Daniel Isles

While criticisms of the worldbuilding are valid, I was just here for the vibes, man.

Well, this was FUN! Slick-mouth Scott is in a hellish, sci-fi military school, and he's about to break out! The art style was simple but complimented the story well. I thought the dialogue was fun/ny and learning about the setting and Scott's past kept my interest.

Scott doesn't know when to shut up, but I like him a lot. Let's just say the boy's mouth is cut long and wide. I also thought Barda was going to be a filler bully character, but she gets some depth.

Even though Himon's departure felt a bit rushed, Bekka's illness doesn't get resolved, and we don't find out any more about Scotty boy's past, I had a really good reading experience with this, and I would love to read more with these characters.… (meer)

I did not enjoy this story at all. I think mostly because I have no previous knowledge of the character and the story seems to start in the middle. The characters are either in another world or demission, maybe hell???? They want to escape and get to earth. The reason I say hell is because they are trained to die and rebirth or reform. But Mister Miracle has been able to escape the “school” or “training facility” but not able to help others do so yet. The story was not holding my attention. It also felt old in illustration, both in style and color. This could be because I was reading a galley so I will hold judgement on that factor. Over all, I did not really enjoy this book, which was sad. Maybe a second go I will like the character better. I do know some kids who will love it, and as such should be added to library’s DC collections.… (meer)

A reimagined version of Scott Free is trying to escape from Goodness Academy, a hellish boarding school for teenagers on Apokolips, the home planet of Darkseid and his pantheon of evil gods. In an attempt to make Jack Kirby's endlessly boring Fourth World mythology more timely, many characters are now BIPOC and racism is introduced to Apokolips, with one character putting on whiteface in order to get ahead in the hierarchy. But as a theme it never really seems to go anywhere, and Darkseid never shows up so we don't see how this works with his traditional gray/mauve pallor.

The escape artist aspects of Scott Free don't really get much of a spotlight. He tries to escape, but not a lot and not in particularly clever ways, with an old Walkman cassette player/recorder playing way too big a part of most of the plans. His mentor, Himon, seems to do most of the planning, and we never get to see Scott learning much or perfecting his craft.

The art bummed me out with its muted and morose color palette, which, sure, is fitting, but just depresses me the longer I look at it. And why not have Scott's costume pop as a contrast to the gloom to show he's different? Fully triangular noses on some of the character bugged me, especially Kalibak's nose with its color mismatched against the rest of his face -- way too distracting. And it took me a long time to figure out that the floating red ovals all over the pages were not clothing decorations or insects or drones but rather meant to convey action. It might have been less confusing if a lot of the characters weren't wearing the same ovoids on their collars.

Mostly, I hate Jack Kirby's Fourth World a lot, and you need to do something really special to make me forget that. This listless story with off-putting art falls far short of the tipping point.… (meer)