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Bonus Graphic Novel Review: Nimona
May. 1st, 2016 07:05 pm(My guiding principle is that if I have more than one completed item-in-review at the weekend, I post a bonus review so I don't get too backed up. This assumes that I'll consume at least one new piece of media in the week to always have something in reserve.)
I have to confess that I don't tend to read graphic novels of collected graphic series unless they've been strongly recommended. There just always seems to be too low a content-to page ratio. Intellectually, I appreciate that some sorts of stories can be told in graphic format, and that there's an artistry to the combination of text and image that's simply a Different Thing than purely textual fiction. Maybe it's part of how I'm not so much of a visual person. But when enough of my friends talk about a particular graphic work in ways that suggest it will push my buttons, I'm quite happy to give it a go.
I think the entirety of my emotional reaction to Nimona can be summed up in a tweet I sent responding to someone who asked if I liked it: Sharp and true, like a knife of broken glass--and iridescent, as if the glass were buried a thousand years.
This is a story of love and loyalty and being true to who you really are despite what the world thinks of you. It's the story of a young girl who is a monster, and monsters who walk in human form. It's a story of betrayal and redemption. Um…I really liked it.
Nimona is a shapechanger who wants to be the sidekick of the Official Villain who fights against the noble champion of the realm. But while Nimona's talents (and complete lack of morals) would be useful, Lord Blackheart has a lot of awkward scruples in his sinister plots against the kingdom and their champion Sir Goldenloin. There's a bit of a…um, I'm not sure what to call it…medieval mad scientist flavor to the setting. Lord Blackheart was once in competition with his best friend (and maybe more?) Sir Goldenloin to be the kingdom's champion but a tournament accident that may have been no accident set him instead on the path to being its nemesis. Nimona herself has a painful backstory that is only glimpsed in brief flashes, and her motives in offering her services to evil (as she thinks it) are hard to untangle.
But what shines forth is the friendship that develops between the two, and the love and loyalty that outlasts all the adventures, conflicts, and challenges. This is not a story with simple and easy answers, for all that it's present in the form of a comic strip. Definitely recommended.
I have to confess that I don't tend to read graphic novels of collected graphic series unless they've been strongly recommended. There just always seems to be too low a content-to page ratio. Intellectually, I appreciate that some sorts of stories can be told in graphic format, and that there's an artistry to the combination of text and image that's simply a Different Thing than purely textual fiction. Maybe it's part of how I'm not so much of a visual person. But when enough of my friends talk about a particular graphic work in ways that suggest it will push my buttons, I'm quite happy to give it a go.
I think the entirety of my emotional reaction to Nimona can be summed up in a tweet I sent responding to someone who asked if I liked it: Sharp and true, like a knife of broken glass--and iridescent, as if the glass were buried a thousand years.
This is a story of love and loyalty and being true to who you really are despite what the world thinks of you. It's the story of a young girl who is a monster, and monsters who walk in human form. It's a story of betrayal and redemption. Um…I really liked it.
Nimona is a shapechanger who wants to be the sidekick of the Official Villain who fights against the noble champion of the realm. But while Nimona's talents (and complete lack of morals) would be useful, Lord Blackheart has a lot of awkward scruples in his sinister plots against the kingdom and their champion Sir Goldenloin. There's a bit of a…um, I'm not sure what to call it…medieval mad scientist flavor to the setting. Lord Blackheart was once in competition with his best friend (and maybe more?) Sir Goldenloin to be the kingdom's champion but a tournament accident that may have been no accident set him instead on the path to being its nemesis. Nimona herself has a painful backstory that is only glimpsed in brief flashes, and her motives in offering her services to evil (as she thinks it) are hard to untangle.
But what shines forth is the friendship that develops between the two, and the love and loyalty that outlasts all the adventures, conflicts, and challenges. This is not a story with simple and easy answers, for all that it's present in the form of a comic strip. Definitely recommended.
