"Renegade" is a graphic novel biography of Martin Luther's life. I assume the intended audience is protestant Christians, so I was surprised by the gore and use of bad language. A couple bad guys say things like "D*mned stubborn idiots!" and even Luther says, "Who the h*ll does she want?"

I understand that life and war back then were pretty cruel, but I was surprised by the focus on gore when the graphic novel format limits how much information can be included. Why not focus more on what Luther did and said rather than panel after panel of scenes of people dying horribly or him being bored during a time when he was hiding? Some pages showed people impaled on a tree, a woman slowly burning to death, and rows of hanged people with broken necks. We even get three panels focusing on a severed head that's impaled on a large hook.

The novel started with Luther as a youth and followed him until he died. It also showed how other people used the sentiments that Luther stirred up in the peasants to start a war. There were several pages with Luther in old age preaching against the Jews and blaming them for his sickness, plus some scenes after his death. I'll accept that Luther's marriage might not have been a love match, but he's shown as not even respecting her even as he agrees to marry her. I don't know--maybe Luther wasn't such a great guy, but I would have liked more on what he preached and did that lasted. It's what lasted that I'm interested in.

As a minister in a protestant church I was interested to see how Luther's story was told. This is a quick read, summarising the key points of the protestant reformation and the European wars of religion. The story is told as a graphic novel in fast moving form, well drawn with intriguing details. Luther's anxious fear of hell comes across well, as does his recognition that salvation is a free gift of God, not bought by indulgences.
Luther's anti semitism seems to be being blamed here on his chronic illness, if true an interesting reason for this objectionable part of his theology.
i found some of the portraits too similar to each other to distinguish easily, and wish that the pictures at the end were at the beginning of the book to clarify who was who.
Overall an interesting book for the Luther 500 year, I will be recommending it to colleagues.