I feel bad but I really didn't like this comic. It didn't really 'jive' with me and I couldn't get into it at all. I didn't finish it either....

A great start to a series, intrigued between the mage v machine battle as well as the teams growing friendship. Also, I want Evil. That is all.

The art of this comic is beautiful and I loved the design of the characters.
The three main characters were amazing and it was wonderful to follow their story.
I really want to read the next volume.

The Castoffs should have been a book I really enjoyed and respected: it has female protagonists fighting a mix of technology vs magic. Unfortunately, what I found was a story with all the cliches about female characters: they are incredibly girlie, they fight all the time for no reason (because 'girls can't have social groups without fighting' cliche, I guess), and they are incredibly shallow and vapid. The story doesn't really go anywhere, it's hard to follow, it changes POV from first to third person randomly and inexplicably, no one acts logically, and I admittedly didn't fall in love with the potato-shapes of the character designs either. It honestly was hard to plow through.

Story: Three female apprentice magic users are sent on a quest to help a group in need. Each apprentice has a bit of a stigma in their community (one is a passive aggressive and manipulative, one is overbearing, and one is a screw up). They aren't told the true reason they are leaving together but they will find out once they arrive. They'll pick up a random pet 'cat' thing along the way (because girls should always have a cliche pet cat, right?). They fight a 'big bad'.

Graphic novels aimed at girls don't have to be so shallow: even My Little Pony has some great moments of wit and witticism (with better empowerment messages). All that falls short here in order to pound a square plot through a round hole. Logic is thrown completely out the door in so many places, it's frustrating (because, hey, they all have secrets they are hiding from each other for no good reason other than to create drama; and hey, if you send your apprentices on a very dangerous mission, make sure not to tell them the truth or any of the dangers; and hey, if you are going to supply one of them with potions that she has to carry around on her back, make sure there is a large vial of a love potion - always helpful to those who need medicine and great for a deus ex machina acquisition of a feral but cute pet).

The character designs are fairly flat with a very muted color scheme that fails to engage. I didn't see a lot of synergy in the colors and kept wishing this was much brighter and more fun. In muting the colors of the potato-y characters, it made the story even blander and more insipid. If writers and illustrators want to make an impact, why not go the way of an Avatar: The Last Airbender in its rich worldbuilding and color story. Or, again, with the subtle tongue in cheek over the top wink wink fun of My Little Pony. It doesn't have to be so shallow and the conflict doesn't have to come with the girls fighting each other the whole way, nastily manipulating in the worst passive aggressive ugliness, or rushing headlong without thought. Why can't girls be smart, work together, and solve bigger problems than petty conflicts through most of the journey?

Most problematic, however, are the panels. I had to reread pages several times just to understand what I was seeing. E.g., the story starts with us looking through a person's opening eyes and then the last panel suddenly jumps to third person - and I had to keep going back and forth to figure out who was the person in the opening as a result. Other panel decisions also proved frustratingly difficult to decipher - enough so that I had no chance to really get into the story. There's not a lot of creativity and interest in how this is laid out - it's bland, jumpy, lacking smooth segues, and very unrewarding visually.

It's frustrating to write a review like this because I love that we get comics for girls. But this is masquerading as empowerment and instead it pretty much showcases girls as stupid, petty, vapid, reasonless, and passive aggressive. In other words, all the cliches girls already have to fight in the modern age. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

A really interesting start to a new comic series! It has a Lumberjanes feel to it because it's about three young woman who go on a mission to save people while dealing with crazy and scary creatures. The added bonus in The Castoffs is that all three girls -- Charris, Ursa, and Trinh -- have different powers and the powers themselves fit nicely with their personalities; it's like an extension of themselves.

Not going to lie, the beginning part really confuses me since they were entirely different characters and I don't see how they fit in with the three girls yet. I also felt that the end got resolved too quickly and too easily, but it did end on a fun cliffhanger. I would definitely continue reading the series.

This graphic was a lot of fun to read! The world building was great, with a wonderful storyline, and the artwork was beautiful. I can't wait for the next installment!

I loved this volume. I enjoyed that there was a diverse female cast that had its differences and had to learn to work together. This took my favourite 2 genres Fantasy and Sci-Fi and started a great story. Excited to see where this one could go.

I really enjoyed this volume of Castoffs. Great unique story with diverse characters and exciting group dynamics. The art was fun, reminiscent of Noelle Stevenson, and engaging throughout.

A promising new all-ages series with an ethnically diverse female-led cast. Great artwork and an interesting take on sci-fi and fantasy wherein it's literally magic versus technology for world domination. The only thing I am confused by is the title.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

Well, you want an honest opinion? -0.5 stars for the fact the first 24 pages are BRIGHT YELLOW. Ouch.
0.5 since once again (not the first time I read comics/graphic novels) you get thrown into the action without any effing clue on what is going on. Ohh, there battling? People are dying and reviving? Someone just flew away? A whole city is decimated? Whut? Whut? Whut? Not a good start people. Not a good start. I don't mind getting into the action, but please, PLEASE explain what is going on. Oh and then we time skip? Or time forward? God, I have no clue. It seems to be a time skip back before our group got together for realsies. It would have been nice if that would have been mentioned when it happened. Something like x weeks/months before.

Also why didn't they notice it when their fish got eaten?

Now that I completely finished it... I am still utterly confused by a lot of things. For one, what did that BRIGHT YELLOW 24 pages have to do with the story, is that something that will come back in the later volumes? Or is it just some kind of mysterious dream sequence that people oh so like?

I also didn't like the "healer" girl. If only she had been honest about a few things, well, OK, maybe the biggest two would be about her healing, and about her other power. Why did she think it was such a bright idea to use that on her team member? What did she think would happen when she was found out? *sighs*

I think out of the whole crew I liked the ghost girl the most. She was fun, interesting, and really helped out a lot even though she didn't look like it.

The warrior girl? Meh. She was pretty OK, but I didn't like how she reacted at times, like she was so much better than anyone.

The art was really good though, I love the style and I love how the characters were drawn. Definitely one of my favourite parts of the book. :P

But yeah, confusing story, weird start, there is still a lot of work to do with the layout/format (as there were unfinished things everywhere), but pretty OK characters, interesting idea (seems a mix of robots vs magic), great art.

So in total I will be rating this one 3.5 stars.