Customer Reviews

Gears of War, Vol. 1

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

 

 

Being a comic book fan and a video game fan I most admit a bias towards Video Game comics. That aside this was a most enjoyable purchase. The art is terrific, the story is engaging and the new characters that are introduced are unique and a good fit in the Gears universe. Being a hardcover it looks great on the shelf and stands a much better chance of survival in a house with a one year old. I can't count how many comics I have that have lost covers or pages or have faded, just from being transported around to different homes and being read. Funny I know, reading a comic book and not stuffing it in mylar and never taking it out. I enjoyed Book 1 of Gears of War and eagerly await Book 2

I loved the GOW games and saw the books while perusing Amazon one day. I am an avid reader and am always looking for new and odd things to read.

The books were actually pretty good. A bit slow and boring in some parts... and I found it really helped to have played the games to really understand the story, but that could be just because I had played first.

I enjoyed reading this book.

As a non-gamer, the title Gears of War held no connotation when I initially discovered this graphic novel, so any connection or preconceived notions stemming from the game are irrelevant to this particular review, with this trade being judged strictly on its' own merits within the graphic novel medium. What first piqued my curiosity was its' superlative artwork, illustrating the obvious importance of that aspect of the genre on any first impression of an unfamiliar comic. Of course a book cannot be judged strictly by its' art alone, as it still needs an engaging, well crafted story to complement it. While the sparsely written narrative is rather simplistic with overly excessive battle scenes, an apparent direct correlation to its' video game pedigree, it fortunately surmounts and clearly exceeds those shortcomings with its' proficient melding of crisp dialogue, sharp characterization and sensitive tone, not the first attributes one may think of when discussing a futuristic war book whose principal raison d'etre is to display horrific clashes with a monstrous enemy. It is these exact facets however that elevate it above its' one dimensional and limited premise, thus giving it more depth and gravitas than one might expect considering its' combat game lineage, with kudos going to Joshua Ortega and Liam Sharp for accomplishing that gifted and laudable feat.

Gears of War, the hit Xbox video game, got into the comic book medium and the first iteration of it is in Book One of the series highlighting the Hollow story arc along with the One Day single-issue event. The Hollow story arc involves Dom, Marcus, and two new guys, Jace and Barrick in their quest to get from Jacinto to Montevado to look for fellow Gears and try to find the parents of a poor Stranded girl. The story is typical Gears of War with more blood and gore than dialogue and narration. The two new characters are well done in terms of development and it's really neat to see Marcus leading his new squad around and the cameo made by Cole and Baird was a nice touch as well. The One Day one-shot is about Dom's quest to find Maria and how he'll continue fighting for as long as it takes to get her. It was a short comic but one that added some backstory to Dom (plus, you get to see Dom and Marcus as their younger selves.
The artwork in the book is fantastic with lots of red ever-present. It was dark and dreary but at the same time, splashed with red on almost every page as chainsaws ripped through flesh and sniper bullets spilled brains on walls. The characters are drawn just like their video game counterparts and the locust look just as scary on comic paper as they do on your LCD TV. The hardcover edition of the book has a nice slip-cover and the cover of the actual book looks really neat (I must brag that I picked it up off amazon.com for a mere $0.12. I think they listed it at the wrong price but hey, I'll take it!) Conclusively, I think this is a neat book, especially for Gears fans, and a nice read for those that want nothing but action in their comics!

Overall Rating: 8 out of 10 stars

Being a GoW fan myself, I decided to pick this up out of recommendation; I wasn't disappointed. From start to finish, this title takes you into a memoir of Delta Squad before "Operation: Hollow Storm" and introduces some new characters including Jace Stratton (who will also be present in GoW3.) The beautiful color-scheme of the comic ranges in each piece from: "dark & danky" battle scenes to red and black flashbacks.

Bottom line: Great addition to any comic maniac's collection, a necessity to a GearHead.

I haven't finish the reading yet but so far the story is great. The quality of the book is perfect and arrived in plastic protective wrap.

If your looking for a newer series to get into this is a great start. For fans of the game it's great to see it adapted into a graphic novel. The art is great, the story is great as well. This is a must for any fan of gears or are looking for a fresh and new novel.

Hey, everybody out there who's played Gears 3 and finished it: remember Jace? Remember how annoying it was running through increasingly long missions with Jace talking non-stop like some kind of wannabe Chris Rock? Well, now you can read his thoughts in Gears of War Book One! I've now read the first two graphic novels in this series, but Book One nearly stopped me in my tracks. In its defense, the artwork is good and it gives the whole GOW visceral experience (chainsaw bayonets, curb stomps, heads exploding from a Gnasher shotgun). But, outside of the things that work in the game, the characters are one-dimensional, testosterone junkies who tend to spout one-liners featuring several four-letter words or new, never before heard versions of four letter words. If you are looking for something of substance, try Book two. At least it introduced a new character that was interesting and gave a side of Sera that wasn't just Burnt out wreckage in the middle of the apocalypse. This book won't tell you anything you don't already know from GOW 2 and, if its possible, make you hate Jace even more.