Customer Reviews

45 (Forty-five)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In a world inhabited by Super-S genes and 2nd degree mutations, there would always be something to write about. From the children that appear and that are abandoned because parents see no way to take care of them to the exploits of superheroes the world over, mankind (or Normans) would be infatuated by them. And what's not to be infatuated with? From the mixed marriages of Norman and Super-S types to the powers granted by birth, toxic waste, and even more nefarious groups attempting to "protect mankind," there are a lot of things that can be covered.
And, perhaps, there are some things that would be better left undiscovered.
It really makes for a good read.

The way Forty-Five is set up is this: While there are no "Vaders" telling their tales (the nickname for supervillians in the world), there are all sorts of mutations. You have people who put on suits that they can take off after the big show, people who get their powers from accidents that they stumble onto, and then there are those that are born with their gifts. Forty-five seeks to cover all of these and more, starting with the birth of a Super-S and ending with the birth of the reporters child after he's seen the dark side of everything. This makes for some great reading and it asks the question: what would happen if there really were people out there with powers that rivaled even the most dangerous weapons mankind had thought of?

Along with each of these stories is a page of artwork, letting everything lay out like an interview on one half of the page and like a great piece of art on the other. The art tells the story its own way, too, allowing for the reader to see some of the things that the people go through. I personally liked a few more than others - a girl having a teaparty with all sorts of imaginary things, only to have them disappear in the blink of an eye and show us just how alone she was. Or the birth of a Super-S baby that flies - only the parents don't know about it - and what this could cause.
Here we go from adult to child and back again, only we see these people in lights they want to cast and we see some of the people who pull their strings. When you think of this in a real-world scenario, it is a frightening thing.

This may not be for everyone - it is not a compic but it is a great look into what being a hero would mean. You would have fans and you would have villians and you would have so many different degrees of people associated with what is happening. I was personally pulled in by the book - a nice read and one that does not waste time - and thought some of the story overlap was lovely. The Lotus is a prime example; she controls people and recruits, allowing some subtle manipulation to overtake the people she is aiming at. and i think a lot of readers would like it too, especially those who want more from their stories bsides sparring, hitting, kicking, and the occasional doomsday plot (that was a joke - how many of those do we see, really?).
i liked it, was surprised, and recommend it highly. I also have to say to get one while you can because they are going out of print FAST.

If you like superhero comicbooks, but you think they lack some depth, read this. If you liked Kurt Busiek's "Marvels" or "Kingdom come" by Alex Ross, read this.
The idea of the book is new and different and gives the author the possibility to highlight all sorts of storyideas for superpowered people. It is not a comicbook. It is not a book. It is something inbetween.
Give it a try. You wont be dissapointed!

"45" is a "comic book" that transcends the medium, ranking up in the pantheon of best graphic novels of all time. Even more amazing is the fact that this is Andi Ewington's first book.

The concept is simple: the narrator, James Stanley, conducts a series of 45 interviews of people with the "Super-S" gene which gives superpowers. Each interview appears on the right hand page, with art by a different guest artist on the left hand page. The book is not a comic book in the true sense of the word, nor it is a novel. It's most similar to "Watchmen" in the fact that the text is equally important as the art.

In a stroke of genius, Ewington is able to weave all of the interviews together to not only create an entire milieu, but a coherent narrative. Reading this book is like putting pieces of a puzzle together. I purposely read this book slowly because I didn't want it to end too quickly. Like great literature or a complex movie, it will be interesting to read a second time to see how the experience differs from the first reading.

The artwork in this book is astounding. Imagine giving the best comic artists in the world the task to illustrate a vignette in any way they see fit on one page. The results are amazing. Some of the pages rival the best covers ever drawn. Others stand up on their own as pieces of art that should be displayed in a museum. The variety of artistic styles blend seamlessly with the variety of individuals that the narrator interviews.

This book is the first I have read since the Watchmen that breathes new life into the chronically boring superhero genre. Ewington explores new ground that I have not seen covered in the thousands of super-hero titles out there. I don't expect to read anything of this caliber again for quite some time. I sincerely hope that Andi Ewington has more where this one came from.

I was shocked to find this book was so hard to find when it first came out - even my local comics store in NYC did not have it. Get your hands on this modern classic today.

I bought this book for the premise. And I wasn't disappointed... in the premise that is. The execution...not so much. I loved that they chose different artists for each interview and that the subjects progressed in age as the interviews went on to show the gamut of individuals and so forth.

If you look up the summary on amazon it sounds great! but it's the dialogue that screws it all up. And for a story solely dependent on dialogue that's even worse. It simply didn't sound right. Large paragraphs with no back and forth or natural interaction of any kind fell flat and don't get me started on the American characters. Their dialogue was the worse. Do you really think we sound like that? I sure hope not.

I'm giving this five stars for the idea and artwork and minus two for the dialogue.

I ordered this one after a really exciting [...] preview. The final product delivered, especially on the artwork front. The story was interesting if a bit contrived, at times. Definitely worth the purchase.

I thought this would be a comic in the traditional sense, but I was dissopointed to find it in interview form, with a picture on one side and text on the other. Boring...cant even finish it. Maybe others will love it, but since a review is subjectiv, this is my oppinion. Should never have bought it.

I began reading this book with high hopes and soon found that I was holding them a little too high. "Forty-Five" is set in a world where superheroes are born or made on a regular basis, and the protagonist -- a journalist who is about to become a father -- sets out to interview people with superpowers, to see what kind of life his child can expect if it is born with powers itself. The narrative is constructed from these interviews, each one accompanied by a full-page illustration. The art is by far the best part of the book; each contributing artist has produced a work of real quality. Some use panels to tell a story that accompanies the words on the neighboring page, while others simply depict a single snapshot or portrait. The images are bright, colorful, extremely varied, and powerful.

The writing? Not so much. Author Andi Ewington is good with ideas, bad with dialogue, and since most of this book IS dialogue, you see the problem. He has his interviewed superheroes talk in long, literary paragraphs that sound like written prose, not spoken and spontaneous. Yes, most superhero comics do this with dialogue, but "Forty-Five" is really not a comic, it's an illustrated novel, and so it's hurt by the tortured prose. Ewington often attempts to give his speakers dialects ("Black" or "French" or "NYC teenager") with painfully awkward results. Sometimes he can successfully portray real human emotion -- I liked the determined mother whose son kills with a touch, the aging hero dying of cancer, and the plucky twentysomething who reconnects with her superpowered Dad -- but at other times, the interviews themselves grow boring and repetitive, and only the promise of a lovely new image on each page is what kept me going.

I'm sad that "Forty-Five" doesn't live up to its promise. It's worth looking at just for the art alone, but the story could have used some proofreading, some editing, and the hand of someone more skilled at writing comics. Everyone seems to have been awed by Ewington's "great idea" to the point where they overlooked his mediocre writing style. I hope he gains some polish! I just think the concept for "Forty-Five" should have come later in his career, when he had gained the skill to take it all the way.