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A review by elna17a9a
The Rise of Aurora West by Paul Pope, J.T. Petty, David Rubín
3.0
This is a review of BOTH The Rise of Aurora West and The Fall of the House of West, and so under a spoiler tag.
I really think these could have been one novel. I understand why they're not, because it would have been huge (and that's always a deterrent for middle readers), but there's so much going and and it's crammed so full of action and history that if you don't read them back-to-back you risk feeling a little confused.
It seems readers who got the ARC also got these in black and white, and I'm disappointed this wasn't changed for the published version. Aurora talks about being able to tell Sadisto's gang apart by the color of their cowls, and I had no idea what she meant until Battling Boy, which was actually in color. Since this books is small (less than half a sheet of printer paper), the black and white line drawings were too busy and confusing. Medula's design is great, but she has so many tentacles that they can get lost in the background. And, again, I couldn't tell anyone in Sadisto's gang apart, so they deaths of the individual members were lost on me until they said specifically who was killed.
The characterization of Aurora and Haggard is a bright point, though. Morally complex, full of believable anger over their mother's/wife's death, justifiably angry at the monsters, they sometimes make reckless and irresponsible decisions. They underestimate the monsters and allow their biases to get in the way, but they're trying their best and they're all Acropolis has.
I was a little disappointed that Haggard didn't die at the end of the second one (it IS called The Fall of the House of West, after all!), but it sets it up to happen in Battling Boy, so I guess it's OK.
Morally complex characters and no sexualization of the (two) female superhero(s) make this a great addition to the heroic graphic novels, but the small stature and the confusion of the black and white inkwork make it hard to read and follow.
It seems readers who got the ARC also got these in black and white, and I'm disappointed this wasn't changed for the published version. Aurora talks about being able to tell Sadisto's gang apart by the color of their cowls, and I had no idea what she meant until Battling Boy, which was actually in color. Since this books is small (less than half a sheet of printer paper), the black and white line drawings were too busy and confusing. Medula's design is great, but she has so many tentacles that they can get lost in the background. And, again, I couldn't tell anyone in Sadisto's gang apart, so they deaths of the individual members were lost on me until they said specifically who was killed.
The characterization of Aurora and Haggard is a bright point, though. Morally complex, full of believable anger over their mother's/wife's death, justifiably angry at the monsters, they sometimes make reckless and irresponsible decisions. They underestimate the monsters and allow their biases to get in the way, but they're trying their best and they're all Acropolis has.
I was a little disappointed that Haggard didn't die at the end of the second one (it IS called The Fall of the House of West, after all!), but it sets it up to happen in Battling Boy, so I guess it's OK.
Morally complex characters and no sexualization of the (two) female superhero(s) make this a great addition to the heroic graphic novels, but the small stature and the confusion of the black and white inkwork make it hard to read and follow.