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A review by ellelainey
Villainous by Stonie Williams
3.0
** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK FOR MY READING PLEASURE **
Copy received through Netgalley
~
Villainous (Villainous, Issues 1-5)
by Stonie Williams, Jef Sadzinski, Giovanna T Orozco, and Chris Fernandez
★★★☆☆
112 Pages
Villainous was an intriguing story of a young girl entering into the Hero Program at the most prestigious Coalition of Heroes (sometimes referred to a COH) only to discover corruption runs deep.
The artwork was about 90% gorgeous and lovely to look at, but there were times when it drifted into the cartoonish-grotesque, especially when people were supposed to look angry, displaying over-the-top psychotic features.
The characters were really diverse in style, race, belief, and how far they were willing to push the boundaries, which was great to see. There were all kinds of personalities and varying degrees of good/bad, as well as motivations for what they did.
I liked that the world of superheroes seemed quite open, in this world. The police knew they existed, knew their superhero identities and trusted them to keep the streets clean. However, there wasn't much worldbuilding beyond that. What made these people superheroes? How did they come by their powers? There was a hint that Tilly's parents were both “normal” white people, but somehow she was born reptilian, and that was never explained, which felt like a huge world-building gap.
There was a lot of exploration of corruption, justice, and good vs bad, as well as whether or not heroes should have the power/capacity to kill within their remit. However, as the old saying goes – one person's freedom fighter is another's terrorist – and that's definitely a strong theme here.
Sadly, I feel the title is misleading, as the “villains” of the story aren't the true villains, but they embrace the title instead of fighting to clear their names. There were back stories to the villains, that explains they've been separate from the COH for about 10 years, but no one has ever bothered to fight against the status quo until Tilly comes along. Which doesn't really makes sense, to me, as a main plot point. Surely the old, but cliché, concept of recording the bad guy admitting to their crimes – of which they bragged a lot, here – and leaking that, would have solved their problem 10 years ago.
The name of the organization, Coalition of Heroes is also known as COH, which was really hard to decipher, in the chosen text font, and sometimes looked more like an awkwardly slanted 'con' or 'can'.
~
Overall, I liked the main story, and how it was executed, but there were a few niggled for me that just limited my enjoyment. The cartoonish faces, the somewhat inept bad guys, and the lack of effort put in by the good guys, just didn't feel realistic to the situation. I also had a problem with the final page, where two people who had supposedly died (and one was a bad guy) are standing behind Tilly, ready to take the next step in taking down the Big Bad. Yet, this is never explained in the story. How are two people, who were dead pages ago, suddenly alive? Why is the villain part of their crew?
Because of these unanswered questions, I had to lower my rating, because it feels like I've either missed something, or the story is incomplete.
Copy received through Netgalley
~
Villainous (Villainous, Issues 1-5)
by Stonie Williams, Jef Sadzinski, Giovanna T Orozco, and Chris Fernandez
★★★☆☆
112 Pages
Villainous was an intriguing story of a young girl entering into the Hero Program at the most prestigious Coalition of Heroes (sometimes referred to a COH) only to discover corruption runs deep.
The artwork was about 90% gorgeous and lovely to look at, but there were times when it drifted into the cartoonish-grotesque, especially when people were supposed to look angry, displaying over-the-top psychotic features.
The characters were really diverse in style, race, belief, and how far they were willing to push the boundaries, which was great to see. There were all kinds of personalities and varying degrees of good/bad, as well as motivations for what they did.
I liked that the world of superheroes seemed quite open, in this world. The police knew they existed, knew their superhero identities and trusted them to keep the streets clean. However, there wasn't much worldbuilding beyond that. What made these people superheroes? How did they come by their powers? There was a hint that Tilly's parents were both “normal” white people, but somehow she was born reptilian, and that was never explained, which felt like a huge world-building gap.
There was a lot of exploration of corruption, justice, and good vs bad, as well as whether or not heroes should have the power/capacity to kill within their remit. However, as the old saying goes – one person's freedom fighter is another's terrorist – and that's definitely a strong theme here.
Sadly, I feel the title is misleading, as the “villains” of the story aren't the true villains, but they embrace the title instead of fighting to clear their names. There were back stories to the villains, that explains they've been separate from the COH for about 10 years, but no one has ever bothered to fight against the status quo until Tilly comes along. Which doesn't really makes sense, to me, as a main plot point. Surely the old, but cliché, concept of recording the bad guy admitting to their crimes – of which they bragged a lot, here – and leaking that, would have solved their problem 10 years ago.
The name of the organization, Coalition of Heroes is also known as COH, which was really hard to decipher, in the chosen text font, and sometimes looked more like an awkwardly slanted 'con' or 'can'.
~
Overall, I liked the main story, and how it was executed, but there were a few niggled for me that just limited my enjoyment. The cartoonish faces, the somewhat inept bad guys, and the lack of effort put in by the good guys, just didn't feel realistic to the situation. I also had a problem with the final page, where two people who had supposedly died (and one was a bad guy) are standing behind Tilly, ready to take the next step in taking down the Big Bad. Yet, this is never explained in the story. How are two people, who were dead pages ago, suddenly alive? Why is the villain part of their crew?
Because of these unanswered questions, I had to lower my rating, because it feels like I've either missed something, or the story is incomplete.