Customer Reviews

White Tiger: A Hero's Compulsion

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

 

 

I bought this comic thinking it would be an interesting story line with Tamora Pierce as the author, but am glad I didn't have high hopes. It is beautifully illustrated, but Ms. Pierce got off easy on the dialogue for this piece. It is no more than good-agent-misfit finds magic powers cliche. I'm not a Marvel Comics regular, so if you like comic superhero stuff, you can take your chances on this story, but if you are only thinking about buying it because it has Tamora Pierce's name on it, I'd advise you to reconsider.

I bought this comic book mainly for the fact that Tamora Pierce was an author for it. I didn't expect world wind adventures like I may find in one of her books because, let's face it, it's a comic book that starts and ends in 6 issues. The plot line was good, I got a little lost in a few places because I hadn't read certain issues of certain series, and the images were as well. I personally like having all the issues in one book as opposed to each individual issue which I tried for a while but kept misplacing them. Some of the extra covers they include from each of the issues are beautifully done and I'm glad they included them.

All in all, it's a good short read and nice to look at. Not one of the better comics I've read, I didn't expect it to be, but if you buy it for a reasonable price (I ordered mine from a separate seller for relatively cheap, I think the amazon price makes it almost not worth it) I think it's well worth the price.

(Some spoilers, particularly in the last paragraph)

I have not read any of Tamora Pierce's prose fiction, though I've heard good things. I came to this volume somewhat familiar with the history of the comic character White Tiger from the Hector Ayala storyline in the excellent Brian Michael Bendis run on Daredevil (storyline collected here...Daredevil, Vol. 3, among other places) and I was expecting and hoping for good things here. Unfortunately, I think it is a prime example of a likely quite good fiction writer not working well as a comic writer.

I like the character, the nice artwork by Briones et al, and the plot does seems to have potential. But I had to force myself to read all the way through this trade. The rhythm of the writing in the captions (and to a lesser extent, the dialogue -- y'know, word balloons) is way off. Ms. Pierce absolutely abuses italics -- on the last word of almost every sentence. If you made this into an audiobook, and had the narrator emphasize every word that was italicized, it would be comical -- downright Shatneresque. Example (using caps for italics):

"Before I was in the FBI, I was in the NYPD for for YEARS. If you're a del Toro, you're a COP, or a martial ARTIST, or BOTH. You KNOW the NYPD."

"The 'FAIR and BALANCED' BUGLE, my rosy red TUCHAS. I bag GUNRUNNERS and the paper bills me as CHEESECAKE."

Hell, it's almost iambic pentameter! It makes the writing extremely choppy, and in a comic with 1980s-style level of exposition/commentary (read: way too much)...it ain't pretty.

If the italic issues were resolved and the pictures were allowed to carry the story more, maybe that would have turned this whole thing around. But like bad voice-over in a movie, the writing kept pulling me right out of the story. It was a tough slog.

Another thing I couldn't get over -- and this will probably only make sense if you've read this or other comics -- was the appearance of Angela's "Tio Danny" -- Danny Rand, the Iron Fist, who appears to be about the same age as her. The uncle-niece relationship seems forced and weird here. As do most of the superhero cameos by Spidey, Daredevil, Emma Frost from the X-Men, etc.

All told, this was disappointing. Marvel can't seem to keep enough books going centered around female characters, so this feels like a wasted opportunity. Maybe this character could be salvaged at some point down the line -- though current readers of the Daredevil will be familiar with recent developments that make this unlikely, at least for a while.

Writers Tamora Pierce and Timothy Liebe put a new spin on one of Marvel's lesser-known heroes. Former FBI agent Angela Del Toro, the niece of the late Hector Ayala, inherits her uncle's magic amulets and alter-ego. But to earn her stripes, this tiger has to go through a terrorist organization, a Yazuka clan, and a whole slew of heroes and villians that pop up at every turn.

Drawn by Phil Briones and other artists, the art itself is a blessing and a curse for this comic. The way some scenes don't mesh well together (and a load of in-universe references) tend to slow the story down. And it doesn't help that for no apparent reason, the artists suddenly change their style in the last chapter. Also cameos of other Marvel stars, like Spider-Man and Emma Frost, wind up stealing White Tiger's spotlight instead of helping her shine. You'd think one would read this to get away from the mainstream stuff. White Tiger saves the day regardless, but this cat needs more room to prowl.

This comic earns the Parental Advisory label for violence and language.

I don't read that many comic books, but this was good. I admit that I only bought, because Pierce was one of the authors, but I enjoyed it as trying something new

I just can't recommend purchasing this book. I was really trying to like it. There are very few female superhero comic books and I was hoping for one. The main story itself was not bad. The artwork was OK. What I did not like was the interplay between the White Tiger and the other heroes. She was just too buddy-buddy with them. It seemed like the author was trying too hard to show the White Tiger was accepted by the other heroes and belonged with them. Even if you knew the identity of the White Tiger (which they all did) and even if you knew the prior White Tiger, most of the time a new hero needs to go through a breaking in period with other heroes. That was missing and was something that took away from the story.

I also think there were too many heroes in this book. White Tiger, Luke Cage, Daredevil 2 (as they called him), Black Widow, Spiderman. I think one other would have been enough.

It's a really good comic. Tamora Pierce is one of my favorites and the art was great. A very good read. Now i have to go back and read the other comics involved with this one

super-heroine fights against a gang selling green cards and fake passports.
daredevil and spiderman help her.
i have never before seen such a bad plot in comics.
how can anyone publish this crap?
i am really happy super heroes saved the world here and no illegal aliens come to the usa.

I bought this book for my classroom because I was told the character was Latino and wanted to share a superhero with a Latino bent to it. Tamora Pierce actually recommended it to me when I was at an author's fair. I am so disappointed by the books I've read by her so far! This one is a total turnoff and I will never put it in my library collection at school. I should have looked at it more closely. I'm really offended and turned off by the story and presentation.