriarchal society seem chillingly real and possible (with a huge assist from the current American and European governments) really elevates their work above and beyond most of the politically charged comics coming out right now.
I can't wait for volume three. But I will wait. Because it will be worth it.
guys this series is so hardcore and i love it so much!!
I was sad when I reached the end. What a cliff hanger! I also appreciated the content warning in the beginning.
I'm very invested now and very upset that volume 3 never happened for this series. This volume was able to solidify characters and overall plot a lot more for me after getting some of the world established in the first volume done.
