A really impactful, sensitive and intelligent sci-fi drama.  Two elderly people, long married but with regrets about what might have been, sign up for an exclusive, secretive and illegal science experiment, where cell regeneration technologies are supposed to make them fitter/happier than ever.  What comes out the other end is not quite as anyone hoped – and certainly not what the 'mad scientist' type (for want of a better phrase) seeking remedial science for his disfigured sister wanted.  If anything the book could be marked down for not easing us in to the many flashbacks and so on in the early stages (for such a scientific book, with such scientific characters, it's a little shy on giving us data like a timeline) – but really all negatives are so minor as to hardly be worth mentioning.  The subdued palette, the black comedy of a remote scientist living through a TV with fake arms attached to its sides, the subtle way the, er, results are made to look different through their gendered voice-boxes…  there is clearly a lot of clever thought on these pages.  It's nice that this is perfectly self-contained, too – but at the same time the full trilogy will be something to admire.  Purchase is strongly recommended.

Upgrade Soul by Ezra Claytan Daniels is a free NetGalley e-comicbook that I read in mid-July.

Molly Nonnar and her husband Hank choose to undergo an intensive medical procedure under the banner of the Upgrade Cell Project in order to reset their genetic/molecular makeup to work at a prime, optimal, more youthful level. Prior to this, they are somewhat elderly, highly intelligent, sardonic, really into experimental biology, and brought on as the project’s first human participants. As the graphic novel goes on, you begin to realize two things: that the procedure creates two entirely separate, primordial, but fast-learning and adapting versions of Molly & Hank and that the clinicians, departmental heads and think tank representatives for the Upgrade Cell Project, and the Nonnar family all have parts to play and perspectives to unravel, right up until its catastrophic, emotional, unthinkable end. All of this is depicted with a muddy, sallow palette, like shades of a boiled dinner, then the treatment hospital scenes come off as a gakky, hypercolor eyesore.

Most of us worry about getting old. Yet this anxiety is more acute when we hit our middle-age.

Old-age worries often come unbidden. Seeing our bodies unable to shrug off pain like it used to bring dark thoughts that zero in on our mortality. Despite what we see on our screens, death is a human reality. There is no drug or cream against growing old. 

The relationship between the fears of old age and the actions it fosters is at the root of Upgrade Soul, a graphic novel by Ezra Claytan Daniels. In the book, we see how Hank and Molly pledge their wealth to an experimental experiment that reverses ageing. The consequence of this action and the ethical question it raises are what the book tries to grapple with.

Upgrade Soul does not bother moralising about the right and wrong of scientific ethics. What it does best is reveal the depth of fear humans have about their legacy in the face of death. It also shows that mentally putting yourself in other people's shoes do not always translate into empathy. Lastly, it lays bare the influence of love and trust over many other powerful emotions.

Many thanks to Lion Forge for review copy.

3.5/5 stars

I liked the topics dealt in this graphic novel. Lots of questions on morality, immortality, cloning, disfigurement, identity and the fight for racism. Now that I put it like that I'm a bit awed as to how Ezra Daniels managed to include all of those themes and still tell a story. It's a tragic story with a bittersweet ending. (view spoiler)

I didn't take to the font chosen or the slightly low-res illustrations.

It's a thought provoking story, some of the tech talk lost me but you can still get the gist of the whole story. Goodreads doesn't support half stars, so I bumped it up instead of down.

Ezra Claytan Daniels is both author and illustrator of the new graphic novel, Upgrade Soul. In it, Hank and Molly decide to undergo an experimental procedure to regain their youth.

Daniels tells how this long-married couple makes such a momentous decision. He shows what kind of people they are, and also how they came to have the money to invest in such a thing. To do so, he uses both present-day images and flashbacks.

As you might imagine, the process doesn’t go quite as planned. The “medical” team might not be quite as qualified as Hank and Molly thought. The process might not be quite as proven. And if it had been, the novel wouldn’t have been so thought-provoking.

Conceptually, Daniels discusses some pretty intense topics. Lots of graphic novels have death as one of their themes. But not often as such a realistic impulse to spurn death and regain youth. Since my husband signed up last week for Medicare, thoughts about aging are very much on my mind. So Upgrade Soul was a good match for am evening’s reading.

Hank, Molly, and their caregivers also confront the question of identity, and what it means to be a person. If personhood includes the ability to both live and die, as well as think and feel, then the experimental results do indeed have a soul. Or do they? Are they just an extension of Hank’s and Molly’s souls? Heavy stuff, actually.

Musician and lyricist Tori Amos puts it this way, “I think you have to know who you are. Get to know the monster that lives in your soul, dive deep into your soul and explore it.”

Daniels conjures brightly washed images, alternately stark and almost shocking. He draws Hank and Molly with empathy and care. They’ve remained in my mind’s eye even after finishing the novel.

My conclusions:
Upgrade Soul is a compelling story, and worth an evening’s time. I appreciate Daniels’ ability to discuss the process of aging and the desire to reverse time. He takes an innovative and intelligent approach to both topics. At the same time, he creates a suspenseful story.

Acknowledgements:
Thanks to NetGalley, Lion Forge, Diamond Book Distributors, and the author for the opportunity to read a digital ARC in exchange for this honest review. Anticipated publication date is September 18, 2018.

Everyone's positive reviews for this had me very hopeful but I just couldn't get into it. 
The premise is pretty cool - an elderly couple signs on for an experimental treatment that promises to send them back to their youth, only better - they will be healthier, stronger, wiser and just BETTER than they were before in every way. 
Of course that's not what actually happens - they end up essentially split in two: one version of them old and on the verge of death, another version incredibly intelligent but horribly and hideously deformed.
My problem with the graphic novel was basically that is was SO slow. Nothing about it really grabbed me, and despite the very cool premise, I found it very dull. Also, the art is completely not my taste - in fact I find it kind of gross and unappealing. It doesn't help me to try to read something I already don't care for if even the art can't salvage it for me.

I thought this was a really thoughtful exploration of what it means to be you, the realities of getting old and the importance of family. It tells the story of Molly and Hank, an ageing couple who opt to undergo a revolutionary procedure to 'upgrade' their bodies to gain extra years of life and youth. The ramifications of this decision are wide-reaching and incredibly well explored through the novel, which follows the couple as they come to terms with the results of their experiment. I thought that the writing was great and the artwork was fantastic as it provided a visual representation of the characters emotional responses that was very effective. The plot is quite straightforward but the novel cleverly employs flashback scenes to flesh out the narrative without resorting to large info-dump sections. The characters are well defined and their motivations and reactions felt authentic throughout. There were a few occasions where I felt like the action was running a little long and the pacing was a little patchy in places, but all in all, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone with an interest in genetic manipulation in fiction.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

There is a lot going on in this graphic novel. Some deep ideas about aging, identity, love, appearance, are explored in the context of how they affect the characters of this work. It is not told in chronological order, which causes some confusion at times. The story itself is often surprising, taking twists and turns that I didn't expect, but which made sense in context. I was not particularly enamored of the artwork. I could appreciate it, but I did not find it to my particular taste. This is not a kid's graphic novel. It is meant for adults.

There have been countless in science fiction using advances in cloning technology to ask questions about human identity. Science fiction has also used different forms of humanoids or aliens to explore race and racial identity. Upgrade Soul merges these two with a unique take on this subgenere of science fiction. The author, Ezra Claytan Daniels, won the Dwayne McDuffie Award for diverse representation in the comics medium.

The book starts with Hank and Molly Nonnar, an elderly couple, deciding to undergo a radical genetic procedure designed to "upgrade" their bodies by removing the effects of aging, stress, and trauma from their cells. The procedure is only partially successful. The Via lab used clones to create the new bodies, but the clones only developed to the physical stage of a fetus. The new bodies - known as Manuela and Henry - possess all of Molly and Hank's memories, as well as heightened mental and physical abilities, but look like overgrown potatoes. Meanwhile, the original Molly and Hank look like their original selves, but are physically and mentally weakened.

As is often the case in these stories, there is a link between the two such that the "copy" cannot survive without the "original." This forces the characters to ask which one "deserves" to survive. The "original" has the body, but the "copy" has the mind. This is a classic mind-body problem (see my essay in After the Avengers). Where does the human soul truly reside? In the corporal brain or in the accumulated memories?

For Hank, the dilemma has a racial dimension because so much of his identity is tied to his African-American heritage, yet his "copy" Henry lacks a race. There's a particularly compelling conversation in which Henry scolds Hank for limiting his identity to a "label." Yet, we as the readers get to see Henry's past as someone who strove for African-American representation in pop culture and know that race is more than a label to him. There's even a debate about representation in pop culture within the comic (I especially appreciate the jab at Kurtzman and Orci, the team behind the Star Trek reboots).

Admittedly, the story does require a bit of suspension of disbelief, particularly when it comes to the extremes the Via company goes to mislead Hank and Molly. It's hard to believe that a company could actually expect a nondisclosure agreement to cover the types of abuse that occurred in the lab. Then again, the rogue science corporation is pretty much a necessary conceit for this type of story. Scientists held to peer review wouldn't get away with any of this.

Packaging Upgrade Soul as a graphic novel seems like a particularly appropriate choice given the emphasis on physicality and appearance. I doubt the story would have had nearly the impact as a novella without the images of Molly and Hank's new bodies. Seeing their misshapen forms underscores the physical deformity and makes it more challenging for readers to passively accept them as "human." Instead, Upgrade Soul requires viewers to consciously choose to accept the new beings as human.

That said, I'd recommend whoever does the penciling on this comic to increase the spacing between words. In a few places, the spaces seemed almost nonexistent, causing me to puzzle over the presence of a hitherto never before mentioned "tome" ("to me").

Overall, this is one of those comics that I feel comfortable recommending to fans of science fiction who aren't necessarily fans of graphic novels. Upgrade Soul feels like a short story that might appear in Locus, but works better because of the artwork.

The collected edition of Upgrade Soul comes out on September 18, 2018.

[Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.]

Upgrade Soul is a book that reminds me of lots of different books I've read, but it's like nothing I've read at the same time. Molly and Hank are an elderly couple who go through an experimental anti-aging process. Hank is enthusiastic, having invested money in the company performing the procedures, while Molly needs some convincing, but eventually agrees. The procedure does not go as planned, and soon they are faced with Manuela and Henry, blob like doppelgangers that have their memories and seem to be improving as Molly and Hank get worse. Add to this story a ruthless company head, a morally conflicted brother, and his sister, who is literally and metaphorical finding her voice for the first time, and you have a rich story that will have you pondering medical ethics, aging, quality of life, and what it means to have an identity. 

Molly and Hank are highly educated, and truly think that this procedure is worth pursuing, not only to regain some of the glory of their younger days, but to contribute to the scientific community. There are no clear moral stances taken. This story in less capable hands could have come to pat moral conclusions (science bad! age naturally!), but it doesn't. Upgrade Soul was unlike any other science fiction comic I've read, and I won't soon forget it. 

Thanks to NetGalley for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is, without a doubt, the best graphic novel I've ever had the pleasure of reading. It was sharp, intelligent, horrifying and graphic. The phrase "I couldn't put it down" hardly does it justice. I'm a sucker for any media which doesn't pander to an audience; books that presume the audience is intelligent, rather than treating us like spoon to mouth consumers. Ruminating on the implications of Daniels work is going to be my favorite part of finishing the novel--the thought experiment carries on. 

Hank and Molly are undergoing a very dangerous procedure to cleanse their cells. A scientific breakthrough makes it possible for their youth to be reintroduced, the longevity of their already long-lived lives to renew, with ever improving mental faculties and physical abilities. What would you be if you had more time to live, were as fit as any athlete, and could remember every memory in your personal history like it happened yesterday? 

Like all brave experiments, this one goes awry. Kenny, the sheepish scientist in charge of the transformation, leaves out one particularly important aspect of the rejuvenation process: Hank and Molly's bodies aren't the ones renewing. They're being cloned. As the experiment continues, only one set of Hank and Molly can survive, but which will it be?

So.Much. Humanity. In such a small volume. I wish that there was more already, and yet the story completes itself to a perfect crescendo. You won't believe how engrossed you can be in a graphic novel until you read this.

This book was amazing! If you love graphic novels, science fiction, and a great story, this book is for you! [This book was given to me for free for my 100& honest review from Netgalley.}
Upgrade Soul is about a couple who undergo this surgery which will [hopefully] make them young again, and expand their lifespans.

Personally, these pictures made my soul happy. I fell in love with these pictures and the characters and the writing and EVERYTHING about this book. What is there not to love about Upgrade soul? Upgrade Soul is the best graphic novel I've read this year, and I guarantee you'll enjoy it too.
You can buy this book on Amazon for 19.00 for a wonderful paperback. Do yourself a favor and buy Upgrade Soul.
HAPPY READING!

Here is a page from the book

This book deals with a lot of the moral issues of cloning. I found it very disturbing in a good way. It's a fresh take on a classic science fiction trope.

This hooked me until I finished it. A brilliant story that raises important questions and clothes them in characters you’ll never forget.

Interesting and clever strory kept me hooked. On the other hand, I didn't really like the art in this graphic novel. It feels a bit off to me and significantly decreased my enjoyment of the story.

An interesting graphic novel. Not really my type or art style, but I'll recommend it to patrons who would like it.

Upgrade Soul is a thought-provoking and delightfully disturbing graphic novel. As someone who considers themselves a science fiction layman, I'm always on the lookout for unique premises to grab my attention. This dark story did just that, and more. 

Elderly couple Hank and Molly opt to participate in an experimental treatment that promises renewed youth and health. There's no going back, but what could go wrong? Lots of things, it turns out! Upgrade Soul doesn't shy from tackling the big stuff. How do our minds and bodies define us? What happens when they're separated? If you enjoy Black Mirror, you will feel the same thrill reading this thoughtful and complex story. 

Daniels approaches these topics with detailed and muted artwork that sets the tone. And look at that cover! There's a certain joy in seeing philosophically intricate ideas captured in illustration. Upgrade Soul is a reminder that there is a lot of humanity to be explored in this medium. I look forward to seeing more of his work in the future.

I received my copy in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Netgalley, Lion Forge, and Diamond Book Distributers.

Beautifully illustrated graphic novel of the story of the story of Hank and Molly. Hank and Molly are an older couple who have been married a long time. They decide to get rejuvenated so they could be young again. As with any experiment, it could go wrong. They turn out looking more like a potato, but their clones get smarter.  The sad part is that they can never go back after once it is done. I enjoyed reading it very much. Different but wonderful. I received this book from Net Galley and Diamond Book Distributors for an honest review and no compensation otherwise.

Straight cut graphic novel of an elderly couple who decide to undergo a new procedure to be young once more. 

The novel jumps from the past to the present leading you through Molly and Hank's desicision to follow through with this new untested procedure. 

Beautiful art work, straightforward but thought provoking novel.

What is life? What is a soul? What is a clone?

All of these questions and more are asked in this book about a couple trying to gain another go-round on the wheel of life, by having their souls put into new bodies, that in theory, will be better, younger, and stronger than their current ones.

However, it doesn't quite work out that way.

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-519" src="http://www.reyes-sinclair.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Screen-Shot-2018-05-17-at-11.59.37-PM.png" alt=""/> 

Not only do their new bodies not grow the way they are supposed to, but their old bodies are still alive and kicking.
<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-529" src="http://www.reyes-sinclair.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Screen-Shot-2018-05-23-at-3.31.32-PM.png" alt=""  />

Very disturbing graphic novel on the nature of what makes you, well, you. Both the clone as the original want their lives. Who deserves it? And is it ok to get a new life, in a body that is considered hideous?

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