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A review by rachelsread
Lupina, Volume 1 by James Wright
2.0
I immediately fell in love with the art style of this comic! It's new, it's unique, and the colourization is gorgeous! Although the comic starts off in black and white, gradually the characters gain colour, and the use of startling shades is maximized to draw the readers attention to the most important subject of each page. I also found the character of Lupa to be well-written, given how young she is. Her reactions are natural to that of a terrified child and it was a relief to read about a fictional character who actually acts human.
However there were a number of negatives that resulted in me giving this comic two out of five stars. A lot of this story isn't explained, and while yes, some mystery is needed for suspense, the extent of the "mystery" in this comic just causes annoyance rather than curiosity. The wolves, which are incredibly central to the plot aren't actually explained at any point. Why they're there, why they act human, why they seem to understand everything, none of it is ever expanded on. In addition, the Goddess Lupina and her friends? sisters? are never explained either. I'm still unsure whether they are part of a religion, imaginary, real, etc. and what their purpose actually is.
Despite the intriguing plot twist at the beginning of the comic, the plot quickly deteriorates after it. Confusing lack of explanations aside, there are a number of inconsistencies that make the story feel disjointed and somewhat thrown together. If the Goddess Lupina does exist, then why did she let all of her people be slaughtered? The journey that Lupa and her wolf took looked like it would take perhaps two or three months on the map, yet we are told that it took them four years? Also, why were the snow animals at the end even a thing? What were they? Why were they there? And if they were truly made of snow, then why did Lupa bother fighting them considering they weren't real? Why did she pass out afterwards? And how did the man in the blue cloak (which we were told are the bad guys? possible? this wasn't very clear) find them just at the right moment? There are more questions than answers at the end of this comic, and overall, the "plot" itself acted more as a prologue than an actual story.
However there were a number of negatives that resulted in me giving this comic two out of five stars. A lot of this story isn't explained, and while yes, some mystery is needed for suspense, the extent of the "mystery" in this comic just causes annoyance rather than curiosity. The wolves, which are incredibly central to the plot aren't actually explained at any point. Why they're there, why they act human, why they seem to understand everything, none of it is ever expanded on. In addition, the Goddess Lupina and her friends? sisters? are never explained either. I'm still unsure whether they are part of a religion, imaginary, real, etc. and what their purpose actually is.
Despite the intriguing plot twist at the beginning of the comic, the plot quickly deteriorates after it. Confusing lack of explanations aside, there are a number of inconsistencies that make the story feel disjointed and somewhat thrown together. If the Goddess Lupina does exist, then why did she let all of her people be slaughtered? The journey that Lupa and her wolf took looked like it would take perhaps two or three months on the map, yet we are told that it took them four years? Also, why were the snow animals at the end even a thing? What were they? Why were they there? And if they were truly made of snow, then why did Lupa bother fighting them considering they weren't real? Why did she pass out afterwards? And how did the man in the blue cloak (which we were told are the bad guys? possible? this wasn't very clear) find them just at the right moment? There are more questions than answers at the end of this comic, and overall, the "plot" itself acted more as a prologue than an actual story.