* * *
3 / 5

Welcome Back is a graphic novel, the first book comprising of 4 issues. I don't often read graphic novels, but this one was a fun foray into the genre. I was entirely attracted by the plot: Mali and Tessa have lived hundreds of lives and each life they have only one goal: to kill the other. Lifetime after lifetime they have fought, for so long they can't ever remember why, only that they must. But now, Mali is having doubts.

First off, I loved the art style. I thought it looked amazing. But then, halfway through the artist either changed style or the artist changed entirely. I found this quite jarring and although the art was still good, I thought it was a downgrade, which was such a shame. Otherwise the layout was fine and it was easy to read. There's a bunch of really awesome panels where it shows Mali and Tessa as all the people they have been before, and the fighting and action scenes are beautiful.

I did find it a little bit difficult to understand at first. Essentially, Mali and Tessa are sequels, people that reincarnate. When one kills the other, they die straight after and both are reborn. A sequel must be "woken up" in each life in order to remember who they and what their mission is, and whilst Tessa is woken up at five years old and put through intensive training, Mali becomes a young adult before she awakes. She's at a disadvantage, however, because Tessa is already on her trail. I did find the idea really great and engaging, but it did take some time to pick up the gist in the book.

I was also interested in this because it was listed under LGBT+ categories. Mali and Tessa are both gay, but this only comes into play at the end of the book, and I found it a bit abrupt and perhaps a little forced. I would have liked a lot more development, which hopefully will happen in the next volume!

Essentially, Welcome Back is a bit convoluted and difficult to follow, but the art is beautiful and I loved the characters.

I did have a few minor issues with this. The layout can be a bit confusing at times and I think a few times I ended up reading the boxes out of order [There are a LOT of boxes, in a LOT of different colors. It's a bit much, and that's coming from someone who reads a lot of Deadpool]. The art is awesome, but I think they literally changed artists in the middle of an issue, which was a bit jarring.

But the premise was so good [I mean it's basically a soulmate/reincarnation AU but with assassins, what's not to love?] that I still really enjoyed it and will definitely be picking up the next volume when it's available. I love both of the main characters and I hope we will continue to learn more about their past lives. I also love that their reincarnations aren't limited by race, gender, or sexuality but that they are just themselves every time no matter what they look like on the outside. A really great start to what will hopefully be a really cool series!

This is a very violet graphic novel about two people who are fighting each other through-out time. Each time they are reincarnated, they have to go after the other.

And each time, they have to "wake up" to remember their past.

And that is it. This is the story of the most recent waking up, and the character deciding she doesn't want to be an assasine, but how can she stop.

And if you want to find out, you can get this issue. <spoiler>They decide to become lovers instead.</spoiler>

If would rate it lower, as it was a slog to get through, and I'm not into violence, but, hey, some people like that sort of thing, and it is what it says on the tin, so I can't rate it down for being that.

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

I have to admit, I'm not fully sold on this concept. It's cool - reincarnated assassins who's sole purpose is to take out their opposing target in a neverending war - but it seems almost aimless at times.

Similarly with the plot of these first four issues. It seems almost light on it - for all the build-up, with Mali waking up, the final battle comes very quickly, and somewhat abruptly. I wouldn't go so far as to say that this could have been expanded to cover the whole arc, but it maybe needed a bit more fleshing out. I'll save any judgement on that until I've read the rest of the issues.

The art was, for the most part, really nice. It changed artist about halfway through, and I didn't like that art quite as much, but it was still good. (And nowhere near as painful as some of the DC/Marvel art I've suffered through.) It did seem as though, when the second artist took over, that Tessa's skin got lightened which wasn't great (I don't know if it was intentional or accidental but still).

Loved this graphic novel. Great story and artwork throughout.