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josemclr's review
4.0
Me duele en el alma no ponerle 5 estrellas, pero esta vez sentí que el final desmerita un poco el crecimiento del personaje. Digo, no creo que sea una ofensa o que esté mal escrito (aunque sí me pareció algo apresurado), pero hay algo ahí que me hace ruido y no puedo ignorarlo. En fin, lo importante es el trayecto y eso fue absolutamente excepcional. Es la tercera vez que lo leo y apenas me voy dando cuenta de cómo evoluciona el arte (de trazos algo confusos a trazos más "sensatos") junto con el personaje principal. Y respecto a la historia pues ¿qué puedo decir? es de mis favoritas en toda la historia del cómic. Combina a los superhéroes con la identidad sexual (por no decir "cosas gays"), además de que la prosa es muy hermosa y a momentos poética, así que me encanta por default.
adperfectamconsilium's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Michael Smith leads a mundane life. He's drifting, stuck in routine. So much so that he only has sex with his girlfriend on Tuesdays.
Everything starts to change for Michael when there are reports that the costumed hero known as Enigma has clashed with the murderous Brain Eater, a horrific villain called The Head.
Trouble is neither hero or villain can possibly be real because Enigma was Michael's favourite comic book as a child.
Michael sets off to find Enigma and discover the truth behind his existence or whether it's all a product of his mind.
When the characters The Truth and Envelope Girl also appear from the comics things get even more weird and I haven't even mentioned the floating lizards or a murderous league of clowns.
On his journey Michael teams up with the writer and creator of the Enigma comics. Can they work out what is going on?
Peter Milligan gets deep and philosophical with this and creates an interesting story of self-discovery and sexual identity fot Michael. It feels ahead of its time and the narration acknowledges the reader, not so much breaking the fourth wall as eradicating it completely.
The art by Duncan Fegredo is scratchy, messy and verging on ugly to start with. And yet somehow it suits the story and the writing took me past the look so that I was immersed. I thought I'd grown to like the style and then realised it subtly changed throughout the series becoming more refined and fluid in what I guess is a visual representation of the change in Michael's mind. This is clever stuff (unless I'm wrong and Duncan just improved very quickly 🤣).
It's a story that makes you think. It transcends genres. There's a bit of horror, mystery, fantasy and literate drama all merged into this.
An interesting work and well worth tracking down.
Everything starts to change for Michael when there are reports that the costumed hero known as Enigma has clashed with the murderous Brain Eater, a horrific villain called The Head.
Trouble is neither hero or villain can possibly be real because Enigma was Michael's favourite comic book as a child.
Michael sets off to find Enigma and discover the truth behind his existence or whether it's all a product of his mind.
When the characters The Truth and Envelope Girl also appear from the comics things get even more weird and I haven't even mentioned the floating lizards or a murderous league of clowns.
On his journey Michael teams up with the writer and creator of the Enigma comics. Can they work out what is going on?
Peter Milligan gets deep and philosophical with this and creates an interesting story of self-discovery and sexual identity fot Michael. It feels ahead of its time and the narration acknowledges the reader, not so much breaking the fourth wall as eradicating it completely.
The art by Duncan Fegredo is scratchy, messy and verging on ugly to start with. And yet somehow it suits the story and the writing took me past the look so that I was immersed. I thought I'd grown to like the style and then realised it subtly changed throughout the series becoming more refined and fluid in what I guess is a visual representation of the change in Michael's mind. This is clever stuff (unless I'm wrong and Duncan just improved very quickly 🤣).
It's a story that makes you think. It transcends genres. There's a bit of horror, mystery, fantasy and literate drama all merged into this.
An interesting work and well worth tracking down.
tawfek's review against another edition
4.0
i wasn't expecting this to be a heavy read, i was expecting it to be really good since it was highly recommended, but not that good or that deep, and i am pretty sure if i read it again i will discover a lot of things that i might have missed.
This is a beautiful story about Life , self , sexuality all written in a beautiful philosophical way in a setting filled with mystery.
I think it would be an insult calling this a super hero comic its much much more than that.
The story revolves mainly around a normal human our protagonist Michael Smith even though Enigma is the one who is making everything happen its still a story about Michael smith.
The super villains that were introduced here were amazing and mind provoking
Titus bird was a great supporting character as well .
Enigma was amazing such power to twist everything to his will but after the revelation i think of him as a villain actually not even anti hero he fucked up and he fucked up baaad
The origin story was amazing.
Everything will be revealed all the mystery will be explained in the last two chapters.
i was disappointed when everything fill down to be about homosexuality or so it seems but its not really maybe that's the finale about sexuality but we really explored many areas of life and self through out the novel and i am privileged to have read such a beautiful work <3
This is a beautiful story about Life , self , sexuality all written in a beautiful philosophical way in a setting filled with mystery.
I think it would be an insult calling this a super hero comic its much much more than that.
The story revolves mainly around a normal human our protagonist Michael Smith even though Enigma is the one who is making everything happen its still a story about Michael smith.
The super villains that were introduced here were amazing and mind provoking
Titus bird was a great supporting character as well .
Enigma was amazing such power to twist everything to his will but after the revelation i think of him as a villain actually not even anti hero he fucked up and he fucked up baaad
The origin story was amazing.
Everything will be revealed all the mystery will be explained in the last two chapters.
i was disappointed when everything fill down to be about homosexuality or so it seems but its not really maybe that's the finale about sexuality but we really explored many areas of life and self through out the novel and i am privileged to have read such a beautiful work <3
adenhailemariam's review
4.0
This book was a bit fascinating. I don’t think that calling a book “dated” is always negative (though I should maybe look for another word) but it did feel very 90s for some reason (it was written in 1993 is maybe why) and in a good way! The art threw me off when I first tried reading the book and so I put the book away. Once I picked it back up again, something clicked and i was wrapped up in the art. The characters were intriguing, particularly the super heroes and villains, and particularly Envelope Girl. Like, of all things, what’s “Envelope Girl”’s power, I thought. The explanation of Enigma and the very end were not as exciting as I imagined they could be but it worked ok.
dantastic's review against another edition
4.0
Michael Smith's boring life is going nowhere when characters from a comic book from his childhood start appearing in the real world...
I've got about half of Peter Milligan's run on Shade in long boxes in the basement and Enigma has been on my radar for years so I snapped it up at a convention not long ago for the princely sum of five bucks.
Enigma came out during Vertigo's early days so it has that WTF feel a lot of early Vertigo books have at first. On some level, Enigma is a deconstruction of the super hero genre, an examination of what an omnipotent being might do if he was isolated and alone for most of his life. It's also a story about human sexuality, about breaking out of your comfort zone. It's also about flying lizards.
The Enigma is a super hero from Michael Smith's favorite comic book from his childhood. When the Enigma and other characters from his stories start appearing all over town, Michael goes looking for the creator of Enigma to find out what's what.
Peter Milligan has always written some intelligent, crazy, twisted shit and Enigma is more of the same. This is one crazy book that takes the super hero concept in strange new directions. When an omnipotent being spends a couple decades living in a well by himself, how else is he going to act?
My only real gripe with the book is that Duncan Fegredo's is a little cluttered and a little too muddy. It still gets the job done, though. His Enigma is creepy as hell at times and his style is grounded in reality, as befits the story.
With Enigma, Peter Milligan stretches the super hero concept about as far as it can go. Four out of five flying lizards.
I've got about half of Peter Milligan's run on Shade in long boxes in the basement and Enigma has been on my radar for years so I snapped it up at a convention not long ago for the princely sum of five bucks.
Enigma came out during Vertigo's early days so it has that WTF feel a lot of early Vertigo books have at first. On some level, Enigma is a deconstruction of the super hero genre, an examination of what an omnipotent being might do if he was isolated and alone for most of his life. It's also a story about human sexuality, about breaking out of your comfort zone. It's also about flying lizards.
The Enigma is a super hero from Michael Smith's favorite comic book from his childhood. When the Enigma and other characters from his stories start appearing all over town, Michael goes looking for the creator of Enigma to find out what's what.
Peter Milligan has always written some intelligent, crazy, twisted shit and Enigma is more of the same. This is one crazy book that takes the super hero concept in strange new directions. When an omnipotent being spends a couple decades living in a well by himself, how else is he going to act?
My only real gripe with the book is that Duncan Fegredo's is a little cluttered and a little too muddy. It still gets the job done, though. His Enigma is creepy as hell at times and his style is grounded in reality, as befits the story.
With Enigma, Peter Milligan stretches the super hero concept about as far as it can go. Four out of five flying lizards.
w_st_n's review
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Feeling like something that sits between the Sandman comics and Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol, Enigma is an indie hero story all it's own .
I really enjoyed Fegredo's rougher artwork and the meta structuring of the story and plot points. I'll probably end up reading it again later down the line, but I was a lot more satisfied than I thought I would be.
I really enjoyed Fegredo's rougher artwork and the meta structuring of the story and plot points. I'll probably end up reading it again later down the line, but I was a lot more satisfied than I thought I would be.
jekutree's review against another edition
4.0
The best superhero book where the superhero is an allegory for the main characters homosexuality
ostrava's review against another edition
5.0
Quite possibly one of the best comic books I've read. It seems at first like a low-brand recreation of Watchmen and it... transcends it? As opposed to simply being a deconstruction of the superhero genre, Enigma also touches on personal themes of sexuality and the self. While Watchmen empathizes on the structures of the world (the one of society, the one of narratives, in the search for meaning on the outside...), Enigma goes for the individual (the one of the self, and the meaning in ourselves) which works WONDERS as a contrast.
This shit is GENIUS. No rushed rant could ever do it justice! If I was you, I wouldn't think twice about reading this giga-masterpiece of a comic. GENIUS I tell you!
This shit is GENIUS. No rushed rant could ever do it justice! If I was you, I wouldn't think twice about reading this giga-masterpiece of a comic. GENIUS I tell you!
jeremyjfloyd's review
adventurous
challenging
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
quetzelish's review against another edition
4.0
This was a weird book. The artwork is very good despite it being hard to tell what's going on at times. What I mean is that the art is very stylistic, with heavy shadows and rough lines. It isn't a clean style but it works well for the story. Speaking of, the story is certainly an odd one. The imagery is surreal and the plot, while making sense by the end, certainly is all over the place. All in all, a great book but a very strange read. Dark, twisted and oddly poignant, it makes for a story unlike any other.