Written by Anthony Maranville and Chris Silvestri
Illustrated by Emma Kubert
Concept by Frank Miller
Published by Abrams ComicArts
The “Frank Miller Presents” line of comics was pretty short lived.
I haven’t heard of anything new, but as fast as they were putting them out, they sort of disappeared from the shelves.
There will always be an appeal and fan base for anything that Frank Miller touches, yet these books sort of failed to burn up the marketplace.
The biggest surprise and gem from this line of books is Pandora, which is a Young Adult book. Maybe Miller’s future in creating could be more tailored to an all audience group?
Whatever is decided, this is the most compelling work he’s been a part of in quite some time.
A big part of that has to do with artist Emma Kubert.
Kubert is one of the most underrated artists in comics, in my opinion. She really elevates this material and makes it something to really pay attention to. The work she does on this book is exemplary and really deepens the characters and the story itself. Kubert designs the characters in a very relatable way.
The main character is Annabeth, who is a fifteen year old high school girl with a lot of issues.
Annabeth is extremely unpopular at school. She can’t seem to hold onto friendships and is very much a loner. She is not very happy in school. She is not very happy at home either, and feels very alone when it comes to family. Kubert does a great job on the facial expressions especially. You get a lot about how Annabeth is feeling just from her posture and her expressions. Not many artists can pull off that feet and Kubert does so effortlessly.
Annabeth is having a hard time with the world and she is struggling. Everything feels like an insurmountable challenge. One day she is walking along and she comes across a flower shaped relic. It is very weird and it makes her very curious.
What is this thing?
Where does it come from?
Annabeth quickly discovers that the relic is an object that can give her the power to warp reality. Annabeth finds this out the hard way in an amusing scene. That is when she decides to figure out that the relic is, and how it may be able to benefit her.
What ends up happening is that it leads to a bunch of situations where Annabeth finds herself over her head. A ton of various incidents promptly follow this.
Annabeth finds a map that her grandfather created.
She uses it to go into the forest in search of an element that will help her out. While there, she meets the mysterious Knox. Knox doesn’t really act like a typical human being, and Annabeth finds him to be very strange. From there, she also discovers that there is a bit of trouble happening, some of which may get her involved in some dangerous things.
The dangerous situations start to pop up with aplomb.
Annabeth finds herself well over her head in many situations. Annabeth has to deal with many of the characters in this book that lead to bigger challenges for her. She wanted more out of life as this book began. Now she is overwhelmed with things that she cannot keep up with.
The question remains though: can she escape this place or will she be lost there forever?
The relationship between Annabeth and Knox feels a bit strained and rushed. They almost feel like they are being forced together by the creators a bit. However, once that hurdle is reached and gone past, they do have some nice easy moments between the two. It does take some time to get there though, for sure.
By the end of the book, the reader is left wanting more. But with the fate of the entire line, I am not sure that there will be any more. That is a shame, because I feel like these six chapters are leading to someplace much more special. The writing is decent enough and the artwork is as as strong as can be, especially the colors by Kubert.
Overall, this is a strong book, and I hope that they find a way to continue this story that is obviously much deeper and bigger than this volume alone.
RATING: B+
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