A review by dorinlazar
Genius, Volume 1 by Adam Freeman, Marc Bernardin

2.0

She's a 17 years old genius; from the age of 7, alone on the streets, she steals one book of Sun Tzu and she's the biggest strategist the world has ever seen. So tired of the crime that people in her neighborhood do, and upset with the police who is apparently suspicious of people like her because they tend to transform everything in a violent slum, she takes the decision to kill some cops then block some streets and get almost everyone killed???

While the character might be a genius, the writers definitely are not. The whole thing doesn't make sense from start to end; I do get that they want a young black woman to be a powerful character, but sheesh, man, they really failed with this character.

So apparently, South Central LA is the kind of place that only has one or two entrances, is populated by people killing each other because the police doesn't do anything about them???, and is supplied from nowhere because the neighborhood can live without power and food for some time. So the usual wars that animate this warring neighborhood are suspended in order to fight the power (because, remember, kids, the cops don't stop them from killing each other), and they start killing cops which are generally white (although I would've expected more black cops in LA).

There is no logic in the raise to power of a 17 years old. There is no logic in the violence against the cops, nor in the „blocking of streets” that apparently works so well. The young genius basically manages to maintain a significant perimeter with a few thugs, because „she jinius”! Apparently better armed than the cops and SWAT, who all of a sudden are outsmarted by someone who stole a book on Sun Tzu and played chess. YES! POWER TO THE PEOPLE.

Sheesh. The only thing that's ok about this is the drawing and the lettering. Story wise it's in the minus 5 stars territory.