"You've got tinnitus!"

I can't say I really expected to hate <em>The Omniscients</em> by Dugomier, illustrated by Renata Castellani but I kind of just...did. By all acounts, this probably should have been a story that I loved. It had an absolutely entrancing premise, after all. The truth, though, is that this book really suffers from being a graphic novel and I'm frankly not quite sure what could save it other than to completely change its format.

<b>A Lengthy Waste</b>

Alright, so the basics of this story are that there are five kids who wake up one morning with a bit of a ringing in their ears. This quickly goes away, of course, only to be replaced by <em>knowledge</em>. And not just any kind of knowledge, but all possible public knowledge in existence. The only thing these kids <em>don't </em>know off the top of their heads are personal and private information. It's like they've suddenly found themselves with some sort of transmitter abilities and can even tune into something like Wikipedia.

And despite having the makings of a really cool story, <em>The Omniscients </em>just <em>flopped</em>. There was nothing engaging or exciting about this graphic novel. It spent far too much time poorly introducing us to the characters and then had them do sod all for the entirety of the story. I wanted to cry for the lack of anything truly intriguing happening. And look, I get it. Graphic novels need to set up their characters and they typically have no choice but to work in an episodic format.

But what the hell was that?

<b>The Five</b>

I'll give Dugomier this, he did an <em>excellent</em> job of building up a diverse cast of characters. There's Albert whose black, an undocumented immigrant called Diego, a Mexican girl Ambèr, and finally the two white kids, James and Jessica. I genuinely haven't seen as diverse a cast of characters in a while, so this was a <em>hug</em>e plus for me. Add in the fact that the artwork was fantastic, and I feel like this book really had a lot of potential.

In fact, the artwork and diversity is the only reason I rated this book as high as I did. I loved the backgrounds that the kids came from. I loved Ambèr and Albert's parents. It was especially amazing since Ambèr's parents are rights activists and Albert's are lawyers. I was insanely excited about all of this.

<b>But Nothing Happens!</b>

And I can't get over it. This volume exists solely as a set up for the rest of the series. And it just feels so painfully pointless to me. Literally, the only purpose behind any of it was to get the kids to all meet up together. And I never got enough time with <em>any</em> of them to feel like I was really getting to know them. The only kid who had any substance to him was Diego. And his substance was so damn brief that it, too, even felt pointless after a while.

It's very clear that this book was meant to be an introduction to a <em>lot</em> more. The problem, though, is that I have no desire to read any of the <em>more</em> to come. Why? I just don't care about these characters. There was no true hook. I never got to know <em>any</em> of them. I never found myself being pulled in a direction that would allow me to care about their lives or their adventures. They are all hollow shells of personalities that the reader is <em>supposed</em> to recognize, but you poke them and find absolutely nothing underneath.

With the exception of Diego. Deigo has <em>some</em> depth.

But even that wasn't enough to save it for me. And instead I'm left with a book where nothing happens aside from them all getting together in one place. And I literally could not care less.

<b>What a Waste</b>

There's also this weird side plot that's introduced at the beginning and revisited throughout the course of the novel that I never fully understood. The author never actually put anything clarifying about all the side pieces (with the exception of the FBI's involvement in chasing the kids down), thus leaving those portions feeling confusing. I didn't care about that either. I should at least have been intrigued enough to want to know more.

I think, at the end of the day, the biggest problem with this story is that it doesn't spend enough time developing its characters and instead focuses on reaching an end goal. I probably would have fallen in <em>love</em> with this book had Dugomier kept some of the kids separated and spent more time building their personalities. If this was the <em>start</em> of them all knowing they needed to find each other and they were <em>thwarted</em>, that would have been <em>fascinating</em>.

<em>Imagine</em> how brilliant it could have been if we got to know these characters and then saw them <em>struggle</em>. And if a graphic novel is supposed to work in a similar manner to which an episode of a television show does, this one fails horribly. I need a hook, something to capture my attention and make me <em>want</em> to know more. Don't just throw something bare bones at me and expect me to love it or even care about the second installment.

<em>I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</em>

This review will be live on the Reader Fox blog on September 25, 2020.

This wasn't too bad as a teen-friendly superpower drama. Five teens all experience tinnitus for the first time one morning, then come out of it with access to the entire world's knowledge – everything out in the public domain, or on official record anywhere, is open to them. The first book shows the five gathering together at different pace, while also proving the FBI are not to be trusted when it comes to working with their best intentions – oh, and some peculiar scholars old and new may well be connected to their ongoing story. Translated toot suite from the French we can't tell how many books will follow this, but it's a bright start – the script isn't exactly brilliant at times, and the artwork certainly has nothing to stand out with, but the concept behind it all may have a lot of the promise alluded to here. I'll be optimistic and give it four stars, then, in the hope the whole thing doesn't turn out pants.

The Omniscients graphic novel was an interesting read. The main plot centers on a group of teens who suddenly have the ability to be omniscient (have all the knowledge in the world).
While that sounds like it could be a handy superpower, knowing all the answers to everything, it doesn't really play out like that. The kids are gathered up to live together and the government, among others, are very interested in how to best utilize these kids' powers. Other side effects of knowing everything also show the unexpected downside to this ability.
The novel ends on a cliffhanger, setting up the story perfectly for a sequel. I think fans of superpowers and graphic novels would enjoy The Omniscients.

The cover reminded me of Runaways, so it's not surprising that I was interested. I also liked the synopsis, so I requested the book on NetGalley. Fortunately, my request was accepted.
One of the main considerations for me in comics is the art style. I gave it 4/5 stars for that. It looked nice, but nothing outstanding.
I liked the story a little bit better, but it was still 4/5 stars. I felt the Runaways-vibe all the way through. The story was running on too many threads, sometimes I lost a little bit. There were a lot of characters, too, so I couldn’t really remember them. Still, I enjoyed the story. A lot of things are still obscured, but it piqued my interest.
Overall, I liked the comic. It had mistakes, it isn’t perfect, but there are lots of potential in it, I’d like to continue the story.

Hungarian version:
A borító a Runawayst jutatta eszembe, így rögtön elkezdtem érdeklődni utána. Fülszöveg is tetszett, így jelentkeztem NetGalley-n a könyvre. Szerencsére, elfogadták a jelentkezésem.
Képregénynél az egyik fő szempont számomra a rajzstílus. Erre 4/5 csillagot adnék. Szép volt, semmi kiemelkedő.
A történet kicsit jobban tetszett, de még mindig 4/5 csillag. Itt is végig megvolt a Runaways-hatást. Kicsit úgy éreztem túl sok szálon fut a történet, néha kicsit elvesztem. Szereplőkből is sok volt számomra, így nem nagyon tudtam megjegyezni őket. Ennek ellenére élveztem a történetet. Sok mindent még homály fed, de felkeltette az érdeklődésem.
Összességében tetszett a könyv. Voltak hibái, nem tökéletes a könyv, de van benne sok potenciál, szeretném folytatni.

Bright coloring and good blocking overlook the typical trope of diversity marking this new hero comic entitled Omniscients about a group of teens suddenly acquiring the skill. So far, the series presents the teens(new heroes), the government, and scientific groups in hot-pursuit and the chase. It doesn’t tackle how did they acquire this skill or the breadth of the skill. It does propose a fun ride in starting off, and I can’t wait to see where Dugomier takes us next.

This would be great for anyone looking for a new, innovative comic.

**This was a review copy given by Goodreads in exchange for an honest review**

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

If you like superhero stuff, you might like this! I enjoyed the mysterious nature and conspiracy aspect of how the teens got their power. And I loved that they were smarter than the adults too! My absolute favorite part is the irony that they’re omniscient but the reader has the ultimate omniscience. The cliff hanger has me looking forward to the mystery of how the receive their powers!

Personal Rating - 7.5/10

Knowledge is fragile. What if all the knowledge were accessible to 5 teenagers through an unexplainable phenomenon? How would the world react? How would the government react? And what of their families?
The Omniscients sets out to explore these themes with a diverse cast of teens who are being kept at a villa without the knowledge of what is in store for them.

I loved Diego's perspective as an immigrant, and how this part of his identity shapes how he behaves and reacts to what is happening around them. I also liked Jessica's dynamics with her family. The Art and Colouring of the book matched well, but I have to say the colouring is very much visually pleasing

Something I didn't like as much was that the dialogue was a bit cheesy at times and the pacing of the story is faster than optimal. I'd like to know the characters a bit more deeply before continuing. It'd be amazing if we got a bit more time with the characters as they discovered their sudden superpowers.

That said, I hope to continue reading through the series and see where it leads.