Set in the 1660's, the story follows Raven, a pirate that's considered unlucky by other outlaws, and it doesn't take us long to see why. When the crew of the ship he's on tries to capture a Spanish galleon things seem to go well at first. The pirates defeat the crew, Raven bests the Spanish captain in single combat and gets a fancy new sword, but when Raven discovers a young woman on board he tries to protect her from being raped by his fellow pirates. A noble endeavour for sure, but when he stashes her in the armoury for her protection, and the woman decides that blowing everyone up is the only way to save herself from sexual assault Raven's idea comes back to bites him, as both ships are blow to pieces in the subsequent explosion. The only survivor, Raven makes a raft from the remains and sails back to the pirate port of Tortuga.

As far as introductions go it's a pretty decent one. Not only do we get to see Raven in action and learn that despite his bad luck he's a pretty good pirate, but we also learn that Mathieu Lauffray isn't planning to pull any punches with this book, and that some pretty nasty things are going to happen. A young woman blowing herself up and killing dozens of people to save herself from being raped by a load of pirates is some pretty grim stuff.

And grim is probably the tone for most of the book. If you're looking for some fun and over the top pirate high-jinks like Pirates of the Caribbean, this isn't the book for you. There are brutal beatings, murders, and sexual assault in this books, and none of it is treated as fun. The fights are given a brutal feel to them, in part thanks to the style of art, and the characters really feel like they're getting hurt and suffering. I'm not sure how accurately the story is portraying life in these times and as a pirate, but it's certainly not sugar coating things or making it seem romantic.

Sadly, this brutality prevented me from really feeling like I connected with the characters a great deal, and by the end of this volume I didn't really have a huge sense of who Raven was. He seems like a man with a degree of morals to him, he did try to protect a woman in the introduction, but I don't know why. It shouldn't need to have a reason, protecting someone from rape should just be a given, but considering he's supposed to be a brutal pirate I wanted to know more about his sense of morals, the lines he won't cross, and the reasons why. Hopefully this will be explored in future volumes of the series.

The only other character that we really get to know in any real way is Lady Darksee, the main antagonist for the story. She's a pirate captain that's making shady deals with the local governor, and she's not adverse to really hurting people. There's a point where she consigns Raven to a brutal death, one that would have worked if not for the last moment intervention of an ally of his, and even uses sexual assault to harm an innocent woman, ordering one of her men to rape her in front of her father.

This scene is one of the most interesting insights into her character, as she's making this grand speech about being free, and how the young woman's only value is to be sold off to a rich husband and have babies, and that by taking her virginity she'll be freeing her from that life; but it's a horrible moment, and one that people could find quite triggering. I can't help but feel like this is supposed to mean something, to be some kind of insight into Darksee other than just showing her to be 'evil', but because we don't really have her backstory or motivations explored in this book it just makes her look like something of a monster.

But, this book is only the first volume, it's setting the table and laying out the pieces, and a lot of this character development and dives into their back stories could be coming later, so it's not a huge deal breaker here. However, if this isn't something that Lauffray picks up on later I will be a bit disappointed. Only time will tell how the series ends up, but for now it's a pretty decent start that could deliver some really great moments later on.

I absolutely love stories with or about pirates, so I was excited to read this. We follow Raven, who is seen as crazy and brings bad luck wherever he goes. The story starts to take off once we land on the Isle of Tortuga.

While on the island, Raven overhears a conversation about a treasure hidden away on an island with a volcano. So, by nature, he literally drops into the conversation in front of Lady Darkness. Raven gets into a confrontation with her men, and they leave him for dead. He stows away on a boat to find the treasure before them since he remembers the details written on the map.

Once he lands at Devil's Peak, he is immersed in the forest and runs into real-life people. This is strange for him since only cannibals are known to be living on the island. These people, including a Count and his family, are shipwrecked on the island due to a storm. They have built a home for themselves. Then everything goes haywire when Lady Darkness arrives on the island and starts taking everything over.

The story ends with Raven coming back to free the people captured while destroying things in the process. The story seemed to fly with various information in a relatively short period. The story does have a cliffhanger ending, so keep that in mind.

I kind of liked the art style throughout the story. I do wish the story was a bit more in-depth, both character-wise and storyline-wise. I might read the second volume and see how it varies compared to the first volume.

I understand pirate stories, especially ones based around original tales, will contain some darker and outdated humor. However, the one character kind of jokes about "freeing one from their shackles". This is a joke told in an assault-type manner, and that did not settle well with me while reading. So, warning about that before you start reading this book.

CW for this review & book: sexual assault & gore

This graphic novel follows an unlucky pirate named Raven who sets off to steal some treasure from some powerful people. I had my hopes way high for this one with its classic artwork and pirate story, but I'm honestly so disappointed.

For starters, it's 2021 and we can retire the typical "the natives are savages and cannibals" thing. Do I even need to explain? Second of all, at the end of this volume there's an evil lady pirate who literally orders a woman to be r*ped and says things like "your womb will also have a part to play" and "you are a trophy wife, nothing more. An obedient offering who is expected to provide". I get that the woman ordering this is evil or whatever, but this just disgusted me and it felt so unnecessary. There's even a panel showing the woman about to be r*ped in front of her dad. And this is all done so that the MC can swoop in and save her. Yeah, no thanks.

Just... don't read this. There are so many better graphic novels out there that you could read instead.

*Thank you to Netgalley & Europe Comics for providing me with this eARC in exchange for an honest review*

So the story was pretty by the numbers swashbuckling sword fighting pirates (which makes sense since it is loosely based on a short story by Robert Howard, creator of Conan), but the art - the art was amazing! I see traces of Hugo Pratt, Frank Miller, and Milo Manara in Lauffray's art. The backgrounds are lush, the characters are well drawn and differentiated, and the action is kinetic. Annoying that this first volume is so short, but this was a fun read.

Pirates? Beautiful pirate ladies? Absolutely was sold from the get go.

Very reminiscent of Pirates of the Caribbean, which is one of my absolute favorite movies series.

The art was also extremely stunning and I thought it captured and kept my attention extremely well. Another thing I enjoyed was the ending. It set up the next volume to come super well. However, it did not make me mad. Normally I tend to not get along with cliff hangers with books unless I have the next one to read immediately afterwords. However, I think this was done super well.

Very excited to continue on with the story when the next volume comes out!

I adore books and graphic novels about pirates. Something about pirates is so interesting, dangerous, and wild. But this is not something I loved. In fact, I was a bit disappointed with the storyline. It just wasn’t super interesting.

On the plus side, I really enjoyed the art. Very dark and detailed. But then once you start reading it’s just not as good as I wanted it to be. The first half was downright dull and I was wondering when we would get to the point. By the time I was starting to get pulled in, the volume just ended.

I gave two stars just for the art and then one star for the pickup at the ending... But, my recommendation is to wait until there are more volumes to read. This first one alone was just so unsatisfying.

Thank you to NetGalley and Europe Comics for the opportunity to read this for my honest and unbiased opinion.

DNF - I actually couldn't get into the story enough to continue reading. I was interested in Raven because I love pirate stories and enjoy reading graphic novels, but this was just not for me. I didn't feel the story was compelling enough and couldn't connect with any of the characters.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC.

I received an ARC copy of Raven from #EuropeComics via #NetGalley

Raven is a pirate adventure graphic novel. The art on the cover is what drew me to the book in the first place. The story, however, was very hard to follow due to the numerous plot lines and the over abundance of characters. It was very confusing. I gave up reading it about a quarter of the way and instead looked at the artwork, which was surprisingly top notch.

Thank you to NetGalley, Europe Comics, and Mathieu Lauffray for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I mainly requested this as I am writing my own seafaring novel and like to see what others do when it comes to pirates. I didn't really get into this novel at all. I don't really feel invested in any of the characters. I kind of like the governor's daughter and son, but that's about it.

Despite that, I did really like the very last two pages of the volume and it did actually make me want to read more. I also thought the art was great, but the type font is horrible to read. It was a rather short book, only about 50 pages or so. I could continue this series, but I also don't feel the need to. I feel very neutral about this graphic novel.

This graphic novel is all PIRATES! It definitely has that Pirates of the Caribbean feel to it. This book was difficult for me to follow. I didn't really connect with any of it. There are too many characters. And too many storylines. That didn't connect in ways that interested me. The pirate-y-ness of this book is done in a pretty cliche way, I thought. Nothing seemed to be done in a new or interesting way.

This book didn't feel like it was written in modern times. It felt very old-timey to me. I give this book a 2/5. I didn't like it and won't be continuing with the series.

* Thank you to Europe Comics and NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

Raven, a pirate known for his bad luck, chances on a map to a legendary treasure and so begins a race to get to it on a volcanic island filled with vicious natives before Darksee, a legendary and ruthless pirate captain, can.

I wish I could give this pirate tale a good review but in the end ‘it was fine’ probably best sums up my experience of this first volume. It wasn’t so bad that I gave up on it but I’m not sure it was good enough to entice me to continue reading.

The story is a very typical pirate story of a search for a mythical treasure. It’s fine. It’s nothing amazing but a solid base for a pirate story and I’m fine with predictable stories usually if the characters stand out and can make it something special.

Unfortunately that wasn’t the case here. I love interesting characters but I didn’t really find them here. A lot of characters pop up briefly in this first volume and most of them are bland and indistinguishable from one another. It doesn’t improve much for the main characters. I found Raven to be forgettable in appearance and somewhat hollow while Darksee showed promise but fell short of the mark (I thought one scene towards the end where she offers to 'free another woman from her shackles' by having her sexually assaulted to show how ruthless a pirate she is was trying too hard and entirely unnecessary). Maybe these characters will improve in future volumes but just taking into consideration this first volume, I would have liked more character depth and complexity to be shown to make up for the simple narrative.

The art style was nice enough however and did fit the pirate narrative well.

RAVEN is a graphic novel with a pirate theme.

RAVEN is a young man who is a pirate who has escaped certain death when the ship he was on, as well as the ship they were attacking, both go down. When he finally finds his way back to Tortuga, the other pirates think he is unlucky - a jinx, and they want nothing to do with him.

He is cocky and doesn't seem to have a filter on his mouth - which gets him in a lot of trouble.

RAVEN makes a plan to get rich without needing the other pirates. The problem is that everywhere he goes and everything he does seem to get him in ever worsening situations.

The illustrations are terrific and capture the essence of the pirate heyday.

I rate RAVEN Volume One as 5 out of 5 Stars and I am looking forward to the next book in the series.

I snagged this on a whim due to the cover and the obvious pirate, which this in in fact a pirate story. Although I wasn't overly impressed, the story isn't great but its also not terrible, I has just enough to create an interest. It is a first volume in a series so it does leave on a cliff hanger, but I don't know if the cliff hanger is strong enough to entice me to come back.

The story overall is pretty simplistic, pirates, treasure, cannibals on an island, the usual, so nothing all that different or inventive. The characters are pretty normal run of the mill and no one really stands out, this includes our MC Raven. I was liking the female pirate captain, she seemed interesting up until she encouraged the rape of another women to "FREE" her of her chains to her virginity, that was just gross and killed the vibe all together.

The art was good, the style used fit the story and theme, and the colors where well used, and it was easy to determine what was going on in each panel. Overall nothing negative about the art.

Thank you Netgalley For an ARC in exchange for an honest review

Thanks to NetGalley for the Arc, however I can’t give this book a nice review.


The art style is the only thing that kept me going while reading this. The whole thing felt like a drag, and the characters did nothing to help. Each character felt undeveloped and plain in my eyes. Even Raven, this legendary pirate we meet in the summary, seems like a basic pirate in this comic. I’m not planning on finishing the rest of this series.

With such a short first volume, it leaves a reader wanting more.

We follow Raven, an ostracized pirate who many avoid as he has survived more than a few precarious situations and many believe caused the death of an entire crew. When a ruthless and enigmatic female pirate captain comes to town, Raven listens in on a business proposal in which a map is presented that leads the seeker to a lost island with cannibalistic natives and an active volcano protecting the treasure left by the conquistadors. Unfortunately for Raven, things go south very quickly.

—
I thought this was ok, it was just becoming very enjoyable when we're left on a cliffhanger.
I thought the writing and storyline was slightly cliche and not anything very original, and I didn’t particularly care for the art style.
However, I loved the female pirate character, even though she was the villain type— she was the only character keeping my interest. I was also quite curious to know where the treasure plot was going, which kept me wanting more.

Overall it was a decent graphic novel, I’d read the second volume given the chance.
3 stars.

**ARC provided by Europe Comics via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A swashbuckling adventure full of piracy, treasure hunting, fighting and boozing! What more is there to say! The first entry ‘Nemesis’ pits the bad luck creating pirate Raven against a pirate captain named Darksee in a race to a fabled treasure.

This is my first venture into anything published by Europe Comics and I was not disappointed. This is also my first read of anything by Mathieu Lauffray, I can safely say that I wish I had done so sooner. Mathieu has a great ability to keep me reading which I know may seem like the base minimum but with some writers, I struggle in terms of desperately wanting to carry on reading. Mathieu has written a great first entry into the Raven series, setting up a few superb characters, great rivalries and most importantly an engrossing story.

The art in the story oozes pirate style, I’m aware that sounds very strange but if you read it, you’ll understand what I mean, there’s a sort of roughness to the artwork that makes me feel like i’m reading a story written on an old treasure map or something, it’s very fitting!

I’m really looking forward to the next installment and reading more from the great Mathieu Lauffray and Europe Comics.

Drink up me hearties yo ho!

“That stuck-up harpy and her lapdogs will be stuck here for weeks. That gives me plenty of time.” - Raven

If you love pirates and grand art, this one is for you.
The story is so-so, but the images are phenomenal and make it a worth-while read in my opinion. There is a bit of brutality and one scene of attempted sexual assault in it, nothing explicit is seen.

I thank Netgalley and Europe Comics for an Arc to read and review.

Super exciting and fast-paced, this graphic novel is perfect for fans of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies or Assassin's creed! I enjoyed it so much!

A fun swashbuckling pirate adventure, quick read and the main character is cool!

I liked the main antagonist, she was brutal! Proper pirate!

I absolutely love the art-style and how vibrant the colors are! Very eye-catching and immersive drawings!

Unfortunately, the story is a bit lacking and I can't quite place my finger on why. I didn't feel fulfilled story-wise with this graphic novel.

Though, I definitely recommend giving this one a try if you like pirate graphic novels as it was a fun, quick read.


Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this graphic novel.