Scan barcode
A review by clauleesi
America, Vol. 1: The Life and Times of America Chavez by Gabby Rivera, Joe Quiñones
2.0
I'm Swedish-Chilean, and have always longed for that latina-representation - especially as a young girl who only wanted to look like her blonde Swedish mother, since said mother looked like the princesses I saw in movies. That’s why I’m so incredibly disappointed in this comic. It almost felt personal.
[b:America, Vol. 1: The Life and Times of America Chavez|34380219|America, Vol. 1 The Life and Times of America Chavez|Gabby Rivera|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1508101918l/34380219._SY75_.jpg|55468376] is about America Chavez, a powerful superhero who fights with her fists and doesn’t take shit from anyone. Unfortunately, that’s the most I got from this graphic novel. The plot was all over the place, and for someone like me who is not really invested in the Marvel universe, it was incredibly confusing. Not only that, the dialogue and characters often felt out of place - we were never able to really connect to any of them since we never got to know them properly.
As for the art, it was mostly superb. However, the last artist changed artist, and not only do I dislike when the art suddenly changes drastically, but this time it changed to the worse. That’s when I found myself completely giving up, skimming the pages until I finally reached the end.
There wasn’t even much latinx representation - the most representation we actually got was America saying fun one-liners in Spanish and talking about empanadas, which only made me hungry.
My disappointment with this was huge. It’s not the worst I’ve read, and it gets plus points for America’s abs and all the lesbians, but abs and lesbians can sadly only carry a story so far.
[b:America, Vol. 1: The Life and Times of America Chavez|34380219|America, Vol. 1 The Life and Times of America Chavez|Gabby Rivera|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1508101918l/34380219._SY75_.jpg|55468376] is about America Chavez, a powerful superhero who fights with her fists and doesn’t take shit from anyone. Unfortunately, that’s the most I got from this graphic novel. The plot was all over the place, and for someone like me who is not really invested in the Marvel universe, it was incredibly confusing. Not only that, the dialogue and characters often felt out of place - we were never able to really connect to any of them since we never got to know them properly.
As for the art, it was mostly superb. However, the last artist changed artist, and not only do I dislike when the art suddenly changes drastically, but this time it changed to the worse. That’s when I found myself completely giving up, skimming the pages until I finally reached the end.
There wasn’t even much latinx representation - the most representation we actually got was America saying fun one-liners in Spanish and talking about empanadas, which only made me hungry.
My disappointment with this was huge. It’s not the worst I’ve read, and it gets plus points for America’s abs and all the lesbians, but abs and lesbians can sadly only carry a story so far.