I quite liked this mystery. It's about a engineer who investigates the bridge between Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick in Canada when it fails. It's a neat idea and the kind of thing you come up with when you have to drive on a crazy long bridge like that every day. I really like that it's completely self-contained as these multiple part European comics start to get real old.

'Irons' by Tristan Roulot with art by Luc Brahy is a graphic novel about a structural engineer and a strange mystery.

Jack Irons is not a very nice person, but when he is stranded by a bridge collapse with no way back to the mainland, he is probably the right person to investigate. A bank robbery, a possible explosion, town politics and greed all figure in to the story.

I liked this story of a highly capable investigator, but he's not a very likeable character. Maybe that changes or makes more sense as the series progresses.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Europe Comics and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

Shockingly boring for a story in which so much is going on. I think its mainly due to the completely emotionless main character, the titular Irons who expresses ZERO emotion throughout the entire story.
Basically, Irons is in a tiny town somewhere on an island in Canada and is trying to get home but while driving across a long bridge to the mainland and his flight when the bridge collapses. In a flashback, we see that a young Irons was also involved in a bridge collapse as a child, which killed the rest of his family. So he grew up to be a structural engineer and conveniently an expert on bridges. He sticks around town to solve the collapse, mostly because he has no other choice.
It's a bland take on what could have been an interesting mystery but there is very little substance.

The perspective of what origin stories are usually pertains to superheroes in what creates their mythology but the texture is that real people and normal people always have their origin stories and will continue to do so. "Irons" [Tristan Roulot/Europe/147pgs] uses its perspective and, while creating an anti-social anti-hero, the reality of his reactions and problem solving give an interesting credence to his story. The initial construct works quite well since it establishes our main character's strengths, weaknesses and motive but also his psychology. Irons is a man created by his pain. He is an engineer by trade and did bridge demolitions in Afghanistan but now works in the private sector on bridges. One night as he is traveling to Montreal, but he gets stuck in New Brunswick during a snowstorm and happens to witness the destruction of part of a large bridge. Stuck in the town and initially considered a suspect, he becomes both part of the investigation but also a hindrance and revelation to the town despite rubbing them the wrong way. His relation to the local police investigator is the best part of the graphic novel both because of its brutal honesty but also in the fact that it harks to the real human psyche. The story plays real and the art in many ways, especially underwater and in the night, really underlines this. The resolve is both logical but also effective for the story. In an age where everybody thinks the protagonist has to have a superpower, simple human ingenuity sometimes is all one needs.

B+

By Tim Wassberg

Driving over bridges is a normal experience, but when bridges fail, people usually die and someone is left looking at the pieces, trying to figure out what happened. The main character in "Irons" is an engineer who decided on his career path after he was the only member of his family to survive a bridge collapse. During a snowstorm, he narrowly avoids another bridge disaster while trying to leave a Canadian fishing village. While waiting for the opportunity to leave, he gradually gets drawn into the community and reluctantly agrees to investigate this collapse. Together with amazing art, character development and an interesting mystery, readers learn background information on fishing, economic struggles, and a few of the complexities behind how bridges succeed and fail. Prepare your physics students for their bridge construction and destruction unit by having them watch the "Galloping Gurtie" video and then read this book.

Wally Keniston - Teacher / Librarian

What would have been an interesting premise, as per blurb, was unfortunately delivered as blandly as Jack Irons' character. Normally, an apathetic psychopath is something I would go for in a story but like the rest of the characters, the MC left me cold.

The focus of the story was on a small town struggling to survive and the threat of a big company destroying their livelihood. A big shot city engineer among simple small town folks created nice conflict but I was expecting more physics and engineering stuff, and more action. Also, background info on Irons would have been useful but that is probably on the next volumes.

The comics per se wasn't bad. I didn't hate anything about it plus the cover looked so intriguing. It just that scenes that would have been fraught with tension and suspense lacked the punch. Everything was so blah I'm just thankful it was short.

P.S.

I received a copy of Irons Vol.1 - The Engineer from Europe Comics via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.


SOUNDTRACK


Mood To Burn Bridges
Neko Case & Her Boyfriends
Furnace Room Lullaby

The art is very simple, almost rough.
This wasn’t written by a Canadian and you can tell. We don’t appreciate it when others write Canadians and use the stupid jokes the world tells about us.
The mystery was good if a little short.
ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The beginning of this graphic novel was really strong, so much so that I had high hopes for the rest. While it was definitely entertaining it was basically a not so nice guy investigating a bridge collapse. Which was nice but only so much exciting.

The main character has a tragic back story but it was difficult to really like him. I'm curious however to see where it is going from here. The art was not superb but nice enough. I would like to read the next volume.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Jack Irons is an engineer. He is distrustful of humanity. He doesn’t like to socialize. Jack is an all-business man. Trying to get to the airport, he doesn’t make it. He gets a taxi willing to drive him from the island to the mainland to grab another flight to get to his destination. Unfortunately, the only bridge that takes them to the mainland is damaged. How did it get damage? The mayor has no idea. She asks Jack to examine the reports given by the insurance bridge examiners. She doesn’t want the island to get cheated by a false report. What does Jack discover?

Irons is an excellent mystery done in graphic novel style. It is well written with excellent graphics. Jack Irons character fascinated me with his personality.. I enjoyed reading it very much.

A thriller with death, bank robbery, and pre-destined nastiness, but one that is actually too understated and home-spun for its own good. Without ever knowing what the hero of the title is rushing towards or away from, it's awkward to see him change his mind (and the cost of his employment) over the collapse of a bridge and all that this drama about such event entails. It was nice to see a book about such a low-key issue (a small town's fishing success), but it needed more oomph.

This is not at all what I was expecting. For some reason I thought there would be some sort of super natural aspect to the story. Especially with the opening flash back sequence of a traumatic event during childhood.

I was pleasantly surprised that this is actually a mystery graphic novel. The man character has zero social skills so the character development is not there which is understandable. You do see a little into his past and some of his quirks. This appears to be a first in a series and I am not sure what the next books are going to be about but I am interested to see where else the this character will be taken.

I have really mixed feelings about Irons. The story is pretty good, and I think most of the art is decent (though some is a little on the dark side for me).

However, some of the dialogue is just really weird to me. I'm honestly not as up on my Quebecois cursing as I probably should be, and I've never actually been to P.E.I., so it is entirely possible that there are people there who speak completely in English except for when they swear, but I don't think that's really the case. For me the swear words aren't offensive so much as ill-placed and strange.

On the other hand, Jack Irons is kinda hot, so I'd probably give another volume in this series a go.

3.5 stars rounded up.

Thanks to NetGalley and Europe Comics for providing me with a DRC of this book.

This is a page-by-page review:

Page 3: A little unsure why you'd be taking the clothes in such a situation, I mean, you're drowning, one of the kids is unconscious, the others have between them a sore shoulder and what looks like a punctured eye-socket (at-least a head injury); never mind the fact that the father, with sore ribs, has asked Jack to get onto his lap and then complains about the boy leaning too hard on his ribs. Also, settled at the bottom... do you know how deep Point Pleasant is? And, the pressure flow of the water that's going to come rushing in... it's going to fill the entire car in about 30 seconds... but, if you're going to wait until it's settled you may as well open the door/s...

I have to say, though, the artwork of the car's sinking, with the air bubbles, the unnatural movement of the car sinking in the water, it's quite decent. The last panel, though, with the strange amount of lighting seeping through, it was dark and rainy just a moment ago...

Page 4: Ahh... that explains it... brilliant. Wait a second, where the hell did the car go, wasn't its headlights a key indication for the strange lighting just a moment ago, now it's nowhere to be found... well, there is some light in the middle panel, mind you it's a fair distance away.

Okay, I'll be honest, I didn't quite use my logic there in opening/closing the window to only let the kid out; a derp moment...

Page 5: Nice... a quick overview of what brought 'Jack' (not necessarily that little boy but a Jack all the same) to the present day. A nice overview of Canada (specifically Prince Edward Island) day-to-day life in the (surprisingly? snowy April) spread over the next few pages and a great introduction to a few characters.

Pages 10 through 12: Hahaha, a brilliant little twist there connecting December 1967 to April ~2000-something... great use of shadowing against the snow with the police red/blue siren colour contrast.

Page 13: A little grammatical error (on "cause" instead of "caused"?) on one of the panels. The bridge collapsing where it did from a bombing though, sounds a bit far-fetched to me, we'll see where it took place, those cameras will know.

Pages 14 through 16: Brilliant transition of scenes, a great storyline, the artwork depicting great scenery, the protagonist character's importance and screen-time so far is very thoroughly written with his characteristics continuing in conciseness.

Page 17: A little grammatical error (on "She's good people" instead of "She's good with people" or "She's good with the people" or "She's good for the people"?) on one of the panels.

Pages 21 through 24: Some great underwater artwork and a superb storyline.

Page 27: Well, 'you learn something new every day': Nitrogen narcosis or "rapture of the deep"; also, again with the "She's good people"; this must be a Canadian thing...

Pages 29-37: That's a hell of imagination for a storm, jeez, I wouldn't want to be out in that... it really brings home the fear of North Atlantic fishing, even the Northumberland Strait... the atmosphere in these pages depicting the ethos of the people between their livelihood within Charlottetown, the brilliance throughout of holding together the atmosphere of a crime scene, and the little references to Dora the Explorer! Not to mention the amount of research gone into engineering knowledge.

Page 38: Hahaha, brilliant; a little reference to a local brewery, the Gahan (House) Brewery (never been, sounds awesome though)!

Pages 40-41: I think I missed something here, why was she responding in that way about the suffering?

Page 47: Okay, that's 40-41 answered.

Page 49: Hahaha, I love the reference to the VLC media player!

Pages 53-54: Oh man, the emotions...

I am so glad this is an on-going series rather than a one-off, such a splendid idea for a story.

It's a no from me. I tried 3 times to finish this and it was very hard. Those dialogues were hard to read (in a way they were some kind of boring and not interesting), quite cheesy. It lacks something that would keep my attention, it lacks good characters, though the plot is interesting. I did not like the artwork either. Shame, I hoped this will be something I will like a lot.

I received this book in exchange for a honest review from NetGalley.

I absolutely loved the crisp and detailed art for this graphic novel. Overall I really love the rise in crime graphic novels and this one is a interesting take on the crime procedural. The main character Irons was incredibly unlikable in a weirdly inoffensive way. Also great reference in the beginning to the Point Pleasant bridge failure and the moth man! As a huge paranormal and true crime/ crime drama fan I loved that reference. Overall good read!

This was only a partial story. Some parts were slow in beginning which I didn’t like. A bridge collapses into water with family in car. There’s a guy named Iron who figured out what happened. I gave this a 2.5 out of five stars.

Irons: The Engineer is an interesting read, it’s a lot of things at once. It’s a little bit of a thriller, a little bit of a perspective on human nature, a bit of a study on the world of bridge engineering, and of course it’s one hundred percent a graphic novel.
The graphic novel follows Jack Irons, a tough man who’s been through too much for one single person. Still, he’s made a life for himself out of his past, and is now an engineer with a specialty in understanding how a bridge or building fell apart. It’s quite amazing, actually. Here is one of what is surely many of his adventures.
I don’t think I’ve ever read a story quite like this one told through graphic novel form. I’ll admit that it made the story even more compelling, which I was grateful for. At times this story reminded me of the Mothman Prophecies, but that has more to do with the bridge elements and the tone than anything else that actually occurs within. Still, I liked basing the tone on that, it creeped me out right from the start.
Irons isn’t the easiest character to become fond of, and it’s clear he was written with that intent. Still, I couldn’t help but smile at his behavior from time to time. I did enjoy seeing the way he thought and how he perceived the world – that was fascinating.
Irons task was kind of an involuntary one, from the looks of things. He got stuck looking into a bridge accident that he would have preferred to avoid, probably because it appears he was on leave. Still, despite his lack of willingness it was exciting to see how he went about uncovering the truth of what caused the disaster.
The mystery of the bridge was a good one, and it tied in perfectly with the quick backstory we were given of the infamous Irons. Though it didn’t provide an explanation for the event that changed his life – perhaps that’ll be covered in another volume?
I’m not sure if this plot is intended to be standalone, or if they’re just testing the waters with this character. I could see it becoming something serial – the engineering version of James Bond or something similar. I can actually see a lot of potential with that idea.

Okay so this graphic novel is some Final Destination crap. One of my worst fears. It literally begins with a family sitting in traffic on top a bridge when suddenly the structure is comprised and it FALLS APART.

no. get. me. out.

The dialogue was a bit cheesy and unrealistic at this certain point. This family is literally sinking to the bottom of the ocean and the father just starts calculating on how much water pressure there is while the reader (me) is having a freaking panic attack like "GET OUT OF THERE! Don't be a calm smart human. PANIC!"

After a dramatic escape, the story switches perspectives to a man and engineer named Jack Irons (who looks exactly like Saitama from One Punch Man!!!) he builds bridges but gets tasked to solve the mystery on why this bridge collapsed after cameras caught the sound of suspicious explosions. I'm not quite sure if I was the right audience for this. I found it tedious to read and not interesting whatsoever. I mean.... the closest building I've ever come to is in Minecraft. I'll build you the coolest mansion ever there! but this? not my jam. I lost interest very quickly. Different plot points happened with next-to-no build up, there was very little time spent on the ramifications of them. I didn't find the artwork to be very attractive either.

All in all, I just found it to be very lackluster.

Irons Volume 1: The Engineer
Written by Tristan Roulot
Illustrated by Luc Brahy
Colored by Hugo Faco
Europe Comics

You don’t generally read comics where the hero’s superpower is that he’s a structural engineer specializing in bridges or where the adventure unfolds in Prince Edward Island and involves a lot of information about the fishing industry. And when you hear about such a thing, you don’t expect it to be an alluring, straightforward throwback that takes all these elements into a generally fascinating mystery.

Jack Irons, the hero of Irons, is a surly, somewhat mean-spirited seeming guy whose past experience of tragedy seems to have rubbed him the wrong way when dealing with people. One night while crossing the Confederation Bridge out of Prince Edward Island into New Brunswick, there’s a sudden collapse and Irons get pulled into the local investigation that highlights bad blood between the fishing community in Charlottetown and the corporation that owns the bridge, stemming from a tragic fishing boat accident years before.

Pulling from the curt city person trapped in the naive rural setting trope that plenty of mysteries offer, Irons doesn’t break any new ground in that area, but it does manage to make something out of the unusual elements it’s chosen to build a mystery around. Though Irons’ negativity is on continual display, it’s the actual investigation that takes center stage over the personalities featured, though without settling on two-dimensional characters to allow it to all play out.

Irons plays out like a throwback to comics of the past, like the hardboiled European genre of detectives and adventurers like Corto Maltese, or the strips featured in British boy’s comics of the ’60s and ‘70s, and that’s part of its charm. But it doesn’t entrench itself in any nostalgia and even as it portrays the extreme machismo inherent in those comics, it makes a point of not allowing to show off without some critique. I have no idea what kind of second adventure a structural engineer could blunder into, perhaps something thrilling in a skyscraper, but if they can match a scenario with a decent mystery, the second volume of Irons will probably be worth checking out.

I loved the art style and it’s hyper-attention to detail. The underwater scenes were impressively drawn and the cover promises a compelling story. The dialogue was a bit stilted at times and I had trouble following parts of the story. It felt a bit rushed and I would have liked to learn more about this character before he’s presented as an expert. The actual story in the small town was very interesting, but it was hard to follow a character I didn’t know much about.