DARK HORSE COMICS – @DarkHorseComics
[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]
STORY: Matt Mair Lowery
ART: Cassie Anderson
LETTERS: Cassie Anderson
EDITOR: Rachel Roberts
COVER: Cassie Anderson
ISBN: 978-1-50670-937-6; paperback; 6” x 9” (September 20, 2019)
200pp, Color, $12.99 U.S., $17.50 CAN (September 4, 2019 – comic book shops)
Age range: 12; Genre Science Fiction, Action/Adventure
Lifeformed: Hearts and Minds is a 2019 young adult, science fiction graphic novel from authors, writer Matt Mair Lowery and artist Cassie Anderson. It is a direct sequel to the 2017 original graphic novel, Lifeformed: Cleo Makes Contact. Lifeformed follows an 11-year-old orphan and the shape-shifting alien she befriends as they travel the countryside in the wake of an alien invasion... and fight back.
Cleo Elward was a typical 11-year-old girl on the verge of teen brat-hood, when the unbelievable happened. The sky above her hometown was suddenly filled with strange airships, heralding an alien invasion. Cleo's loving and doting father, Alex Elward, a single-parent, was killed during first wave of the attack. Within moments of Alex's death, an alien arrived and approached his corpse. The alien shifted its form so that it resembled Alex. This alien shape-shifter, who turned out to be a rebel helped the now-orphaned Cleo escape the invasion by traveling the countryside. Now, Cleo and alien-dad-Alex survive together and act as a tiny insurgency against an invasion.
Lifeformed: Hearts and Minds finds Cleo, who has fully left behind the life she knew, fighting for the future of Earth. Cleo and Alex now make a fearsome fighting team in a guerrilla war against the invaders, but this duo is actually two complex individuals and personalities, each with his or her own desires. Alex, with increasing frequency and intensity, is experiencing the real Alex Elward's memories of his daughter and of being a father. Now, Alex is suddenly more protective of Cleo, but he is also more controlling about their movements and activities, especially of Cleo's.
Meanwhile, Cleo's intelligence and curiosity and developing personality want to explore, regardless of the rules “new daddy” is setting down. Escaping at night or whenever Alex sleeps, Cleo explores the city to its edges, ducking alien patrols. Then, she meets a strange alien and a group of “soldier spawns” acting more peculiar than usual. All the while, Cleo does not know that a recent adversary has returned to stalk her.
Back in early 2018, writer Matt Mair Lowery, the co-author of the Lifeformed graphic novels, contacted me via Twitter. He offered my a PDF review copy of Lifeformed: Cleo Makes Contact. I was surprised by his slide into my Twitter DM's, as I had never heard of him or his comic book.
Lowery's outreach turned out to be a good thing. Lowery and artist Cassie Anderson created in Lifeformed: Cleo Makes Contact one of the best young adult graphic novels that I have read over the past few years. At the time, it was my duty, not so much as a reviewer, but as a devotee of the comics medium to tell comic book fans and readers how good Lifeformed: Cleo Makes Contact was.
Lifeformed: Cleo Makes Contact's themes of courage and choice resonate throughout the narrative of Lifeformed: Hearts and Minds as much as they did in the original. Hearts and Minds also focuses on the themes of hope and of offering a helping hand. In Hearts and Minds, Lowery and Anderson give an intimate view on Cleo's internal struggles and dilemmas and, to a lesser degree, on similar struggles of other characters in the story. What the authors seem to suggest is that any character totally focused only on what he, she, or it wants ultimately finds despair instead of hope. Characters that in the end despair cannot offer a helping hand, and, quite frankly, are finally incapable of recognizing help when it is sincerely offered to them.
Cassie Anderson's illustrations and graphical storytelling remain powerfully dramatic. Anderson is imaginative in her use of color; every page has an unexpected hue that makes the reader take a harder look at the action on the page. Her lettering emphasizes Lifeformed's quiet and contemplative side, so that, while Hearts and Mind is a science fiction thriller, it is also an exploration of the hearts and minds of the characters.
I hope young readers and mature readers discover the new graphic novel, Lifeformed: Hearts and Minds, and the original, Lifeformed: Cleo Makes Contact. They're both so f—cking good.
9 out of 10
Lifeformed: Cleo Makes Contact review is here.
Cassie Anderson:
cassieanderson@wwdb.org
https://twitter.com/CassieDoesArt
Matt Mair Lowery:
mattmlpdx@lifeformedcomic.com
https://twitter.com/mattmlpdx
http://www.lifeformedcomic.com
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.
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