Author: Mario Simone
Series: Heroes Haven
Publisher: Gotham City Films, LLC
Release Date: May 10th 2016
My Rating: 3 Cups
Source: Netgalley
Blurb (from Goodreads):
Heroes Haven is set in a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles, where scientists are developing a drug — called V-1 — designed to awaken 'Superhero DNA Code' in the human body. As V-1 testing commences to enlighten and heal the dregs of LA, the drug begins to ‘synergize,’ awakening gifts like healing, super strength, visions and telekinesis in its subjects.
These gifts, however, come with a price: side effects include madness, acute psychotic episodes, body altering paralysis, degeneration, suicide and insane fits of rage that lead to murders.
In the dark shadows, a secret society is stealing the drug to test on death row inmates and create immortal super soldiers. As the power of this secret society grows, the imminent dangers of tyranny and oppression now face all of mankind. The battle begins to control the drug that will create a new world order.
The only hope to save humanity? The societal outcast test subjects from Heroes Haven who managed to escape the facility and survive the psychotic, emotional and physical altercations, becoming 'The Awakened Ones.' It’s up to them to decide if they will 'Awaken Their Inner Hero' and fight for the freedom of mankind.
*Disclaimer: I received an ecopy from Netgalley and Gotham City Films, LLC in exchange for an honest review. This does not influence my opinion or my rating of this book.
I really enjoy reading about the cruelty of some people. It might sound weird, I know, but there's something really interesting in seeing just how far an author will go to show how cruel and purely evil some people are. Themes like super-soldiers and human experiments are themes that will always be explored, in many, many different ways, but it's always interesting to see how different people approach them.
I liked the idea of trying to create superheroes. I also liked that a comic book explored that theme, the creation and testing of a virus that would ultimately create superheroes. The thing I liked most is that the story explores the negative side effects of this virus. I liked the symbolism, that as much as people try to create perfect, more powerful version of themselves, they lose something in the process.
At times it seemed like the story is told from one of the test subjects' POV, because the story seemed messy and not easy to follow. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but at times I did have a hard time keeping up with the story. That said, I liked that the tone of the book is as dark as I expected.
The art was actually beautiful. I liked the darker tones, the fact that some panels were crowded when the story became darker. At times the crowded panels fit the description of the poor people who were part of the experiments, conveying the same feeling of being on the verge of insanity.
I did however find that the different chapters, at times, showed only a small part of the story. It was difficult to follow the storyline, mainly because a lot of characters were introduced and not a lot of backstory was offered. I feel like the story would have felt "cleaner" with more backstory or with fewer characters. I'm hoping that if there's a second volume, it will explain better the history of the characters and that not a lot of new characters will be introduced before the storyline for the current ones is finished. All in all I did enjoy the story, and I'm hoping there are more installments in the future.
