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nikshelby's review against another edition
2.0
Good once. I liked the suburban-mom-by-day turned nasty-vigilante-by-night idea...however, it was just a bit too much for me.
helpfulsnowman's review
2.0
Okay, say it with me:
Being a killer who is disguised as a babe/housewife is not to be confused with a personality.
The first half to 2/3 of this are basically Breaking Bad, except instead of making drugs for reasons that totally make sense, Jennifer is killing people. For reasons that make sense, but what doesn't make sense is why she waited to have a full-on family life before doing the revenge.
It's like...she planned her revenge from a pretty young age, then disappeared, did the Batman, training around the world thing, then came back to the States. Then took classes at a community college, fell in love with a teacher, kind of, a little, had two kids, and then was like, "Oh, right, the revenge!"
The last third or so starts to get interesting. Because Jennifer can't keep on the way she has been. She runs out of excuses and has to pivot. Which is also when Breaking Bad gets super good, right? When Walt can't pretend he's not up to something?
It's just not enough, and it doesn't come early enough. I think if the book started closer to where it ended, it would've been really good.
A mistake people make in trying to tell a Breaking-Bad-esque story is making the hero too good at whatever they're doing. What made Breaking Bad work was that you believed that Walter White was really, really smart, but he was also, most times, in way over his head. Even when he survived an encounter, it usually brought down consequences he didn't want or didn't predict.
And the tension in Breaking Bad stays high because, at some point, Walt flips. He goes from trying to provide for his family before his death to realizing that being big time is way more engaging for him. It's the life he'd rather live.
Jennifer Blood starts out with a semi-understandable motive for killing a small handful of people in spectacular fashion. But then she just keeps killing people for increasingly silly reasons. The pressure on her ratchets up as a result, but...how hard am I supposed to root for her when she kills, like, an elementary school teacher for no real reason?
Not that the character has to be a good person. Walter White ended up being a pretty bad person. But I could at least, by watching the show, understand how he ended up doing the things he did. One has to admit that doing what he's doing, being in charge, setting his own price, is a more interesting problem for someone like him to solve than teaching high school students ever would be.
Walter White doesn't make the right choice, but he makes a choice that's logical. Amoral, but from a dollars and cents, prestige standpoint, he makes a choice that does benefit him.
Jennifer Blood doesn't really even make a choice. She sort of...just keeps killing people because...I don't really know why. The killings don't really benefit her. They don't solve a problem. They replace a problem with a worse problem, and any thinking person would see that immediately.
It goes to an interesting place, but it's a place it should have started from.
Being a killer who is disguised as a babe/housewife is not to be confused with a personality.
The first half to 2/3 of this are basically Breaking Bad, except instead of making drugs for reasons that totally make sense, Jennifer is killing people. For reasons that make sense, but what doesn't make sense is why she waited to have a full-on family life before doing the revenge.
It's like...she planned her revenge from a pretty young age, then disappeared, did the Batman, training around the world thing, then came back to the States. Then took classes at a community college, fell in love with a teacher, kind of, a little, had two kids, and then was like, "Oh, right, the revenge!"
The last third or so starts to get interesting. Because Jennifer can't keep on the way she has been. She runs out of excuses and has to pivot. Which is also when Breaking Bad gets super good, right? When Walt can't pretend he's not up to something?
It's just not enough, and it doesn't come early enough. I think if the book started closer to where it ended, it would've been really good.
A mistake people make in trying to tell a Breaking-Bad-esque story is making the hero too good at whatever they're doing. What made Breaking Bad work was that you believed that Walter White was really, really smart, but he was also, most times, in way over his head. Even when he survived an encounter, it usually brought down consequences he didn't want or didn't predict.
And the tension in Breaking Bad stays high because, at some point, Walt flips. He goes from trying to provide for his family before his death to realizing that being big time is way more engaging for him. It's the life he'd rather live.
Jennifer Blood starts out with a semi-understandable motive for killing a small handful of people in spectacular fashion. But then she just keeps killing people for increasingly silly reasons. The pressure on her ratchets up as a result, but...how hard am I supposed to root for her when she kills, like, an elementary school teacher for no real reason?
Not that the character has to be a good person. Walter White ended up being a pretty bad person. But I could at least, by watching the show, understand how he ended up doing the things he did. One has to admit that doing what he's doing, being in charge, setting his own price, is a more interesting problem for someone like him to solve than teaching high school students ever would be.
Walter White doesn't make the right choice, but he makes a choice that's logical. Amoral, but from a dollars and cents, prestige standpoint, he makes a choice that does benefit him.
Jennifer Blood doesn't really even make a choice. She sort of...just keeps killing people because...I don't really know why. The killings don't really benefit her. They don't solve a problem. They replace a problem with a worse problem, and any thinking person would see that immediately.
It goes to an interesting place, but it's a place it should have started from.
dorinlazar's review against another edition
4.0
Pure action; starring a 50's wife in the early 21st century; a wife with a wimp husband, two children and a secret. Revenge.
She gradually takes revenge on her uncles, the killers of her father; The story flows well; it's not the deepest graphic novel I ever seen, but it's well done for what it is. Pure action, sometimes excessive violence, and a well told, compelling story. It works quite nice.
She gradually takes revenge on her uncles, the killers of her father; The story flows well; it's not the deepest graphic novel I ever seen, but it's well done for what it is. Pure action, sometimes excessive violence, and a well told, compelling story. It works quite nice.
kenningjp's review against another edition
3.0
Pretty middle of the road vigilante stuff. A bit humorous. A bit gory. But lacking much depth of character. I could accept this lack if the protagonist was a single guy bent on revenge but it's a mother and a wife. I want to see her really juggling conflicting lives. Realism isn't absolutely necessary in comics or speculative fiction but a bit of it really helps.
kingjason's review
5.0
Loved this! Violent, funny and sexy. The drawing are amazing, after reading some of frank miller's batman these are much much better. This book contained volumes 1 to 6, looking forward to reading the next instalment, I am sure Jennifer is going to have to deal with her neighbour soon.
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