Author: Kieron Gillen (not to be confused with Karen Gillan!)
Publisher: Image Comics
Rating: warty
Drawing: Ryan Kelly
Coloring: Jordie Bellaire
Lettering: Clayton Coles
Graphic design: Hannah Donovan
Note that this graphic novel is gory! It contains adult material, and is not suitable for younger readers!
DISCLOSURE: Unlike the majority of reviews in this blog, I've neither bought this book nor borrowed it from the library. This is a "galley" copy ebook, supplied by Net Galley. I'm not receiving (nor will I expect to receive or accept) remuneration for this review.
I did not like this graphic novel. The layout and art work were fine as far as they went, and the writing was technically fine, but I simply could not follow the story no matter how hard I tried to figure out what, exactly was going on, or where it was supposed to be heading. I found myself drifting and skimming in a place or two, but worse than this, the story itself drifted and skimmed, jumping from one thing to another and introducing character after character after character for no evident reason.
There was no real flow or logic that I could see. Each new character's name appears alongside them in their first panel as though the writer actually knew it was going to get larded and confusing. I soon stopped paying attention to who was now appearing on stage because I doubted I would see them again after the next couple of pages, and this probably didn’t help in trying to divine a coherent narrative from what was happening in each panel.
The general story concerns three Helots, two guys and a woman who are set upon by the Spartans for no apparent reason. One of the three (Klaros) happens to be an invincible warrior who is "in disguise" as some sort of employee on a farm(? I don’t know - it wasn't clear) run by Terpander, an air-headed smart-mouth who is apparently married to Damar (I don't know - it’s not clear), who is also apparently pregnant, although that wasn't clear to begin with either.
Klaros predictably if inexplicably leaps bloodily to their rescue, and the three are then the subject of pursuit by a veritable army of Spartans. No reason is offered for Klaros's beneficence, or for the dedicated pursuit - a pursuit which seemed improbable given that Klaros had initially killed everyone who was wearing a red cloak in his vicinity. The rest of the story consists of the three escapees agonizing over their lot in life, and trying to avoid and out-run their pursuers, as new characters continue to pop-up like hungry hippos every couple of pages.
There's one scene reminiscent of the 300 where Klaros makes a stand, and the result of this I openly laughed at. The entire story is gory - lots of spears through body parts, severed heads, and blood spurting. This wouldn’t have been so bad had there been other things going on to engage my attention, but there really wasn't anything going on. This story has nothing really to do with 300, so I'm not sure what the deal is with this. I honestly can’t recommend it.
For those who are interested in the technical side of things, there are copious notes in the final pages detailing how this story came about and also some of the history of the time period in which it's set, but even given my interest in the technicalities of graphic novel creation, I’d have been more impressed with a more gripping story and no notes than I was with the way this was actually done.
