Scan barcode
geekwayne's review against another edition
2.0
'Noble Vol. 1: God Shots' written by Brandon Thomas with art by Roger Robinson, Jamal Igle and Robin Riggs seemed like a promising start to a new series, so I decided to give it a shot.
Astronaut David Powell was on a space mission when everything went wrong. His wife thinks he died, which is what she is led to believe. Instead, David has become something more than human. He is also under the control of forces he can't fight. He lives in Mexico under an assumed name, and tries to stay unknown. With global media and his powers that may be harder than he thinks.
The story jumps around a bit and it's not always clear where in the timeline things are happening. The art has moments where I really liked it, and moments where I was really underwhelmed. I like the concept, and I also like this person as a hero. I hope in future issues, the writing can be clearer and the art direction moves in a positive direction.
I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Lion Forge, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.
Astronaut David Powell was on a space mission when everything went wrong. His wife thinks he died, which is what she is led to believe. Instead, David has become something more than human. He is also under the control of forces he can't fight. He lives in Mexico under an assumed name, and tries to stay unknown. With global media and his powers that may be harder than he thinks.
The story jumps around a bit and it's not always clear where in the timeline things are happening. The art has moments where I really liked it, and moments where I was really underwhelmed. I like the concept, and I also like this person as a hero. I hope in future issues, the writing can be clearer and the art direction moves in a positive direction.
I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Lion Forge, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.
booksandladders's review against another edition
DNF @ 36%
I wanted to this one but it was just so confusing. The artwork was gorgeous but the story itself made it really difficult for me to figure out what was going on. That made me not want to continue and honestly I'm not going to bother trying to read each panel 15 times just to get through this one.
I wanted to this one but it was just so confusing. The artwork was gorgeous but the story itself made it really difficult for me to figure out what was going on. That made me not want to continue and honestly I'm not going to bother trying to read each panel 15 times just to get through this one.
iffer's review against another edition
3.0
Solid, but nothing new under the sun, either in terms of a superhero comic, or a story about conspiracy high tech company corruption sci-fi.
jhstack's review against another edition
3.0
I'm mixed on the pacing and David's amnesia, as well as the art. This seems to be a running trend for Catalyst Prime solo series. (e-galley from NetGalley)
trike's review against another edition
2.0
I really wanted to like this. This is a bog-standard superhero story which is sliced up into pieces and presented out of order in an attempt to disguise its reliance on standard tropes. It fails at that.
Some sort of Magic Asteroid grants abilities to astronauts working for a private corporation, whose CEO is a murderous Mexican woman who is manipulating everyone in order to... we don’t know. It’s never explained, despite 130 pages of story. Maybe he’s going to go with the superhero version of Alan Dean Foster’s The Man Who Used the Universe (1983) but it’s hard to tell.
Basically Thomas has taken the plot of J. Michael Straczynski’s superb Rising Stars (1999) with a bit of the Fantastic Four (1963) and added characters from the TV series Heroes (2006) and attempted to emulate that “unravel the mystery” feeling both of them have. Which in theory I am totally down with. I *want* another cool superhero story along those lines. This just isn’t that.
Throw in some of the tropes that I despise (he woke up without a memory!) and make it a jumbled mess and you’ve lost me. As you can tell from my references to previous works, much of this story feels derivative, just not in a cool “if you liked that then you’ll also like this” sort of way.
The art is decent, so there’s that.
Some sort of Magic Asteroid grants abilities to astronauts working for a private corporation, whose CEO is a murderous Mexican woman who is manipulating everyone in order to... we don’t know. It’s never explained, despite 130 pages of story. Maybe he’s going to go with the superhero version of Alan Dean Foster’s The Man Who Used the Universe (1983) but it’s hard to tell.
Basically Thomas has taken the plot of J. Michael Straczynski’s superb Rising Stars (1999) with a bit of the Fantastic Four (1963) and added characters from the TV series Heroes (2006) and attempted to emulate that “unravel the mystery” feeling both of them have. Which in theory I am totally down with. I *want* another cool superhero story along those lines. This just isn’t that.
Throw in some of the tropes that I despise (he woke up without a memory!) and make it a jumbled mess and you’ve lost me. As you can tell from my references to previous works, much of this story feels derivative, just not in a cool “if you liked that then you’ll also like this” sort of way.
The art is decent, so there’s that.
carroq's review against another edition
4.0
I thought this was an interesting take on a one-off superhero story. It has some tropey moments. Overall, I enjoyed it though. The art is really good. While the story isn't really clear at times, the book as a whole progresses at a decent pace. I never felt like it got bogged down too long to get to a point where I wasn't interested to see what would happen next. As a diversion from Marvel and DC, it wasn't bad. I'd read more about this character.
slimikin's review against another edition
2.0
Well. That was confusing. I mean, I know stuff happened, but I have only the vaguest sense of when it happened. And while this volume ended on an enticing revelation, that same revelation significantly undermines the stakes of Noble's looming internal conflict. ...I think. Assuming my reconstruction of the story's jumbled timeline is correct. Sigh.
quirkycatsfatstacks's review against another edition
3.0
Noble is the first of the new characters from Lion Forge Comic’s new lines, Catalyst Prime. The goal for Catalyst Prime is to have a new series launch every month for seven months, starting with Noble. I’m sure the goal is to establish a universe that can compete with Marvel and DC, and I wish them the best of luck (I truly believe that more comic companies is a good thing for everyone).
Noble volume one is only four issues, resulting in a limited amount of time to establish our main character, the surrounding cast, and the plot. Not an easy job by any means. I wish they had been granted more time to play with the story here, as I think Noble has a lot of potential; but the rushing speed took something away from it.
Being a new superhero, naturally we’re given some of his origin story; David Powell was an astronaut, willing to sacrifice his life for the greater good (literally – the comic starts off with him being presumed dead). Thanks to a mysterious and yet unexplained turn of events, the explosion he and his crew experiences gives him telekinesis (it’s less clear for the rest of the crew – but I have a feeling they’ve all been presumed dead too, but are just as alive and powerful as David is). This obviously sounds like it’s too good to be true – David survives the explosion and got superpowers! What are the odds? Of course that means there’s a downside, and in my opinion that downside is pretty massive (while also succeeding in making Noble feel more human again, kudos); he has no memory of who he was before the explosion.
Now, that may mean that David Powell is effectively dead, or it may mean he has some form of amnesia. Only time will reveal that, and I’ll admit I’m more than a bit curious about which way they’re going to go with that. That’s partially because having his wife looking for him really helped me get invested in his well-being.
I’ll admit there was some jumping around in the last issue that got me really confused; it seemed like they were introducing us to a handful of characters (friends, family, potential future heroes?), which is a brilliant idea. The problem is we were given only about 2 pages per character, and with the rapid changing between all the characters it got a little overwhelming. I think a more gradual built up for these characters would have been more beneficial. Rushing doesn’t help anything, especially not when it comes to establishing a new universe.
I think both Noble and Prime Catalyst have a lot of potential. I’m planning on following both to see what happens. I’ll admit I’m more than a bit curious about the rest of David Powell’s crew; will they pull a Fantastic Four sort of stunt and have them all get powers from the same events? Or are they actually dead? Either way, I can’t wait to see what happens.
For more reviews, check out Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks
Noble volume one is only four issues, resulting in a limited amount of time to establish our main character, the surrounding cast, and the plot. Not an easy job by any means. I wish they had been granted more time to play with the story here, as I think Noble has a lot of potential; but the rushing speed took something away from it.
Being a new superhero, naturally we’re given some of his origin story; David Powell was an astronaut, willing to sacrifice his life for the greater good (literally – the comic starts off with him being presumed dead). Thanks to a mysterious and yet unexplained turn of events, the explosion he and his crew experiences gives him telekinesis (it’s less clear for the rest of the crew – but I have a feeling they’ve all been presumed dead too, but are just as alive and powerful as David is). This obviously sounds like it’s too good to be true – David survives the explosion and got superpowers! What are the odds? Of course that means there’s a downside, and in my opinion that downside is pretty massive (while also succeeding in making Noble feel more human again, kudos); he has no memory of who he was before the explosion.
Now, that may mean that David Powell is effectively dead, or it may mean he has some form of amnesia. Only time will reveal that, and I’ll admit I’m more than a bit curious about which way they’re going to go with that. That’s partially because having his wife looking for him really helped me get invested in his well-being.
I’ll admit there was some jumping around in the last issue that got me really confused; it seemed like they were introducing us to a handful of characters (friends, family, potential future heroes?), which is a brilliant idea. The problem is we were given only about 2 pages per character, and with the rapid changing between all the characters it got a little overwhelming. I think a more gradual built up for these characters would have been more beneficial. Rushing doesn’t help anything, especially not when it comes to establishing a new universe.
I think both Noble and Prime Catalyst have a lot of potential. I’m planning on following both to see what happens. I’ll admit I’m more than a bit curious about the rest of David Powell’s crew; will they pull a Fantastic Four sort of stunt and have them all get powers from the same events? Or are they actually dead? Either way, I can’t wait to see what happens.
For more reviews, check out Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks
henniebooks's review against another edition
4.0
Thank you so much Diamond Book Distributors for sending me a free copy of this graphic novel!
This is definitely a big yes for sci-fi and fantasy fans. The art is pretty good but the plot lacked a few things. Overall it was a pretty good start!
This is definitely a big yes for sci-fi and fantasy fans. The art is pretty good but the plot lacked a few things. Overall it was a pretty good start!