After a fight-filled intro there’s a flashback to how Melanie became such a badass, because she certainly wasn’t in high school. She’s firmly entrenched in the “reluctant hero” trope, but at least she’s amusing, especially for a wallflower, at times scared of her shadow but also willing to stand up for those who can’t. The part where she says, “Um. . . nice doggies?” got an actual LOL out of me, and I can’t believe I just used that damned acronym.
There’s nothing here that’s particularly new, though. The bad guy has minions and an evil laugh, and can’t seem to stop talking. And why are the redheads always evil? But despite it being an old story, I kinda liked it.
Cover gallery at the end.
3.5 pushed up to 4/5

I’m giving this book 2 stars only because I saw that there was a story hidden somewhere deep down there.

The abovementioned story is a very simple YA plot: a girl who just wants to mind her own business is drawn into a world of darkness where she has to learn to fight against evil, when all she wants to do it continue her life as normal.

This arc has been used only a million times in YA novels, but if they continue drawing readers, including myself, then that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

However, everything goes downhill for Wraithborn after this. The plot doesn’t have anything that sets it apart from other similar books, the heroes are in no way charming, the villain is powerful only in words and offers no real plot twists or challenges, and last, but not least, the artwork is very unappealing.

Melanie, the main character, is very, very hard to like. She’s weak, lacks will power, and is very self-centered (although here we have to mention that many teenagers are self-centered in general). But the thing which bothered me the most about her is the fact that she’s not a person who wants to help others. She prefers staying off the radar and protecting her own ass. Then, a jump to the future, and she has been completely transformed into a savior of the defenseless. I’m not buying it.

Story-wise, Melanie would not have survived at all, had there not been deus ex machina in every single issue. Every time she is in trouble, there’s a masked warrior coming to her rescue, and in very special occasions, she has magic mojo that she can’t control just bursting out of her. Valek somehow knows that he needs to find her, and also guesses every time she would be in distress, and even though they barely talk, aside from battle grunts, by the end of the volume they have developed a special bond.

I won’t even bother commenting the other characters because they are so shallow and only there so that it seems like there’s some characters.

What bothered me the most, though, is the art. The women are almost naked, always, they have identical faces (which makes it hard to understand what they mean when they say that Melanie is unattractive: She looks just like the rest of y’all?), and they all look like sex slaves. Now, I have nothing against sexy, but there’s sexy as in sultry and/or erotic, and sexy as in just cheap. I would not say that Valek, fighting alongside his sister, whose panties are there for all to see, is sexy. I would say that is kind of bothersome, actually.

Classy: the man and the woman on the left, Valek and Kiara, you might have guessed, are siblings.

Bothersome is also the fact that although Melanie is the hero of this book, and apparently she is to become a big badass sometime in the future, on all of the covers she is just hanging there while almighty Valek is behind her back in a fighting position. Because even when girls are strong, they still can’t make it without a guy to protect them. Great message! Not.

The cover of issue #5. As you can see, Melanie is a fierce warrior, she needs no man, and she… Wait. She’s just standing there looking confused and defenseless in the shadow of a strong male.

This book was definitely interesting! I cannot wait to see what the rest have in store!

She is a teenager that is timid and rise to stay invisible. It doesn't last long as she is given a mythical power from the warrior who gave it to her. Valid has trained his whole life to inherit this power but doesn't get it. She tries to not have anything to do with it, but that doesn't work. She doesn't from this power. Yet with no training she is able to fight these supernatural evils and conquer them. Valid wants to get her to the priests so that the power can be transferred to him. Can they do that? How did get the power to conquer the evil that she must fight. Will she stay being the wraithborn or not? What are the supernatural evils she must face and fight?

The artwork is excellent. I like the story. It is a good story to read. It is full of creepiness and action. This graphic novel surprised me as it wasn't what I expected, it was better!

I found the concept of this to be interesting and the art reminded me of Mike Turner. But I just couldn't get into this story. It felt flat and boring. And honestly was too quick to rush into fights with no background as to what was going on.

Story was slightly difficult to follow and I felt as confused as the main character did. For the few fight scenes there were, I found myself skipping through them. However, the artwork was incredible and I'm intrigued enough to read more.

This graphic novel was nothing short of amazing. The artistry was phenomenal and the story line was brilliant. At the end, there is a note stating it is a revised edition from the original Wraithborn series with DC comics. I did take a look at the DC comic page for Wraithborn. It is a 6 part mini series. Each edition is approximately $2.99-$3.99 USD. I did not purchase them but the site gives a description of what to expect for each comic in the series. It appears that the revised edition that I read for this review was a compilation of the 6 mini-series comics. I enjoyed reading this. It was a quick read but it didn't feel like it until I got to the end. It leaves you with a want to continue reading the story; to find out what happens next. The lead character, Melanie, is a high school girl. She comes off as a shy, stay out of the way, take care of daddy type of girl. The story line moves along at a good pace.It doesn't lull too long here or there so my interest was at full peak the entire read. Characters are introduced throughout. There is the unlikely friend, Zoe, the hero trying to help Melanie and keep her safe, Valin, the knowledgeable grandmother (she is actually Zoe's grandmother), Miss Odette, the villian, Brijit, and then the supporting characters (the girls that summoned Brijit, Valin's sister Kiara who has her own agenda, the brotherhood that Valin belongs to, etc). I would love to see this become the next mini-series on television or Netflix.

What might be a good action story is overshadowed by so much tits and ass that I began to wonder what the point of it was.

If you can get past this objectification women and the fatally shy main character, you might enjoy thus study of a reluctant heroine.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review

This first volume collects issues 1 to 6 of the 'Redux edition. Most of the book is actually a flashback (explaing what led to the events of the first pages), but reads as a full story nonetheless. It introduces us to the main characters of 'Wraithborn', starting with Melanie, a normal and shy teenager who only wants to go through high school life relatively unscathed and unbullied, and thus does her best to remain invisible and not attracted unwanted attention. Only that's what she does when she accidentally receives the power of the Wraithborn, intended for another, and finds herself pursued by an antagonist who wants nothing more than this power for herself.

I found the art in general fairly good, with dynamic action scenes and vibrant colours, although (as often in such cases) the women's clothing is nothing too practical, and Melanie's features seemed maybe too... mature? Including when she's still a clueless teenager. So at first I thought she was more like 25 instead of 15, which felt a bit weird.

Some characters were likeable, like Zoe, with her weird fashion sense and the way she helps Melanie. Mel herself was more subdued, so it took me more time to warm up to her. Val... well, I still kind of wonder if he's going to tell Mel the truth, or if he'll do the not-so-nice thing. Could go either way. He didn't act like the vindicative, jealous type he could've been, all circumstances considered, so bonus point.

The story itself was interesting enough, albeit not too original compared to other works with similar themes. The villains are ruthless, the heroes may or may not be set up for betrayal later by those they trust most, and there's the lingering mystery of why the original 'carrier' of the Wraithborn was outside, instead of preparing for the ceremony (and therefore had to give his power to the first passer-by who happened to be around): either there's something fishy here or it was a plot hole, and I really hope it's the former... but, of course, this is the kind of information that is likely to be revealed only later.

Conclusion: I may pick the next volume in ebook, but probably not in paper version.

WOW! Wraithborn was beautiful! The art was amazing, and Joe Benitez' story and characters matched. You get the 6 issues collected in this Redux edition.

Melanie is a shy kid just trying to navigate that impossible time we call high school. She can't say boo to the typical bullies and is trying to look out for her dad. It's her bad luck to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, or is it?

Valin has been training from birth for the Wraithborn, but forces he isn't even aware of, are plotting against him.

Oh don't forget voodoo, loa, a restless goddess and her hounds and evil champion, a conniving sister and an order that may or may not have humanity's best interest at heart. This was an amazing story line and introduction to Benitez' world of the Wraithborn.

Note that this is from an advance review copy for which I thank the publisher.

I should have paid more attention to the 'redux' portion of this title! It makes me wonder what went wrong with the first one that necessitated this one. For me, this one failed also, and there were multiple reasons for it. One was that it offered nothing new, and brought nothing original to this genre's table. Worse than this, we have a supposedly heroic female main character who is always in need of rescue. It was pretty sad.

Add to that the absurd over-sexualization of every single female character who appeared in this story - except of course the designated "Fat One" who actually only looked 'fat' because all other females in the story were anorexic everywhere except for their breasts. There was school-bullying running rife with no teachers in sight. There were trope cliques and not a single thing that was fresh or refreshing to read. Overall, it was a decidedly pathetic effort at redux-ing trope and cliché. And that was just the school. The demons and those which controlled them were no better and no more inventive.

Just how many warmed-over tropes were there here? Almost too many to count. We have the designated hero raised and trained by eastern monks. There was a twist to this: that the untrained unsuspecting girl gets the power he was trained for, and this is what attracted me to this story, but even that twist was a fail in the final analysis because this girl was so clueless and so helpless. Even when she began to warm up to her role, she was still completely lackluster and unappealing.

In her we had the semi-orphaned nondescript girl who's a nervous wreck, and who's bullied by cheerleaders! Seriously? Who can't kick a cheerleader's ass?! This girl, Melanie, has your standard quirky, supportive friend. There's a red under the bed (literally red-haired here), and demon dogs which came straight out of the Alien movie series. They were not the only movie rip-off. Kalin, the guy who was supposed to be the wraithborn dude, is a rip-off of Kylo Ren, right down to the first initial, the sword, the black robes, and the ridiculous and totally unnecessary face mask. Seriously?

These morons fight with swords when a machine gun would have done a better job on the Alien dogs in a tenth of the time. What the hell is wrong with these writers and artists? Sword-fighting dudes and pneumatic females? Please! Get a life! Get a clue. Come up with something truly original. Then you won't have to wonder why your comic isn't selling. This one was crap and I certainly do not recommend it. In fact it's comic books like this that make me think it's worth petitioning not for a maturity rating aimed at those who read the comic, but a maturity rating for those who write and illustrate the thing so I get some advance warning of what I'm getting into.

A gloriously rendered story of good versus evil with elements of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Blade and Guillermo Del Toro thrown into the mix. Fantastic artwork by Joe Benitez hurls the story by Marcia Chen off the page and you are immediately drawn into a world of high school angst, alienation, demons and enchantresses. A good as any of the more mainstream comics out their today. Beautifully drawn and well written.

Gorgeous Art, Decent Plot, Sharp Narrative and Dialogue

Valin, the apprentice warrior, was next in line to receive "the Wraithborn", but Melanie got in the way of the transfer and ended up gifted with that mystical power. The bond is for life, so what we end up with is a sort of fantasy buddy-cop story featuring a warrior with crazy skills and a timid teenager imbued with crazy power. By the end of this 160 page TP, which collects the first six issues of the Wraithborn story, we have traveled along all of the twists and turns that lead to that conclusion, and we're ready for the next adventure.

The book is well paced. We set up Melanie and Valin and follow them up to the point where they meet cute, (fighting off huge demon dogs). Luckily for the pacing, while we get a lot of Melanie trying to figure out what happened, resisting the inevitable, going into denial, and seeking help from her psychic best friend, Valin figures out what's happening right away and takes action. That means we don't wander around forever waiting for the lightbulbs to go on in the characters' heads.

Rather, as you can imagine, lots of bad guys, and some guys-of-dubious-motivation, are trying to get to Melanie and pry that old Wraithborn power out of her, and that's where all of the action, sword fighting, and demon slaying takes place. Lots of monologuing and ma-wha-haw-haw from the chief bad guy and her various minions, but the bad guy is sort of an evil hoot, and the monologuing does keep the story clear, so that's all good.

The Melanie character, vacillating between timidity and and spunk, is very nicely done and rather appealing. Her BFF, Zoe, is a refreshing tonic when Mel gets angsty. Valin is obviously a hottie, but isn't played up with any lame crushworthy angle. He's actually a bit of a priss when he isn't slaying big scary things. The dialogue is crisp and sometimes funny and always comprehensible. There are lots of tangents and throwaway bits that make it clear the author knows what she's doing, and wants to make this both exciting and fun.

The artwork - pencils and colors especially - is gorgeous and rich. There's a lot of demon slaying and "big" full page confrontations, and a good deal of the action is hyper-real or stylized, but that adds to the energy and visual excitement of the story. My only hesitation is that this artist loves his big breasts, which is fine except they change size from panel to panel, and sometimes look a little weird and creepy on the teen Melanie. Then again, if you're going to have at least six different Red-Sonja-style female warriors, well, convention requires that they wear a lot of leather and peek-a-boo armor.

So, this is big, colorful, dynamic, action-packed, and tightly written. There are some big scenes worth lingering over and interesting scene composition choices. This is a pretty rich offering and a nice change up by a funky creative team. A nice find.

(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)