Product Description: Warren Ellis' hugely popular web comic, Freakangels, is here, collected in print for the first time in this gorgeous, full-color trade paperback! Twenty-three years ago, twelve strange children were born in England at exactly the same moment. Six years later, the world ended. This is the story of what happened next. So welcome to Whitechapel, some years from now, just barely above ground in a flooded England, where a clan of eleven strange people with purple eyes - the Freakangels - have carved out some sort of a life for themselves. A life that starts to show big cracks when a girl called Alice from Manchester turns up with a shotgun and a grievance, having met the lost, prodigal last Freakangel, who had very different ideas about what they should do with themselves and this flooded future England. Because the Freakangels have a big secret: Something very bad is their fault.
Freakishly addicted to this beautifully illustrated, brilliantly written series! (Excerpt from my original review on ComicImpact.com)
The FREAKANGEL series is best summarized by its own introduction: "23 years ago, twelve strange children were born in England at exactly the same moment. Six years ago, the world ended. This is the story of what happened next."
These "twelve strange children" are the now 20-something FreakAngels - a naturally genetically-improved breed of human with magnificent psychic capabilities and gritty sex appeal. And who, as we eventually gather through dialogue clues, are the ones actually responsible for the state of the partially water-submerged state of the world.
As the FreakAngels govern and protect London's Whitechapel-based community of post-apocalypse survivors with their extrasensory talents, they face rival gangs of survivors who pine after their agricultural advancements, weaponry, technology and property, and are consistently challenged by rebellion (and even attempted murder) among their own FreakAngel kind.
The dialogue in this series is most literally some of the best I've read in a graphic novel, maximizing Ellis' character development, storyline, and signature revisits to extropianism. The characters are precious, real and love/hateable. I especially adore Karl, the agri-bloke who minds the gardening and produce, and who dons a tinfoil hat to keep the other FreakAngels out of his thoughts. And then there's the powerful female, Sirkka, who attempts to reinvent the societal notion of romantic relationships by harboring a harem of sexually subservient men and women.
Each FreakAngel comes with his or her own super-abilities and personalities, using their specific talents (food production, medical services, engineering capabilites) to sustain Whitechapel.
"Newbie" illustrator Paul Duffield amazes with the portrayal of these mysterious folk: glowing purple eyes, fine, intricate lines and a type of grayscale/violet shading that successfully casts a cowering, gloomy shadow of Judgment Day tragedy over the entire yarn.
If you're more of a superheroes type of comic fan, I still suggest you perusing this series; it's a magnificent mix of steampunk, super powers, adventures and heroics.
For more from Warren Ellis, check out his website WarrenEllis.com (his 4 A.M. mixtapes rock!), and make sure to take a serious gander at artist Paul Duffield's other work at Spoonbard.com.
Warren Ellis' take on the Apocalpse Granted this story takes place six years after the Apocalypse caused by the 12 characters of this story, one of whom is exiled from the group and is trying to get the others killed. The 12 young adults are telepaths of sorts, but are quite unique not just with their powers. Each character is a different personality to their own. The way they interact and banter between each other is amusing and scary at times. I laughed many times reading this book. I would highly recommend it for Warren Ellis fans.
Interesting premise but didn't really go far. I like Warren Ellis's writings. They generally very graphic and a bit extreme but very entertaining. However, this graphic novel never really got of the ground for me. The art is fine, not too crisp, not bad either. The art doesn't stand out exactly. The story is about a post-apocalyptic world where a group of children put their minds to it and changed the world. And this is "their story". However, it really was about life after things changed.
However, after reading through this, there are plenty of unanswered questions. And I wasn't exactly hooked by the characters. There wasn't a particular character who will hook you and pull you into buying the second volume. Or at least that's my opinion. This is just ok. Probably won't be buying volume 2 unfortunately.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
