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Freshmen Volume 2: Fundamentals Of Fear
The Freshmen are back and facing their most enigmatic foe, Mr. Fiddlesticks! What is the connection between this enigmatic foe and Annalee's father and his malevolent corporation? Find out in the incredible story created by Hugh Sterbakov and fan favorite actor Seth Green (Buffy, Austin Powers).
176 pages, Paperback
First published September 29, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 9, 2020
I read the Top Cow (Image Comics) comic books that made up volumes 1 and 2 of this very innovative series about a group of freshmen that get superpowers, like being able to talk to plants, belly rumbling vibration power, super farts, and more. Great books, surprisingly so, as teenage angst is taken to a whole new level! 8 out of 12. And yes, it is that Seth Green on the creative team!
February 21, 2019
I liked this volume a bit more than the last one, but the huge focus on relationships and who is dating who got old. I wasn’t sure how Wannabe’s girlfriend died, either. If evil Puppeteer can just kill people, why didn’t she do that to everyone else? And why did Quaker’s ability give him the power to blow up a robozombie?
Still, I did find the darker tone more interesting, and I appreciated some of the character work. I wish Jacques had stayed a giant squirrel.
So many questions. Why didn’t Green Thumb die? What were the plants going to do? Why would the plants care to tell Green Thumb that Brady was dying? Why would Annalee fall in love with Brady of all people? The new kid has the super power of manifesting a fear demon? Why would the fear demon work with Annalee’s father?!
Still, I did find the darker tone more interesting, and I appreciated some of the character work. I wish Jacques had stayed a giant squirrel.
So many questions. Why didn’t Green Thumb die? What were the plants going to do? Why would the plants care to tell Green Thumb that Brady was dying? Why would Annalee fall in love with Brady of all people? The new kid has the super power of manifesting a fear demon? Why would the fear demon work with Annalee’s father?!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 13, 2016
Volume two of the Freshmen sees Angst take a front seat, with Action hanging out the rear window, barely holding on. It's all personality dramas, which can be interesting, but here really aren't, for the most part. There are a couple action sequences where our intrepid squad proves once again that they are definitely not ready for prime time, losing civilians and failing primary objectives each time they go out. I guess I can see the parallels between college life and their situation, but honestly it spent more time in after-school special territory (closeted characters, multiple suicide attempts, abusive relationships, schizophrenia) than it did really on hero-type stuff. The antagonist of the piece is unique at least, but never particularly distressing. The attention individual characters get is hit-or-miss; Norrin and AnnaLee are still the stars, but a different subset of backup characters take second billing. Ultimately, it just didn't do anything for me. The journal pages at the end of the collected edition are more interesting than most of the main story. Maybe I'm just coming at it from the wrong direction, but this book doesn't ever really deliver what I thought it was aiming for.
March 12, 2015
Needed more Liam Adams aka Quaker!
In all seriousness though, I was not a fan of the art direction this chapter (unfortunately the last) of Freshmen took. It seemed overly dark (I could barely see what was going on in some panels) and just plain wonky at times.
The story was relatively cliché but enjoyable nonetheless. As with the art direction the story took on darker and more serious tones which seemed kind of hit and miss for this series (kind of hard to keep things dark and gritty when a team members powers is being constantly inebriated and passing said inebriation though bodily fluids/gasses). Also focus between all the team members is completely uneven and I am completely unsure of one characters powers and even his name, they should have trimmed the fat (and added more Liam Adams).
Still I would have liked the series to go on (to see more Quaker) and it leaves on a sort of ish cliffhanger. Alas it is probably never to be.
In all seriousness though, I was not a fan of the art direction this chapter (unfortunately the last) of Freshmen took. It seemed overly dark (I could barely see what was going on in some panels) and just plain wonky at times.
The story was relatively cliché but enjoyable nonetheless. As with the art direction the story took on darker and more serious tones which seemed kind of hit and miss for this series (kind of hard to keep things dark and gritty when a team members powers is being constantly inebriated and passing said inebriation though bodily fluids/gasses). Also focus between all the team members is completely uneven and I am completely unsure of one characters powers and even his name, they should have trimmed the fat (and added more Liam Adams).
Still I would have liked the series to go on (to see more Quaker) and it leaves on a sort of ish cliffhanger. Alas it is probably never to be.
February 19, 2015
A surprisingly good story. I like the combination of silliness and realism. It does a very good job of conveying teenage emotionality and that particular kind of selfishness. It's not that they're willfully ignoring other people's problems, it's that most of the time their own problems are so big they're already having trouble coping.
It's still relatively basic in this volume, but I do like the effort to deepen their diversity a little and talk about how the characters feel about their identities. This volume is quite good and I enjoyed the plot, but the final issue had an "afterthought" feel to it and did a lot of damage -- multiple character deaths -- for no real reason, and leaves us with an unfinished cliffhanger.
CN: Suicide/attempted suicide, abusive relationships, character deaths, child psychosis.
It's still relatively basic in this volume, but I do like the effort to deepen their diversity a little and talk about how the characters feel about their identities. This volume is quite good and I enjoyed the plot, but the final issue had an "afterthought" feel to it and did a lot of damage -- multiple character deaths -- for no real reason, and leaves us with an unfinished cliffhanger.
CN: Suicide/attempted suicide, abusive relationships, character deaths, child psychosis.
January 29, 2016
Hot damn! That was a great action packed ending to this book.
The Freshmen are back for their second term as superheroes. They've bonded together as a team, with a little doubt and animosity thrown in for good measure. Relationships are blooming, powers are still being explored so there was lots of material to cram in this volume.
I hate the way the book ended, I expected there to be another chapter to complete the story. But I'll have to be satisfied with it since this book was out in 2007.
The Freshmen are back for their second term as superheroes. They've bonded together as a team, with a little doubt and animosity thrown in for good measure. Relationships are blooming, powers are still being explored so there was lots of material to cram in this volume.
I hate the way the book ended, I expected there to be another chapter to complete the story. But I'll have to be satisfied with it since this book was out in 2007.
December 22, 2015
This volume covers the second semester of the Freshmen. Even more so than the last volume, there were bits of this where I really wanted to like it, but it's just trying to juggle too many characters and too much going on and it never coalesces into something gripping. I never really got emotionally invested, even when they did their best to try to draw me in. In summary, it felt like with some tweaking, it might have been terrific, but in practice, it was just okay.
March 14, 2008
Oh good show. Really got the characters going. Their characters are really getting going. Poor "Wannabe". The last arc is a bit over-dramatic but the payoff in character development for Wannabe is totally worth it.
August 6, 2011
Seth Green's Freshmen fails to make the grade during its second year. The plot gets played for more laughs than necessary, and its attempts at gravitas near the end do not make up for the "smart beaver" and "drunken barfer" that are part of the main crew.
May 3, 2009
Eh, just okay. The whole ending just seemed like an afterthought - not really all that impressed with this series so far.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews