Black Beth: Vengence Be Thy Name is a rollicking anthology of fantasy stories. The first arc is Black Beth's origin story and features beautiful art by Blas Gallego; it is inky and evokes the feeling of the story taking place in a dirty and grimy world of mud and rock. It's easy to see why Worley would see that the world and the character would be worth bringing back to life in new stories.

Black Beth as a character is as compelling as any of her sword and sorcery contemporaries such as Conan or Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Driven by a desire for revenge and violent retribution, she is as uncompromising as Rorschach from Watchmen and will fling herself recklessly into danger, ignoring all warnings.

I think the first and the penultimate stories are the strongest of the stories contained here. Worley mentions Red Sonja and Slaine in the foreword, both of which are worthy comparisons.

I really hope more stories featuring Black Beth are produced, as I found this book absorbing and entertaining.

This was ok. There are four stories in this book. They involve Beth, who is getting vengeance on the lord that killed her husband and her village. The art style is good and the stories are ok but they seemed rushed toward the end and it seemed like the writers weren't able to figure out how to wrap everything up. There are other comics involving women and vengeance that are better, read those and skip this one.

Relatively interesting sword and sorcery comic; a gender-bent Conan almost. I was prepared to be blown away by the art but it seemed just fine.

This is the first I had heard of Black Beth. After reading this volume, I hope there will be more. The comparisons to Red Sonja are accurate. However, I have to say that I prefer Black Beth.

**ARC provided by NetGalley for honest review**

Black Beth: Vengeance Be Thy Name by Alec Worley, Dani, Blas Gallego was a fairly short comics anthology revolving around a classic character known as Black Beth. I'd never heard of her before requesting this comic, but I enjoyed it for what it was.

Black Beth has a tragic backstory about how her whole village was murdered by an evil lord on her wedding day. She alone survived to train and become strong enough to take revenge on any and all forms of evil.

Despite the varied and loose styles of drawing, the story was easy to understand and enjoy, though mature audiences are encouraged. This was a very exciting and quick collection of stories about Black Beth, and it was interesting even as someone who had no prior knowledge of this character.

This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review. I couldn't read this graphic novel before it for archived.

I dislike the art style, so much that I decided to not finish it the first time I tried to read it. I finished it and I still did not enjoy it. There were three stories and they were all the same. It was almost boring.

My thanks to Netgalley and Rebelion Publishing for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest interview.

Black Beth is the story of Beth, a woman turned warrior on the hunt for vengeance for her home, people, and all those who need help fighting evil. The comic is divided into two parts: the original story by Blas Gallego, which appeared in the pages of Scream back in the 1980s, and a colored continuation of the titular's story, written and drawn by various authors and artists.

The stories were too fast-paced and action-packed to provide much characterization for both Beth and Quido, which turned me off to them. The art style was great, with the colored one being the highlight for me (Black Beth and the Devils of Al-Kadesh). Story-wise, I liked The Witch Tree the most because I believe it added a layer to Beth's character by exposing one of her flaws and vulnerable moments in the form of mourning her mother. Overall, it was a good collection that might appeal to readers who enjoy YA fantasy and graphic novels.

3.0 stars.

Overall it was a nice collection of stories to read. The story of Black Beth is compelling and I admire the creators for dredging her up and bringing her back to readers.

So the first story, the orginal ‘Black Beth’ was a nice introduction. A classic woman scorned story of a dictator killing a village but Beth escapes and goes to learn the ways of battle to avenge her husband and village. Definitely makes you want to see more of her journeys.

Which takes us to ‘The Magos of Malice’ where we see Beth on a mission to save some people and having to learn a lesson about her rage. Not my favourite story of the bunch but I enjoyed the art.

Then there is ‘The Witch Tree’ which helps us to learn more about Beth’s history and get more glimpses into this world where there are magic users and people who wish to kill them. Would love for this to be expanded more on.

My favourite story was ‘The Devils of Al-Kadesh’, partly because it was the only one in colour and the art was so beautiful but also because the story was intriguing and expanded more on the world building.

A small bit at the end with ‘Fairy Tales’ which was a sore ending and I wish there was more.

Really nice art from Dani (who’s work in Arkham City I really enjoyed) throughout, and the other artists too, and I would love to see more of Black Beth in the future.

Well... It was less misogynistic than I was expecting but still pretty heavily male-gazey.

While it wasn't as bad as some of the other comics of this genre with hyper-sexualised poses and exaggerated violence towards women, those elements were still there and it was definitely an eye roll moment to see that in 2022, men are still writing like that.

The first half of this graphic novel is the original Black Beth story from the 70s and the second half is the 2022 continuation and I couldn't tell the difference. This was good in terms of character and writing continuity but bad for updating the way this character is portrayed for a modern reader

You can just TELL that while this a comic about a strong and powerful woman, it's not for women, it's for the men who wanna f–k her

This book is a lot of fun, though it is negatively impacted by its datedness. Much of it is reprinted from older comics, meaning that nowadays the plots are a bit cliche. The stories were very short and I think they could have benefitted from the book having more pages. The book was delightful otherwise.

"They shall know me by the name that I adopt! By which I swear to combat evil in all it's vile forms...A name born of the black rage that fills my heart..."

Black Beth: Vengeance Be Thy Name is my very first graphic novel that I have ever reviewed. This is my first time learning about the Black Beth comic lore. I know she made an appearance in "1988 Scream! Holiday Special, but that's pretty much it She is such a bad@ss. Think if Lady Sif, Elektra, Red Sonja, and Xena were combined, you would get Black Beth. Personally, this was a little fast paced and felt rushed for me. I would have loved to see her train and learn more instead of instantly gaining the strength and warrior knowledge. However, It was beautifully designed/drawn and her story was incredible. Overall, it was a fun, quick graphic novel and easy to follow. I highly recommend this to those who enjoy strong bad@ss FMCs, swords, and sorcery!

This is the first comic/graphic novel I have reviewed, but I couldn't resist a title like "Black Beth." It did sound like I was getting into something with a pirate theme but I was just as happy to find it was more spec history/fantasy.

The art was great, and I love strong female main characters. The shift from black and white to color was also a nice break for my eyes.

What I would like to see if more back-story on Beth-build the mythology of her and her world.

I loved the line, "thrice Odin blessed." I would like to see the Norse connections explored also. Does she deal with just mortals going forward?

Really enjoyable and has a lot of potential to build on this debut.

First I would like to thank to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this comic. This was a comic that had 3 different stories within it. However I found the art styles very similar. The first 2 stories were in black and white but the 3rd was in colour. I still found that stories were pretty weak and not much happened.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this comic.

Art style:
I found all the art stiles, since the different stories have different creators, very beautiful and each highlights a peculiar aspect of the charachters and atmoshpere. I enjoyed also the differences in the portrayal of Black Beth herself making for an interesting analisys on what each artist views as important.

Plot:
I've personally found the pace too fast and too little depth given to the charachters, but I understand that it would have been a difficult task because of the brevity of the stories. The base material is extremely interesting (a Witcher-Xena like sword maiden who has sworn her life to slaying evil in all forms) and it's very well adaptable to a modern reader's taste. I would like to see more of the personal feelings of Black Beth, her internal turmoil and more interraction with Quido. This issue succeeded in making me aware of and interested in a possible continuation, hopefully in a longer and more in depth form, since it definitely has potential.

Dark and beautiful art work and writing. Exactly my style. I enjoyed absolutely every minute of this and very much look forward to more of this story in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publish for the opportunity to read this book for an honest review.

Let me start with the art. I liked the art and liked how Beth was drawn throughout the different stories. I found that the art was very reminiscent of 80s comics- which is what I am sure they were going for. All in all I liked the art in this book and I enjoyed the color chapter story.

The story on the other hand was very 2-3 stars to me. While I like the idea that they went with for black Beth I felt it wasn’t executed as well as it could have been. I felt it lacked substance. While I understand they told stories in a few pages I still found it too fast paced and not enough details for my liking.

I saw another comment or state it was very red Sonja but with more clothes and I can see how that can hold true. It more so gave me zena warrior princess vibes. I think that this character could have a decent comic run if they could expand her story and give it more depth.

I would recommend this book to anyone who’s a 80/90s women warrior fan (especially if you liked zebra and red Sonja).

First off thank you NetGalley and to the publishers for allowing me to read this.
Unfortunately this one wasn’t for me, I didn’t really enjoy the art style or the fact that it’s in black and white. I prefer my comics to be in color but I digress. I just couldn’t get into this one

Worley, et al. Produce a very enjoyable, well-written, and drawn graphic novel that reminds me of the "Savage Sword of Conan magazines that I loved as a kid. I look forward to reading more.

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Today I am talking about this reading that accompanied me during a challenge that I proposed to do with my sister, that is to be able to read as many books in one day.
I loved how this graphic novel was created, the mystery that surrounds it and the main protagonist, Beth.
I would define the tables as "vintage" in a positive way, although it is not really my thing, I read them with pleasure.
We come to the colored part of the book, I particularly liked it, especially the play of heat used by the illustrator.
I recommend it if you are looking for a vintage graphic novel with a super female protagonist.

Oggi parlo di questa lettura che mi ha accompagnata durante una sfida che mi sono proposta di fare con mia sorella, ovvero quella di riuscire a leggere quanti più libri in un giorno.
Mi è piaciuto tanto come sia stata creata questa graphic novel, il mistero che l’avvolge e la protagonista principale, Beth.
Le tavole le definirei “vintage” in modo positivo, nonostante non sia proprio il mio genere le ho lette con piacere.
Arriviamo alla parte colorata del libro, mi è piaciuta particolarmente, sopratutto il gioco di calori usato dall’illustratore.
La consiglio se cercate una graphic novel vintage con una super protagonista femminile.