Customer Reviews

FreakAngels, Vol. 1

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

(Excerpt from my original review on ComicImpact.com)

The FREAKANGEL series is best summarized by its own introduction: "23 years ago, twelve strange children were born in England at exactly the same moment. Six years ago, the world ended. This is the story of what happened next."

These "twelve strange children" are the now 20-something FreakAngels - a naturally genetically-improved breed of human with magnificent psychic capabilities and gritty sex appeal. And who, as we eventually gather through dialogue clues, are the ones actually responsible for the state of the partially water-submerged state of the world.

As the FreakAngels govern and protect London's Whitechapel-based community of post-apocalypse survivors with their extrasensory talents, they face rival gangs of survivors who pine after their agricultural advancements, weaponry, technology and property, and are consistently challenged by rebellion (and even attempted murder) among their own FreakAngel kind.

The dialogue in this series is most literally some of the best I've read in a graphic novel, maximizing Ellis' character development, storyline, and signature revisits to extropianism. The characters are precious, real and love/hateable. I especially adore Karl, the agri-bloke who minds the gardening and produce, and who dons a tinfoil hat to keep the other FreakAngels out of his thoughts. And then there's the powerful female, Sirkka, who attempts to reinvent the societal notion of romantic relationships by harboring a harem of sexually subservient men and women.

Each FreakAngel comes with his or her own super-abilities and personalities, using their specific talents (food production, medical services, engineering capabilites) to sustain Whitechapel.

"Newbie" illustrator Paul Duffield amazes with the portrayal of these mysterious folk: glowing purple eyes, fine, intricate lines and a type of grayscale/violet shading that successfully casts a cowering, gloomy shadow of Judgment Day tragedy over the entire yarn.

If you're more of a superheroes type of comic fan, I still suggest you perusing this series; it's a magnificent mix of steampunk, super powers, adventures and heroics.

For more from Warren Ellis, check out his website WarrenEllis.com (his 4 A.M. mixtapes rock!), and make sure to take a serious gander at artist Paul Duffield's other work at Spoonbard.com.

'The Freakangels' are a group of strange, psychically gifted twenty three year olds who eke out an existence as counsel and protectors of London's Whitechapel district - one of the few areas of the country left high and dry following an undisclosed apocalyptic event which flooded the city and the world, six years previously. The Freakangels themselves were in some way responsible for this apocalypse - a fact that has thus far remained undisclosed to their more conventionally human charges.

Beginning life as a web-comic on the 'Whitechapel website', this volume collects the first arc of Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield's ongoing saga and it's a strange kettle of fish which owes considerable debts to the likes of John Wyndham's The Midwich Cuckoos (Fast Track Classics), The Tomorrow People: The Complete Series, J..G. Ballard's The Drowned World and teen dramas such as Skins - Vol. 1

The first arc of the story really acts as an introduction to the world and various foibles of its otherworldly characters - a lot of whom, if I'm perfectly honest, are fairly clichéd, uninteresting and derivative: The "Arkady" character in particular bears far too much of a resemblance to the "Delerium" character from Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" series.

Ellis himself has always been a writer I can take or leave and who is at his best when he subsumes his own celebrity persona and concentrates on the writing instead. It's for this reason that I seldom pick up the books of his that feature chain-smoking, massively cynical/intelligent leads who glibly rant into mobile phones. It was funny the first time around in "Transmetropolitan" but has become something of his stock-in-trade. Thankfully, there's little of that here and although his twenty-somethings do come across as rather glib teenagers, and their fashion sense is oddly late nineties/pre-millennial cyber-goth, they're not nearly as irritating as the lead of "Doktor Sleepless".

In terms of plot, Ellis has clearly modeled this along the lines of J.J. Abrams tedious "Lost", and accordingly we're treated to massive amounts of dialogue concerning the inter-personal relationships of the leading characters, vague allusions to past events and absent characters and occasional glimpses of a developing back-story. It must be said, the attack on Whitechapel which closes the book felt rather trite and shoe-horned in - almost as if Ellis didn't really have a better idea of how to close the first story arc.

Is it a series that'll be worth following? Well, its decidedly low-key and I'd personally recommend you check out the comic on the website before buying this volume. I can't really recommend it, but I can't really denigrate it either.

Granted this story takes place six years after the Apocalypse caused by the 12 characters of this story, one of whom is exiled from the group and is trying to get the others killed. The 12 young adults are telepaths of sorts, but are quite unique not just with their powers. Each character is a different personality to their own. The way they interact and banter between each other is amusing and scary at times. I laughed many times reading this book. I would highly recommend it for Warren Ellis fans.

Warren Ellis has created a post-apocalyptic England where the new and the old clash in perfect proportion. Imagine the children of Village of the Damned have grown up... The story, in inimitable Ellis style, features not just physical conflicts with enemy powers, but also the day-to-day conflicts of personalities trying to get along with each other while exploring amazing powers that even their owners can't fully understand. Top off the story with the gorgeous art of Paul Duffield and you have one of the best graphic novels of all time. These are the kinds of books that make me jealous of anyone getting to read them for the first time, because you never know what you are going to find when you turn the next page. Enjoy!

Anyone familliar with Freakangels knows that you can read this free every week, but this thing is so great that it is worth purchasing even if you have read the entire story to its current episode. Great quality book, beautifull art, and always great writting from the Master himself Warren Ellis. I bought this for my wife and she loves it, next up is trying to convince my daughter to read it. This is a great book (amd Scott Pilgrim)to indtroduce somebody to comic books, especially somebody not into super heroes.

The comic is admittedly slow moving at first, but once it figures out where its going, there is no putting it down.

You can read this for free online, but it isn't quite the same experience as physically holding the comic when you read it.

I like Warren Ellis's writings. They generally very graphic and a bit extreme but very entertaining. However, this graphic novel never really got of the ground for me. The art is fine, not too crisp, not bad either. The art doesn't stand out exactly. The story is about a post-apocalyptic world where a group of children put their minds to it and changed the world. And this is "their story". However, it really was about life after things changed.

However, after reading through this, there are plenty of unanswered questions. And I wasn't exactly hooked by the characters. There wasn't a particular character who will hook you and pull you into buying the second volume. Or at least that's my opinion. This is just ok. Probably won't be buying volume 2 unfortunately.

I loved this series. It's also a webcomic, but I really want to follow it through the volumes and not the internet. It's a post apocolyptic world in which the protagonists that were all born on the same day, same time, must survive together against the others that have survived. I'm really in love with the series, and I'm enjoying it immensely. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone that enjoys humor and serious plots.