I got so much more than I bargained for with this funny, clever and thought-provoking graphic novel.

The beginning gave me major Kick-Ass vibes with Quin trying to train himself up to be a superhero (the one main difference being that he is invulnerable) and trying to impress a popular girl at school. However, this was lightyears ahead of Kick-Ass with its amazingly diverse cast and important social messages.

While also being hugely entertaining and a fun ride, Quincredible makes some really important points about society, specifically in the States. There is a lot of social commentary on ideas of "the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer" and who is responsible for this. The comic raises questions of how best to tackle these issues, whether it be through peaceful protest or violence, and allows the reader to come to their own conclusions by including pros and cons for both and a range of different ways to fight injustice, from one end of the spectrum of peace to the other. The graphic novel also makes some really interesting and poignant points about who the "Bad Guy" is and how the answer to that question differs depending on perspective and how the conditioning/information you receive.

The artwork in Quincredible is also INCREDIBLE! I stopped frequently just to gawp at the beauty of certain pages.

I thoroughly enjoyed this comic and I cannot wait for the next installment!

This graphic novel is such a brilliant representation of what it means to support a community in need, recognizing that helping the vulnerable begins with equal opportunity, and that the persistent jailing of young, Black kids only contributes to the cycles of oppression. It demonstrates that to put yourself in another’s shoes and examine the world from the perspective of “the bad guy” can lead to an illumination of the way your current “helping” makes you the bad guy to them.

In times like these where many young readers are looking to books to expand their knowledge of how to support the Black Lives Matter movement, this graphic novel is an excellent resource with a lovable main character and a unique, fantastical twist on the topic. Definitely one I would highly recommend.

My Thoughts:
Although Black Panther has been around since 1966 in the Marvel Universe (I believe he first appears in one of the Fantastic Four comics), the movie has brought on a hunger for Black superheroes. Pair that with Spider Man: Miles Morales, and there is an even greater hunger for the superhero as nerd, weakling, average teen. Quincredible fits into this Miles Morales mold. Quin is invincible, but that does not make him incredibly strong. Instead, it makes him into a perpetual punching bag for the bullies. He is in desperate need of a mentor and a coach, but he really also just wants to get the girl and be invisible for as long as he can.

I find Quin to be believable as the weakling, awkward, New Orleans teen who tries to hide his problems from his loving, yet clueless parents. When his mentor, "Glow" shows up not so much as a coach, more like a facilitator, Quin is challenged to find his inner strengths. What he finds, in end scenes that remind me of the shenanigans on the Home Alone movies, is that his strengths really were always in him, and they have nothing to do with the meteor shower "Event" that made certain people into superheroes. That is really the message - your power is in you. You have always had it. This is volume 1 out of 11, so I hope he continues to use his real super powers to save his community.

From the Publishers:
Invulnerability is a pretty useless superpower if you’ve only got a one-hundred-pound frame to back it up. That’s what Quinton West’s life became when he went from “small guy who got beat up” to “small guy who can’t get hurt” after the meteor shower dubbed “The Event” gifted him the power of invulnerability, but no other powers to compliment it.

But there’s more to Quin than meets the eye, and after some encouragement from his new mentor—a local New Orleans–based superhero named Glow—Quin realizes that he can use his quirky hobby of creating Rube Goldberg devices to outsmart the opposition. But being a hero paints a target on your back, and Quin’s got to risk it all to join the ranks of the superheroes he looks up to. It’s a good thing he can take a punch.

This was a really enjoyable graphic novel. Although not a huge fan of the art style, I enjoyed the story overall. Definitely setting the scene for subsequent volumes and I'm really looking forward to those. I like that there were some pretty current issues addressed in here as well, like racism, oppression and more.

Overall, a solid start to what looks like is going to be a good series.

The author Rodney Barnes has a great idea on his hands with this and I truly hope there's more. Quinton West is a good main character who gets superpowers the same day a lot of others get them but the issue is that he doesn't think his powers hold up. If you're a Marvel fan, his powers are very "Luke Cage" like. He is invincible. He can take any sort of punishment with nothing to show for it. I bet he can even stub his toe and go on like nothing even happened. Because let's face it, stubbing your toe is the worst of the worst.

What we have with Quincredible Vol 1 is the start of a very promising series. It does a good job introducing us to Quin but it's also not boring. No long winded origin story where we spend a lot of time with him before his powers then we see a montage of him exploring them. No, by the time the story starts Quin already has his powers, he knows what they are, so we can hit the ground running and I think that was the best way to do it. We still got to know who he was as a person, got to know his powers, but I never once felt bored.

The story was also very topical in today's society. We have it taking place in New Orleans and we have a not so great relationship between the local Black community and the police. We also have a lot of new heroes in the area, all of which are people of color, so the cops are extra angry because they feel threatened by this new wave of crime fighters. We have a local community organizer that serves and a symbol of hope for the people, we have the local criminals hurting the community and in the middle we have Quin.

Quincredible was well written, the art was good, and it was an original idea, which is always great to see when it comes to people with powers. This is a story that features a Black main character and many other important characters who are people of color and best of all, the story is interesting.

My only critique is that I would have liked the whole "Quin coming into his own" part to be teased out a bit more before the first big fight, but that's really it.

Thanks to Net Galley and Oni Press for providing me this free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When I saw Quincredible was written by Rodney Barnes, I instantly put a request to read and review this book. While writing reviews for another site, I was introduced to Barnes via his Image Comics title, Killadelphia (which is very good and I’ll need to write up at some point). While the entry point was the Philadelphia setting, I fell in love with Barnes’s writing. And while Killadelphia is not the typical comic book I read, Quincredible definitely falls more in line with the type that I do.

Quincredible Volume 1 Quest to be the Best collects five chapters (and some extras) over 144 pages in this graphic novel from Oni Press and is set to release in early 2021. The story features Quinton West, your average high school freshman—who is invulnerable. In short, the story follows Quin, a small guy who goes from getting beat up to a small guy who can’t be hurt after “The Event”—a meteor shower that grants him no other powers than invulnerability (and something that I hope gets explored more someday).

Featuring a diverse cast set in New Orleans, Quincredible deals with some very real issues that face that area in the wake of Katrina and “The Event”. Quin dreams of being a superhero, but has a hard time thinking he can actually do anything with his power—sure, he can’t get hurt, but what are the limitations to his invulnerability? Aside from taking a punch, what can he do to help? Don’t forget about all that freshman high school work and pining over his crush.

What I really like about Quin is how relatable he is. And while I can’t speak for his experiences of living through Katrina or growing up Black, I can relate to “awkward, nerdy, teenager”. Whether that was Barnes’s intention or not, I’m not sure, but Quin reminds me very much of a Peter Parker type hero—powers don’t necessarily make his life any easier and he still has his life to worry about. The Peter Parker comparison doesn’t stop with how relatable Quin is, but even with his attitude… when we first see him interact with some bullies, he uses charm and wit to navigate the situation. We see his insecurities when it comes to the girl, Brittany, his powers, and his community.

The strength of this book is how it paints this community. Quin wants to help and is eventually inspired by other enhanced folks, particularly Glow who ends up being a sort of mentor. And when given the opportunity to talk about doing some good and helping stop crime, Quin is sort of the linchpin that connects the other heroes to the community. Yes, there are some people doing bad things, but the system made it so they had no other choice to survive. They’re being used by the ultimate big bad.

Quin’s relationship with his family is incredibly heartwarming. Especially, at least at first, how incredibly normal it is. Most superheroes tend to have parental issues as a focal point in their origin stories, but it’s nearly the opposite here. If I’m being honest, there’s a moment near the end of the book between Quin and his parents that, for me, is the highlight of the book.

If you can’t tell, I’m a big fan of Barnes’s writing. Quincredible feels right at home with Spider-Man, Static Shock, Batman Beyond, and other young superhero stories. The story is grounded in both reality and fantasy and Barnes makes sure our hero fails before being able to rise up and come out on top. If I had to pick one thing to nitpick, it’s that the villain, Alexandre Zelime, isn’t developed enough. His backstory is explored in 2 pages and I would have loved to see maybe another 10 to 15 pages.

Selina Espiritu’s art and Kelly Fitzpatrick’s colors are also top-notch in Quincredible. It stands toe to toe with any modern superhero comic book and then some. The shading is some of the best I’ve seen and the colors popped really well, especially purple! There are only one or two panels, out of the 144-page book, where it seems like characters are in weird positions or awkward angles, but it’s never distracting. I’m excited to dive into more of both Espiritu’s and Fitzpatrick’s work in the future!

Quincredible Volume 1: Quest to be the Best is a wonderful coming of age story about trying to find yourself while dealing with both normal and abnormal stresses that come with being an enhanced high school student. Not only is this a great story for adults, but it should also be on every kid’s bookshelf.

SCORE: 9.6/10

For full transparency: I received a review copy of this work from NetGalley. That said, this is an honest review, and receiving a review copy has not influenced my thoughts and rating of this work.

This book feels like a cross between Misfits and Invincible.
After another natural disaster hits his New Orleans parish Quin finds himself with superpowers. Combating bullies and social injustice he keeps his power a secret until he meets other supes.
You get a good look at the difficulties of waking up with powers but not having the physical capabilities of fighting crime. This is a funny book that feels like it would fit right at home with Marvel.

I really wanted to love this, but sadly it wasn't my cup of tea. While Quin was an inspiring superhero, I found the content to be pretty predictable.

A fun comic book about a boy who's trying to fit into and help his community. For all that superhero stories are an escape from reality, this one doesn't shy away from shaping art through reality.

Quincredible breaks quite a few superhero tropes and I love it. Quin doesn't have to stumble through everything alone because he has a gang of other superheroes to help him. He doesn't seed lies and feel guilty for it because his parents find out fast when he decides to help the community. To be fair, there are still some clichés though.

The one thing I have to say is that I don't quite get the actions of the bad guy, though I understand the motivations. Nevertheless, it was still a good read.

We need more stories like this, where characters and perspectives are diverse.

4 stars for this book!

This is a story about a black super hero who did not really know that he had super powers. His powers were kinda normal looking whereby he does not need to be suited up to get the extra feels of being a hero. There were some parts in the graphic novel which he did it.

I just wished there was more development to his past and make his parents a bit older as the illustrations showed like they were his cousins or siblings which was shocking to me. Creating a superhero world is tough no doubt for the first attempt this is great.

Overall this is a good book too read if you are under a reading slump!

Thank you so much @netgallery for the arc!

Quincredible Volume 1 is such an uplifting and interesting story with a black kid as the main character, superheroes of color, and an overall diverse cast of characters. This is not your typical superhero story where it is bad versus good and the bad guys are bad and the good guys are good (though the good guys are pretty good). It's a graphic novel that speaks to human nature and the range that it entails.

Teenage boy Quin (aka Quincredible) is just a boy in New Orleans trying to live his life and find his place in it. But besides his incredible smarts and great personality, he is anything but normal...he is indestructible. Or as far as he can discern he cannot be hurt (that doesn't keep people from trying though). He has a good heart and he just wants to help his community and the people in it heal from Katrina and other disasters that keep happening to it.

He decides to use his power to help the community. But he soon learns that helping his community isn't just about putting the bad guys (who aren't really bad at all just people who are hurt and frustrated) behind bars. Doing this just continues the negative cycle. Instead, he reaches out to the other supes and helps form a long term plan to help the people around him change, grow, and pull themselves out of their grim situations.

With a cast of diverse and multifaceted characters as well as a compelling and fulfilling narrative, this graphic novel is one for the bookshelves!

10/10 will definitely read again as well as recommend to anyone who will stop and listen to me gush! Pick up a copy! You won't regret it!

I’ve been getting more into comic books/ graphic novels lately and this did not disappoint. I can't wait for the next book. I found it inspiring that the main character didn’t have the conference and slowly grew into it. I love that this story doesn’t go into stereotypes but tells a refreshing story on grown. I personally enjoyed it very much!

I am pretty captivated by Quincredible. As a character Quin is charmingly awkward & realistic. While other side characters (namely, the villain) could do with some more development, I look forward to seeing how that grows over the series. Admittedly, there are some panels where the illustrations were not my favorite, but overall I am a fan of this. I look forward to #2.

I am quite curious as to how this fits into the overall Catalyst Prime Universe.

For Libraries: A good addition to teen graphic novel shelves, especially where diversity and superheroes are in demand.

I really enjoyed this graphic novel! The artwork was amazing and the relation to real life events was great. Watching Quin's journey of finding himself is definitely something I'd continue on with in the future.

Loved this it's a great adventure comic book set in New Orleans after Katrina and a meteor shower which Quin got caught up in and is now indestructible. His efforts to understand what this means, to keep his family safe and to do the right thing, lead him into various adventures and dangerous situations. He is a familiar hero, bit nerdy, has a crush on a girl but with the twist of being Black as demonstrated when he explains as Audre Lorde once did that the masters tools can not dismantle the masters house. The story is nuanced, the characters are well developed (especially his parents) and I really enjoyed the adventure and the political messages subtly included. The drawing is also clean and sharp and good use of colours. Thoroughly enjoyable escapism.

With thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This comic book is fascinating! I can't wait for the next volume. Found it inspiring, Quin believed there was nothing he could do until he had a chance meeting with an Enhanced hero and received some advice. Quin then believed he can make a difference and starts working on it to become a hero like the enhanced heroes he looks up to.

Thank you to Oni Press for providing me with a copy of this graphic novel in exchange for an honest review

I really enjoyed reading Quincredible; I'm not a big fan of superhero graphic novels, but I loved the strong message in Quincredible. It covers some critical social issues which made the plot relevant for modern day society.

I really liked the bond between Quin and his parents, as it felt natural rather than forced for the purpose of the plot. I appreciated the art style and the use of colours to portray Quin's mood throughout the graphic novel.

My only issue is that I would have loved more background on the villain, as he was only in it for the last 30 pages, and there was no real development in his character. I also would have liked the final battle in this issue to have been slightly longer as it only lasted for 6 pages.

I will definitely be picking up the other volumes in this series when others are released.

Set in New Orleans, Quincredible tells the story of Quin, a sophomore in High School who became physically invulnerable after a meteor shower that gave a lot of people in the city superpowers. His everyday life already isn't a walk in the park and he doesn't what to do with those powers until he realizes he could help people. But that's not so simple.

I really liked the setting and the main character. However, I found that most of the story was a little too rushed. Everything went to fast, I didn't have time to rest or appreciate the situation. Also, I had o concept of time while reading. Everything really just sped by and it felt way unrealistic. That's a thing that happens quite often for me when I read comics/graphic novels but still. I don't know, It was a little frustrating.
All in all, though, I really did like this one and I plan on reading whatever comes next.

I really enjoyed this graphic novel. The story arc was great, the art style worked really well with the storytelling, and the characters were really relatable. I loved the fact that it wasn't just your average run of the mill superhero graphic novel.

I loved the premise of this graphic novel. The art style was my favorite part. Full color, bold and vibrant.
Basically it's a story about Quin who goes on a journey of self discovery and exploring his new powers as a super hero. I wasn't a huge fan of the fact that this was part of an ongoing universe and some of the characters are already well established.