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[Comic Review] “Max Ride First Flight” #1 Holds Promise

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“Max Ride First Flight” opens in a surreal landscape clouded with visions of a girl who can fly, trying desperately to escape a fanged beast. She’s one of many special kids, someone who’s been tested on, the story may be familiar but the ending subverts everything you thought you knew.

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WRITTEN BY: Marguerite Bennett

ART BY: Alex Sanchez

PUBLISHER: Marvel Comics

PRICE: $2.99

RELEASE: 8 April 2015

James Patterson’s novel “First Flight” is nicely adapted by writer Maurgarette Bennett and artist Alex Sanchez in a breathless first issue that doesn’t waste precious time spouting exposition. Instead the mechanics of the world, and the drive of the main character, Max, are mostly worked out visually.

Dialogue throughout is snappy and filled with the young adult vibe that is all the rage in dystopian genre fiction right now. Despite the young adult slant, the book offers hints at mature themes in the future. Right now, the dynamic is purely one of whimsy and the stark difference between reality and dreams. I wasn’t sure I was ready for the final page reveal, but it brought a middling first issue to a fantastic conclusion that has me ready for more.

The world of the book feels inspired by young adult fantasy like Peter Pan or The Chronicles of Narnia but the absolute differences of this world are still a little vague. There are certainly many fantasy elements but what they all mean and how exactly they play into the story at large remains only a vague tease at the conclusion of this debut issue.

It’s hard to see this book as anything other than the standard hero’s journey fare that has inspired much of young adult fiction. There are hints at something more, but as it stands the story is fairly routine but pretty engaging.

Alex Sanchez’ art is sometimes magnificent and other times sloppy. The lines are a little all over the place, and overall the book has an inconsistent visual appeal. There are plenty of two page spreads that showcase beautiful displays of talent and world building, followed by messy action scenes that look like there were drawn at gunpoint. Proportions are odd, and the line weight on the page doesn’t carry much difference.

However, the inconsistent art doesn’t wholly damage the story. The final package is something inherently enjoyable and approachable. Not much is accomplished in this first issue but the entire thing reads like silk and has a darkly sinister tone hidden beneath some of the pages. The subtext of the this story promises to take us on a dark journey if only from the final page, but it creates such a jarring tonal difference it’s hard to say whether or not this book is worth your time with only one issue of story.

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[Review] Graphic Novel ‘Tender’ Is Brilliant Feminist Body Horror That Will Make You Squirm & Scream

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Tender Beth Hetland Graphic Novel

Beth Hetland’s debut graphic novel, ‘Tender,’ is a modern tale of love, validation, and self-destruction by way of brutal body horror with a feminist edge.

“I’ve wanted this more than anything.”

Men so often dominate the body horror subgenre, which makes it so rare and insightful whenever women tackle this space. This makes Beth Hetland’s Tender such a refreshing change of pace. It’s earnest, honest, and impossibly exposed. Tender takes the body horror subgenre and brilliantly and subversively mixes it together with a narrative that’s steeped in the societal expectations that women face on a daily basis, whether it comes to empowerment, family, or sexuality. It single-handedly beats other 2023 and ‘24 feminine horror texts like American Horror Story: Delicate, Sick, Lisa Frankenstein, and Immaculate at their own game.

Hetland’s Tender is American Psycho meets Rosemary’s Baby meets Swallow. It’s also absolutely not for the faint of heart.

Right from the jump, Tender grabs hold of its audience and doesn’t let go. Carolanne’s quest for romantic fulfillment, validation, and a grander purpose is easy to empathize with and an effective framework for this woeful saga. Carolanne’s wounds cut so deep simply because they’re so incredibly commonplace. Everybody wants to feel wanted.

Tender is full of beautiful, gross, expressive artwork that makes the reader squirm in their seat and itch. Hetland’s drawings are simultaneously minimalist and comprehensively layered. They’re  reminiscent of Charles Burns’ Black Hole, in the best way possible. There’s consistently inspired and striking use of spot coloring that elevates Hetland’s story whenever it’s incorporated, invading Tender’s muted world.

Hetland employs effective, economical storytelling that makes clever use of panels and scene construction so that Tender can breeze through exposition and get to the story’s gooey, aching heart. There’s an excellent page that depicts Carolanne’s menial domestic tasks where the repetitive panels grow increasingly smaller to illustrate the formulaic rut that her life has become. It’s magical. Tender is full of creative devices like this that further let the reader into Carolanne’s mind without ever getting clunky or explicit on the matter. The graphic novel is bookended with a simple moment that shifts from sweet to suffocating.

Tender gives the audience a proper sense of who Carolanne is right away. Hetland adeptly defines her protagonist so that readers are immediately on her side, praying that she gets her “happily ever after,” and makes it out of this sick story alive…And then they’re rapidly wishing for the opposite and utterly aghast over this chameleon. There’s also some creative experimentation with non-linear storytelling that gets to the root of Carolanne and continually recontextualizes who she is and what she wants out of life so that the audience is kept on guard.

Tender casually transforms from a picture-perfect rom-com, right down to the visual style, into a haunting horror story. There’s such a natural quality to how Tender presents the melancholy manner in which a relationship — and life — can decay. Once the horror elements hit, they hit hard, like a jackhammer, and don’t relent. It’s hard not to wince and grimace through Tender’s terrifying images. They’re reminiscent of the nightmarish dadaist visuals from The Ring’s cursed videotape, distilled to blunt comic panels that the reader is forced to confront and digest, rather than something that simply flickers through their mind and is gone a moment later. Tender makes its audience marinate in its mania and incubates its horror as if it’s a gestating fetus in their womb.

Tender tells a powerful, emotional, disturbing story, but its secret weapon may be its sublime pacing. Hetland paces Tender in such an exceptional manner, so that it takes its time, sneaks up on the reader, and gets under their skin until they’re dreading where the story will go next. Tender pushes the audience right up to the edge so that they’re practically begging that Carolanne won’t do the things that she does, yet the other shoe always drops in the most devastating manner. Audiences will read Tender with clenched fists that make it a struggle to turn each page, although they won’t be able to stop. Tender isn’t a short story, at more than 160 pages, but readers will want to take their time and relish each page so that this macabre story lasts for as long as possible before it cascades to its tragic conclusion. 

Tender is an accomplished and uncomfortable debut graphic novel from Hetland that reveals a strong, unflinching voice that’s the perfect fit for horror. Tender indulges in heightened flights of fancy and toes the line with the supernatural. However, Tender is so successful at what it does because it’s so grounded in reality and presents a horror story that’s all too common in society. It’s a heartbreaking meditation on loneliness and codependency that’s one of 2024’s must-read horror graphic novels.

‘Tender,’ by Beth Hetland and published by Fantagraphics, is now available.

4 out of 5 skulls

Tender graphic novel review

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