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A review by arachne_reads
Earthboy Jacobus by Doug TenNapel
1.0
What I liked least about it was the impetus toward meaningless romance. Both Jacobus and his adopted father figure end up "loving" women who are barely even fleshed out as characters, because that's what creates families, apparently. It starts out tenderly enough: retired cop finds orphaned otherworldly boy and takes him in. I had liked how the law had to be circumvented to do this, unlike in so many other tales of foundlings.
From there, it lost me. It was all push to traditional Christian family values, the ugly bully girl becomes a swan, etc. It seemed like empty tacked on propaganda. That was problematic. I'd had such high hopes, too, but a heavy touch when it comes to ideals in any story make it difficult to swallow, no matter which ideals those are. Here, it was pure conservatism and "hegemonic masculinity." Because bros can't show real emotion. Nope. They have to be Real Men(tm), and stand up against socialism.
This graphic novel was as bad and ham-fisted as "Pride of Baghdad" (which comes at the Iraq War from a liberal overly simplified view point, that I found frankly insulting to the Iraqi people).
From there, it lost me. It was all push to traditional Christian family values, the ugly bully girl becomes a swan, etc. It seemed like empty tacked on propaganda. That was problematic. I'd had such high hopes, too, but a heavy touch when it comes to ideals in any story make it difficult to swallow, no matter which ideals those are. Here, it was pure conservatism and "hegemonic masculinity." Because bros can't show real emotion. Nope. They have to be Real Men(tm), and stand up against socialism.
This graphic novel was as bad and ham-fisted as "Pride of Baghdad" (which comes at the Iraq War from a liberal overly simplified view point, that I found frankly insulting to the Iraqi people).