Rating: 5/10
Synopsis
Tilly, one of the newest super-powered people to join the Coalition of Heroes, is doing her best to navigate the dizzying world of superheroes. Working with her idols should be a dream come true, but when she learns the truth, Tilly’s dream quickly becomes a nightmare. Now, Tilly has to make a choice – Get in line and stand with her heroes, or take a stand and risk becoming something more… Villainous
Review
After reading the graphic novel Villainous, I had mixed feelings. The story itself had all the tropes of a new superhero team/character coming together, but it felt rushed. I would’ve loved to get a bit more about Matilda’s relationship with her parents, to set the tone of her obligations to succeed. Also, every character from the Coalition or Villains felt one-sided or lacked depth, superficial. I understand this is hard to accomplish in comics or graphic novels, but a page or two on each character might have just provided motivations, personalities and some foundations for their character arcs. Like Showdown seemed to be a womanizer. It might have been a better read to see it in action (more than a frame or two), so we hate him as much as Matilda does early on. Also, some characters’ powers weren’t clear in the little time we spent with them, therefore when big action occurred, it was hard to understand the stakes in between them.
One area I liked about the story was the initial twist of the good guys/bad guys; how our main character Re-Tilly/Matilda was introduced as the sidekick who quickly realized the corruption inside The Coalition of Heroes. However, this plot twist wasn’t enough to sustain my interest through the rest of the story. The character designs, the layouts, coloring and pencil work was good and reminded me of a style that was popular back in the 90s.
In the end, the missing elements of the story quickly turned me down, on “caring” for the characters and felt like I was going through the motions of the events in Villainous.
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