Customer Reviews

The Surrogates (Surrogates (Graphic Novels))

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"Life...Only Better," says the slogan of VSI, maker of surrogates. And who wouldn't want to improve their life, to make it better, or to make it what they had always dreamed it should be? Such is the basis for the science fiction graphic novel The Surrogates. Written by Robert Venditti, with art direction by Brett Weldele, this novel brings a unique take on the established rules of science fiction.

The future world created by Venditti has a great deal of potential. In creating the concept of the surrogate, Venditti has shown that even when race and gender are no longer factors in decisions, our innate prejudices still rise to the top. Additionally, remove race and gender as social factors, and you are left with religion. While the religion in The Surrogates is extreme and cultic Christianity, it could just has easily have been any other religion's fanatics. For the location and time frame of the story, Christianity makes the most sense.

I also found it daring to set the story in Georgia rather than the traditional big cities of New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago. Those cities have been used often, their unique cultures explored through science fiction. Science fiction has failed to tap into the strange and unique culture that is the Southern States. In doing so, The Surrogates has broken new ground. The story has found ample material for evaluating existing culture, and challenging our preconceptions.

The Surrogates is a fine graphic novel, and I hope that Venditti continues to write in this world. I recommend this book to all science fiction fans, cultural theorists, and comic book fans. The artwork is provocative, the story compelling, and the setting unique.

Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele, The Surrogates (Top Shelf, 2006)

It is by now a Hollywood cliché, not to mention a Hollywood truism, that the book is better than the movie. And that is certainly the case where The Surrogates is concerned. That said, in some ironic way, reading Robert Venditti's original source material gave me a slightly greater respect for Jonathan Mostow's bloated, listless adaptation. I can see why he made the changes he made, and some of them I actually agree with. (The two big ones, as it turns out, were direct contributors to the movie's downfall, to the point where I may actually go back and revise my review to include a discussion of them.)

If you saw the movie trailers, you've got a basic idea, but I'll give you a rundown anyway: it's 2054, and the world is populated by human beings who live vicariously through androids known as surrogates. The human flops down in a chair, puts on a headset, and bam, virtual reality. Surrogates work for their owners (allowing the out-of-shape to be construction workers, say), drink and do drugs for their owners (all the sensation with none of the withdrawal symptoms), have illicit affairs for their owners, etc. You get the idea. 92% of the world's humans, we're told, own and use surrogates. The rest are not too happy with this. In the metro Atlanta area where the book takes place, the head of the non-surrogate-using humans, known as the Dreads, is The Prophet, a mover and shaker in the anti-surrogate riots of 2039 who eventually agreed with the mayor of Atlanta that he and his Luddite pals needed to move out of Atlanta to a reservation seventy miles away. All of what I'm giving you here is setup for the actual plot, which involves two surrogates who we see being fried in the opening scene, and the two detectives assigned to the case.

While no one would call The Surrogates a subtle book, in comparison to the movie it's like a velvet glove. The main reason for this is that the movie changes the book anti-consumer message to something far more muddled, yet far closer to the surface (in the movie, the deaths of the surrogates travels back over the wires to kill their owners, which changes the whole nature of the movie's plot). Venditti also has some strong words about addiction which are cut, rather brutally I might add, out by the changing of a few key scenes. They are the book's most powerful (especially Venditti's final panel), and the movie's weakest. That Mostow failed miserably in his attempt to bring The Surrogates to the screen, and that the changes made to it were exactly the wrong ones, does not make Hollywood any less respectable for at least trying to take a very good, if transparent, indie piece and being it to the masses. It gives me some small version of hope that someone in Hollywood still actually cares about art. *** ½

The Surrogates is an excellent science fiction short story that happens to be a graphic novel. The plot is compelling with a well-crafted premise that extends traditional "cyberspace" works (such as the worlds created by William Gibson and P.K. Dick, as well as The Matrix), but this new space is a virtual reality based on remotely-controlled androids. The author touches on issues related race, religion, and what it means to "live" as a human. Every dialog line is well-written, and both the protagonists and antagonists are believable and worthy of empathy.

I decided to buy and read "The Surrogates" because, of course, the movie was coming out soon and it had Bruce Willis in it, and I've lately been drawn into the graphic novel universe. So I said, why not? I've read a few other graphic novels and the concepts presented in this one were interesting.

First off, the graphic novel is significantly different from the movie, so you should probably read it even if you have already seen the movie. It starts off with the same initial setup--some surries get zapped and detectives are there to investigate--but pretty much from that moment on it diverges from the movie. Characters are the same, but they don't do what they did in the movie, tec. So read the novel, it's worth it.

The storyline is definitely interesting and pulls you along, weaving the actual detective work together with the life of the main detective, Greer. You find out about his relationship with his wife and how the introduction of the surrogates--androids that the user controls and that pretty much act out everyone's daily life for safety reasons--has altered society and interpersonal relationships to a huge extent. The main idea of the surrogates is what kept me interested in the novel, although the plotline about who's zapping surrogates and why also drew me in. The ramifications on every aspect of society if we did ever reach a point where the majority of the population lived their lives through surrogates is . . . astounding. And that's why this graphic novel rocks.

It's also why it's slightly disappointing. There are so many aspects of life that would change that what was presented in the novel seemed . . . limited. I loved the story and the novel, but when I was finished I felt that there was SO MUCH MORE to explore with this concept and I was disappointed that there wasn't more, a volume 2 or something. I know there's a prequel, and I will definitely read that, but I seriously hope that there will be more set in this world in the future because there is so much more left to explore.

Since this is a graphic novel, I must also comment on the artwork: spectacular. The artwork was subtle and appropriate and a perfect amalgamation of art and photoshopping, especially regarding some of the SF elements that were incorporated into the artwork, such as realistic digital screens and such. At the same time, the artwork was extremely simple. The level of detail was appropriate and minimalistic, as well as the color palette. Some panels were sketchy and blocky, others were more finely detailed, and the ability of the artist to convey complex emotions through facial expression and such was astounding.

So, overall a very good graphic novel, the only drawback being that the world created had SO MUCH potential that I felt there should have been much more done in this universe and with this plotline, so was disappointed when the novel ended. I'd love to see more from this pair, and even if you've seen the movie, I'd definitely suggest reading the novel.

Not a huge reader of the graphic novels, but I heard about the film and the whole concept of the book was interesting. The novel was compelling, original, and entertaining. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys action and science fiction.

The "surrogates" is a master piece in the sci-fi comic book genre. This book is a perfect blending of science fiction, sociology, and an engaging story line. I cannot wait for the next installment in the series. Read it now before the feature film is released.

The Surrogates takes place in a futuristic world in which people live out their lives through "surrogates," advanced robots. These surrogates let them live out the lives of their dreams and protect their real bodies from harm. The Surrogates is a fast-paced, rather messy noir story about a police detective who tracks down the man responsible for attacks on surrogates.

There's nothing really fresh or new here for anyone familiar with sci-fi. The pacing is uneven, and the author never really builds enough tension to make the story gripping. The characters and even some of the dialogue is typical of a noir story without any real twist to it. The characters themselves seem to have about as much life of their own as their robotic bodies.

The ending in particular made the whole story seem confused. It was as though Venditti wanted to write the kind of story with a message without going to the trouble of figuring out what he wanted to say. The artwork actually seems to reflect this confusion, as I found it to be at times difficult to follow and messy. In fact, if there was one word I could use to describe The Surrogates, it would be just that--messy.

This was in interesting story, and I could definitely see something like this happening in the near future. The plot reminded me a bit of the movie I, Robot, but was by no means a copycat. Set in 2054, people have stopped living their lives, and instead live their lives via Surrogates. I also really liked the layout and design of the graphic novel itself. In between chapters, there is documentation giving more background on the future world, and Surrogates' role in it.

A friend once asked me for an example of a graphic novel that is also a great piece of literature, and I would say that The Surrogates exemplifies this.

The story is pretty good but it's the world created in the Surrogates is very intriguing and one I wish would be explored in a more long form medium. The art style is definitely not my style. I have not read too many comics so I wouldn't consider myself a connoisseur but I find myself wishing this had more of a "Batman The Killing Joke" or "Watchmen" art style; detailed and lifelike.

I read this in one sitting on a flight across country. It's pretty short and some pages have little to no text at all, just large graphic panels. This edition has dense meta-material in between books (similar to Watchmen). Things like ads for the surrogates, news articles, white papers, etc. that really immerse you. Overall it's very entertaining and I look forward to seeing the movie adaptation.

The Surrogates is set in 2052 in what is now called Central Georgia Metropolis (formerly Atlanta). Most people now live quiet lives in their homes and send out their surrogate to work and play, while their brains are hooked into the surrogate from home. People get to experience things without the possibility of death or injury. Other interesting twists tidbits: you choose what your surrogate looks like and some people elect a surrogate of another gender as a way to bypass sexual discrimination. It's futuristic science fiction told incredibly convincingly; it's easy to think it could be our not-so-distant future.

The concept is intriguing, and I really enjoyed the story. I was not, however, a fan of the drawing style. It didn't hinder my understanding or enjoyment of the story, but it certainly didn't enhance it. At the end of each chapter, there was an interesting supplemental item such as a newspaper article or promotional material encouraging you to buy a surrogate. As someone who doesn't read a lot of graphic novels, and thus has a hard time training my eyes to not dance all over the page, I appreciated these more traditional visual elements both as background and variety.