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The Change
Whoopi Goldberg brings new meaning to what it means to be a superhero in a new graphic novel!
Isabel Frost is a woman who has spent her life as wife, mother, grandmother—a life she feels isn’t all she had hoped for, with a husband who has grown in another direction. A college graduate with a degree in science, Isabel is an amazing gamer, who plays with people all over the country. With the help of her comic-loving grandson and irreverent best friend, she must learn to control her abilities and embrace her new identity as The Change —both the change of life AND her surprising and extraordinary superpowers.
Isabel Frost is a woman who has spent her life as wife, mother, grandmother—a life she feels isn’t all she had hoped for, with a husband who has grown in another direction. A college graduate with a degree in science, Isabel is an amazing gamer, who plays with people all over the country. With the help of her comic-loving grandson and irreverent best friend, she must learn to control her abilities and embrace her new identity as The Change —both the change of life AND her surprising and extraordinary superpowers.
72 pages, Hardcover
First published July 9, 2024
10 people are currently reading
110 people want to read
About the author
Whoopi Goldberg
65 books414 followersWhoopi Goldberg is one of an elite group of artists who have won the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards) and is the bestselling author of the Sugar Plum Ballerina series, Book, and Is It Just Me? While performing in the Bay Area she created the characters that became The Spook Show and evolved into her hit Broadway show, Grammy Award–winning album, and the HBO special that helped launch her career. Spanning decades, Whoopi’s credits include roles in the well-known films The Color Purple, Ghosts of Mississippi, Sister Act, and Ghost. She produced the documentary Whoopi Goldberg Presents Moms Mabley, and she appeared in and was one of the producers of the critically acclaimed 2022 feature film Till. She loves VW Bugs, working casinos, and comfortable clothing; is a passionate supporter of the audio arts and dedicated collector of audiobooks; and heads the Whoopfam Group, makers of Emma & Clyde, Whoopi & Maya, and other recreational and medicinal marijuana products.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
March 10, 2024
There's a whole subgenre in comics now, of celebrities creating and writing comics (mostly together with a more experienced comics author), and yeah, a lot of them aren't very good. So I approach this kind of book with trepedation..
..and it's not at all bad! It's also not actually, you know, good.
Before I get into why I think that, I do want to say that I wholly agree with ms. Goldberg's introduction, where she says she's missing older characters in comics, and especially older women. I also think that there's an overabundance of young comics characters, and it seems to come from this weird idea that publishers have that young people don't want to read about older characters (and 'older' here means 40 and above). It feels condescending to young people. Don't underestimate the young, we're not living in Logan's Run (<-- old man reference).
The book suffers from some of the standard first-time comics writer problems. The main character, Isabel Frost (wife, mother and grandmother), who will spend most of the book struggling with menopause and developing powers based on that same transition. The character is charmingly depicted as ms Goldberg herself, and she does sometimes come across as a bit of a self-insert, a bit of a Mary-Sue: she has no real negative traits, but everyone around her does and gets in her way. Isabel is sharp-witted, which is fun, but she also feels underdeveloped.
When Isabel's origin story starts kicking in, she feels overpowered. It's interesting that her powers (firebolts, icebolts, turning invisible, superspeed and more) are based on the menopause, but the more powers, the less they tell you about a character. The origin story in the ends up feeling a bit derivative (hard to avoid with origin stories, I would say).
Not enough time is spent on developing the supervillain, so they feel a bit.. nothing-y. I do like that Isabel has a close connection to her grandson, who guides her in discovering and controlling her powers.
I'm a huge stinking lefty, but I don't enjoy it when liberal ideas are smacked on in an obvious way - it's a bit cringey, I like it more when the story as a whole makes a political point.
The book ends on a cliffhanger, it's all origin story and set-up, and it stops when the real story begins. I don't think I'm the only one to think that we shouldn't spend so much time on origins, but rather get into the meat of the story, and tell a character's origins in tightly edited flashbacks.
The book's art is not bad - Goldberg's likeness is pretty constant (which sounds like a minum, but you'd be surprised how many books don't manage it).
Overall it's an okay book, a bit wordy at times, but with some fun dialogue. I only wish we'd have gotten further into the story, and had better characterisation.
(Thanks to Dark Horse Books for providing me with an ARC through Edelweiss)
..and it's not at all bad! It's also not actually, you know, good.
Before I get into why I think that, I do want to say that I wholly agree with ms. Goldberg's introduction, where she says she's missing older characters in comics, and especially older women. I also think that there's an overabundance of young comics characters, and it seems to come from this weird idea that publishers have that young people don't want to read about older characters (and 'older' here means 40 and above). It feels condescending to young people. Don't underestimate the young, we're not living in Logan's Run (<-- old man reference).
The book suffers from some of the standard first-time comics writer problems. The main character, Isabel Frost (wife, mother and grandmother), who will spend most of the book struggling with menopause and developing powers based on that same transition. The character is charmingly depicted as ms Goldberg herself, and she does sometimes come across as a bit of a self-insert, a bit of a Mary-Sue: she has no real negative traits, but everyone around her does and gets in her way. Isabel is sharp-witted, which is fun, but she also feels underdeveloped.
When Isabel's origin story starts kicking in, she feels overpowered. It's interesting that her powers (firebolts, icebolts, turning invisible, superspeed and more) are based on the menopause, but the more powers, the less they tell you about a character. The origin story in the ends up feeling a bit derivative (hard to avoid with origin stories, I would say).
Not enough time is spent on developing the supervillain, so they feel a bit.. nothing-y. I do like that Isabel has a close connection to her grandson, who guides her in discovering and controlling her powers.
I'm a huge stinking lefty, but I don't enjoy it when liberal ideas are smacked on in an obvious way - it's a bit cringey, I like it more when the story as a whole makes a political point.
The book ends on a cliffhanger, it's all origin story and set-up, and it stops when the real story begins. I don't think I'm the only one to think that we shouldn't spend so much time on origins, but rather get into the meat of the story, and tell a character's origins in tightly edited flashbacks.
The book's art is not bad - Goldberg's likeness is pretty constant (which sounds like a minum, but you'd be surprised how many books don't manage it).
Overall it's an okay book, a bit wordy at times, but with some fun dialogue. I only wish we'd have gotten further into the story, and had better characterisation.
(Thanks to Dark Horse Books for providing me with an ARC through Edelweiss)
April 7, 2025
Funny and relatable regardless of the stage of life you’re in. I would be happy to read the next installment.
August 14, 2024
Since I write a series of novels based on the idea that menopausal symptoms might give people super heroic powers, I have to admit that my heart sank a little when I saw that this book had been released. Whoopi is a lot more famous than me, and it breaks my heart a little to see the idea I’ve put my heart and soul into done by someone else.
Still, I had to see what she was going to do with it. And it’s pretty darn good! Isabel is cranky as hell and has a good reason to be so. Several good reasons in fact. I love her relationship with her grandson and her reluctant heroes journey. I’ll definitely be back for further installments to find out how she kicks Ash’s ass.
Good news for me. Even though we’re both writing about menopausal superheroes, our work is not at all the same. Hey, Whoopi, wanna collaborate?
Still, I had to see what she was going to do with it. And it’s pretty darn good! Isabel is cranky as hell and has a good reason to be so. Several good reasons in fact. I love her relationship with her grandson and her reluctant heroes journey. I’ll definitely be back for further installments to find out how she kicks Ash’s ass.
Good news for me. Even though we’re both writing about menopausal superheroes, our work is not at all the same. Hey, Whoopi, wanna collaborate?
September 16, 2024
Well, this was fun. As a post-menopausal woman, before pre-menopausal was made popular by Oprah, I remembered my mother in her 60s talking about still getting hot flashes. My friend and I celebrated each other's accomplishments in womanhood and crone with a talk about power surges. So it was nice years later to see our superpowers claimed and made real as all superhero actions work.
Still, it is nice that our younger sisters are finally getting the strength we were not awarded.
Again, the comic book was fun. But I have a huge problem. I hate cliffhangers! Obviously, this is to be a series. I may or may not fall for the next one.
Still, it is nice that our younger sisters are finally getting the strength we were not awarded.
Again, the comic book was fun. But I have a huge problem. I hate cliffhangers! Obviously, this is to be a series. I may or may not fall for the next one.
December 31, 2024
3 stars. My favorite part was Whoopi’s intro. I love the idea of having an older superhero, I just wish the characters were more fleshed out and the origin elements stronger.
November 10, 2024
Let's start with the elephants in this particular sitting parlor: I'm a straight, white male, not of menopausal age, and I'm a comic book nerd.
One can definitely make the argument that this book is not FOR me, by design, and, you know, I'm not going to fight you too hard on that. I think I'm going to be pretty fair about The Change here, but if you want to read this as the rantings of a basement-dweller, that's fine. I DO like a good basement. The sun hurts me.
I want to say what I liked about this book and a bit about what I think people are responding to: The dialog is good! Really good! It's pretty funny, at least, the Whoopi character's is (I'm going to call her Whoopi because she looks and talks like Whoopi and because Whoopi specifically said she wanted to see herself in a comic). The antagonist characters are not as well-rendered, but that's okay, kind of, mostly.
Point being, there's something here, I DO think Whoopi and her co-writer could write a comic book that'd be pretty enjoyable.
The most enjoyable portions of The Change are when it's more like a slice of life comics, and the least enjoyable parts are when it's a superhero comic book, which may have something to do with a potentially-unfair thing I'm about to say: I think this is a comic by folks who aren't big comics fans, for people who aren't big comics fans.
Understand that I don't say this with malice, I'm not gatekeeping here, I just think there are some comics that are more appealing if you haven't read a billion comics because, if you've read a fair number of comics, you've read so many superhero origin stories that you just don't really need another one. Those pretty standard parts of The Change were the least interesting to me, and, again, I might not be the core audience. But not just in terms of my census demographics, in terms of being someone who reads a lot of comics.
I also kind of think the combination of politics, identity, and superheroism doesn't really work for me in this book. I suspect that for folks who don't read a ton of comics, this feels a little more novel, but for me, it's one of those things where I've seen others do it better, more subtly, and with more focus.
The politics definitely lack focus. We have race, gentrification, local politics, bullying, the invisibility of being Black (or maybe a woman, maybe an older woman, maybe all), reality TV - there's a lot going on here, and I think a more focused look at fewer facets would be better and play to the book's strengths.
On the other hand, it's very forgivable because I suspect that The Change went through what a lot of indie books go through: You don't know if you're going to get more than one shot at this thing, so you put all of your ideas into one book in case you don't get another crack at it.
Anyway, I think my issue(!) with comics that I perceive as being for not-hardcore-comics-readers is that comics feel, to me, like one of only a few genres where people dive in without a lot of prior knowledge, and this is seen as an advantage. I see this a lot with comics headed by celebrities.
Comics have this weird perception, that coming into comics with very little background is good because you won't tread the same territory that so many other comics do. You won't be tainted by the tropes and so on, so you'll be able to make something wholly original.
I respect the theory, but in practice, I usually feel like comics written from this perspective are EXTRA by-the-numbers because they don't have enough background to know they're treading a well-trod path.
It's like writing horror without reading horror. You can totally be forgiven for thinking that there's a new vampire story to be told, maybe one about vampires who are not inhuman monsters, but...let's say, funny guys living on Staten Island.
I don't resent these comics stories, I resent the idea that people from outside of comics, with little knowledge of comics, are going to do it better. We don't really do this with other things. We don't think a person who has never played baseball is going to come in and do it better because he's not tied down by all the rules or whatever.
I do also feel like outsiders feel that comics = superheroes, so any story they have to tell, it's a superhero story. It's like how 90s game developers figured that if there was a game to be made, it should probably be a side-scrolling platformer. Mario, Wolverine, The Rocketeer, The Goonies, Scrooge McDuck, Dr. Jekyll, all of these characters were in games with the same-ish gameplay style.
Comics are a lot more than superheroes, and some stories are, in my opinion, better suited for non-superhero comics.
I like new perspectives, I'm not saying we shouldn't give newbies a shot, and if someone has something to say, I'm all for it. However, I do think it's good to have a consultant in whatever industry/medium you're entering who is able to say things like, "Listen, this is getting pretty rote, and I think the book will be stronger if you shift a bit."
Okay, let's start talking about the big issue with this book that I have no business talking about: Menopause.
The Change is a menopausal superhero. Her powers are menopaused-based, pyro stuff representing hot flashes, that I get. Turning invisible because, I suppose, there's a feeling of invisibility as a woman of a certain age.
But then there's also super strength and super speed and some sort of Jubilee, electronics-disrupting powers, which were pretty unexplored but could be a funny addition as the whole "older person's anxiety about technology leaving them behind" kind of thing.
Her powers manifest when she's feeling angry, or maybe when she's feeling sad, or maybe when she's feeling STUFF. I guess like The Hulk if, instead of being constantly picked on in diners for some reason, Bruce Banner had a bunch of eggs inside of him that had aged beyond their Best By date.
Focusing on a few powers, rather than a whole suite, would probably give this superhero more of an identity.
What I don't like about this whole affair is that it kind of breaks its own premise.
If you had superhero biology, I don't think menopause would be much of a problem(?) In The Change, if Whoopi's doctor tells her that she's got the bone density of a teenager and peak-goodness in terms of hormone levels...menopause is negated by superpowers.
The answer to menopause is "get superpowers." AND, menopause kind of becomes a problem to be solved as opposed to something to work around and/or work within.
If I can make a classic comics counterexample, Peter Parker becomes Spider-Man, but it doesn't solve the problems of being picked on and being a social pariah. In fact, it makes the problem a little worse because Peter Parker KNOWS he could clock Flash Thompson easily, and he has to choose not to. In other words, his spidey powers don't really solve the real-life problems. To quote the classic film Jingle All The Way, there are some problems you just can't bench press your way out of.
I think the better version of The Change features a superhero who is almost identical, but who is a superhero going through menopause as opposed to being a superhero whose source of power is menopause.
Like, how great would that be? Some superhero who's used to running around in a skimpy outfit, everything is easy, all the superteams want her to join, then she ages a few decades, hangs up her tights, but decides to hit the streets and probably some jerks in the face, again in her 50s? Everything is a little different, a little harder. News outlets are reporting that they find the same outfit, which everyone loved 30 years ago, is "gross" on an older lady. As little respect as she got when she was a young woman, it's maybe a little worse as an older woman. NO super teams are interested all of a sudden, even though she's just as powerful as she always was.
What I'm rambling towards here is that the problems presented in the book, menopause and the political stuff, are ALL solved by superpowers, and that's not super satisfying.
What makes a problem like gentrification a problem is that it can't be punched in the face. There IS no face to punch, no viking vampire or whatever who you can just throw into a dumpster, dust your hands off, and move on.
What makes something like menopause frustrating is similar, and I think seeing a superhero go through menopause and dealing with some changes would be a more effective way to tell the story than having a woman go through menopause and then be pretty much not going through menopause anymore.
If I was writing about a superhero who had, oh, I don't know, just pulling this out of my hat, occasional bouts with depression, I wouldn't write a superhero whose depression was an advantage, I would write a superhero whose depression was something they had to figure out how to work with.
Last thing:
Whoopi wrote this comic because there weren't superheroes out there who looked like her and were a lot like her, so she wrote The Change.
And it makes sense. The Change IS Whoopi with superheroes.
But...I think we can consider a small change of course.
Now, I'm not suggesting all superheroes be white guys with gleaming smiles and bulging bulges. I'm saying that part of the point is seeing ourselves in people who aren't our exact analogues.
Of course there need to be Black superheroes, female superheroes, atypical body shapes, etc. But I think we've moved into territory where, in order to feel seen, people feel they need to see themselves, exactly, in comics.
I can't help but wonder if this is a symptom of how divided the world feels today.
Truthfully, I know a lot of superheroes were white and male, and it seems like I should've been able to see myself in their shoes. But that just wasn't the case. I never saw Captain America and saw myself. I don't think of myself as a "Chris Evans type" and while I can understand why people might, I AM incredibly handsome and do own a piece of American flag apparel, a fannypack, it's not what appeals to me about these characters and never has been.
I think kids relate to Spider-Man because he's the underdog, and being a kid is kind of a constant exercise in being an underdog. He gets picked on in school, his aunt is a little overbearing. And I think what people relate to is that he really is trying to do what's right.
I think people relate to The Hulk because we all feel out of control at times, like our emotions got the best of us.
We relate to The Thing because we feel like our outsides don't match our insides, and we have an asshole sibling who picks on us all the time.
I think what makes Wonder Woman relateable, and what's often unexplored, is that she was created by her mother and born into very high, unrealistic expectations that she would save the world. And she was raised to believe things about the outside world that she's finding to be untrue.
We related to superheroes because of their problems, not in spite of them.
And I think we relate to superheroes not because they are just like us, but because their struggles feel familiar. Someone raised in an ultra-conservative household who goes out into the world and meets some gay people will start to question whether the things they've learned are true, and they will struggle with love for their mothers while at the same time seeing their mothers are not perfect.
They don't need to be made of clay.
People feel out of control when big emotions overcome them, and they feel like they become a different person, and it's difficult to pick up the broken pieces that out of control person leaves behind. They don't have to be a white scientist man or a Korean supergenius or a lady lawyer to understand that.
This is the core of why The Change doesn't work for me. I had to write my way to it, but here we are: The Change isn't relateable to me, not because we share no demographics in common, but because The Change solves her problems by having superpowers. Superpowers don't cause her problems, they fix them.
Whoopi, the comic book character, is relateable. Her body is doing things she doesn't want it to do. Even though I can go through menopause, I can relate to feeling betrayed by biology. I can relate to the way she deals with it, sometimes joking, sometimes feeling bummed out.
But I can't relate to peacekeeping with my traitorous body by manifesting superpowers.
One can definitely make the argument that this book is not FOR me, by design, and, you know, I'm not going to fight you too hard on that. I think I'm going to be pretty fair about The Change here, but if you want to read this as the rantings of a basement-dweller, that's fine. I DO like a good basement. The sun hurts me.
I want to say what I liked about this book and a bit about what I think people are responding to: The dialog is good! Really good! It's pretty funny, at least, the Whoopi character's is (I'm going to call her Whoopi because she looks and talks like Whoopi and because Whoopi specifically said she wanted to see herself in a comic). The antagonist characters are not as well-rendered, but that's okay, kind of, mostly.
Point being, there's something here, I DO think Whoopi and her co-writer could write a comic book that'd be pretty enjoyable.
The most enjoyable portions of The Change are when it's more like a slice of life comics, and the least enjoyable parts are when it's a superhero comic book, which may have something to do with a potentially-unfair thing I'm about to say: I think this is a comic by folks who aren't big comics fans, for people who aren't big comics fans.
Understand that I don't say this with malice, I'm not gatekeeping here, I just think there are some comics that are more appealing if you haven't read a billion comics because, if you've read a fair number of comics, you've read so many superhero origin stories that you just don't really need another one. Those pretty standard parts of The Change were the least interesting to me, and, again, I might not be the core audience. But not just in terms of my census demographics, in terms of being someone who reads a lot of comics.
I also kind of think the combination of politics, identity, and superheroism doesn't really work for me in this book. I suspect that for folks who don't read a ton of comics, this feels a little more novel, but for me, it's one of those things where I've seen others do it better, more subtly, and with more focus.
The politics definitely lack focus. We have race, gentrification, local politics, bullying, the invisibility of being Black (or maybe a woman, maybe an older woman, maybe all), reality TV - there's a lot going on here, and I think a more focused look at fewer facets would be better and play to the book's strengths.
On the other hand, it's very forgivable because I suspect that The Change went through what a lot of indie books go through: You don't know if you're going to get more than one shot at this thing, so you put all of your ideas into one book in case you don't get another crack at it.
Anyway, I think my issue(!) with comics that I perceive as being for not-hardcore-comics-readers is that comics feel, to me, like one of only a few genres where people dive in without a lot of prior knowledge, and this is seen as an advantage. I see this a lot with comics headed by celebrities.
Comics have this weird perception, that coming into comics with very little background is good because you won't tread the same territory that so many other comics do. You won't be tainted by the tropes and so on, so you'll be able to make something wholly original.
I respect the theory, but in practice, I usually feel like comics written from this perspective are EXTRA by-the-numbers because they don't have enough background to know they're treading a well-trod path.
It's like writing horror without reading horror. You can totally be forgiven for thinking that there's a new vampire story to be told, maybe one about vampires who are not inhuman monsters, but...let's say, funny guys living on Staten Island.
I don't resent these comics stories, I resent the idea that people from outside of comics, with little knowledge of comics, are going to do it better. We don't really do this with other things. We don't think a person who has never played baseball is going to come in and do it better because he's not tied down by all the rules or whatever.
I do also feel like outsiders feel that comics = superheroes, so any story they have to tell, it's a superhero story. It's like how 90s game developers figured that if there was a game to be made, it should probably be a side-scrolling platformer. Mario, Wolverine, The Rocketeer, The Goonies, Scrooge McDuck, Dr. Jekyll, all of these characters were in games with the same-ish gameplay style.
Comics are a lot more than superheroes, and some stories are, in my opinion, better suited for non-superhero comics.
I like new perspectives, I'm not saying we shouldn't give newbies a shot, and if someone has something to say, I'm all for it. However, I do think it's good to have a consultant in whatever industry/medium you're entering who is able to say things like, "Listen, this is getting pretty rote, and I think the book will be stronger if you shift a bit."
Okay, let's start talking about the big issue with this book that I have no business talking about: Menopause.
The Change is a menopausal superhero. Her powers are menopaused-based, pyro stuff representing hot flashes, that I get. Turning invisible because, I suppose, there's a feeling of invisibility as a woman of a certain age.
But then there's also super strength and super speed and some sort of Jubilee, electronics-disrupting powers, which were pretty unexplored but could be a funny addition as the whole "older person's anxiety about technology leaving them behind" kind of thing.
Her powers manifest when she's feeling angry, or maybe when she's feeling sad, or maybe when she's feeling STUFF. I guess like The Hulk if, instead of being constantly picked on in diners for some reason, Bruce Banner had a bunch of eggs inside of him that had aged beyond their Best By date.
Focusing on a few powers, rather than a whole suite, would probably give this superhero more of an identity.
What I don't like about this whole affair is that it kind of breaks its own premise.
If you had superhero biology, I don't think menopause would be much of a problem(?) In The Change, if Whoopi's doctor tells her that she's got the bone density of a teenager and peak-goodness in terms of hormone levels...menopause is negated by superpowers.
The answer to menopause is "get superpowers." AND, menopause kind of becomes a problem to be solved as opposed to something to work around and/or work within.
If I can make a classic comics counterexample, Peter Parker becomes Spider-Man, but it doesn't solve the problems of being picked on and being a social pariah. In fact, it makes the problem a little worse because Peter Parker KNOWS he could clock Flash Thompson easily, and he has to choose not to. In other words, his spidey powers don't really solve the real-life problems. To quote the classic film Jingle All The Way, there are some problems you just can't bench press your way out of.
I think the better version of The Change features a superhero who is almost identical, but who is a superhero going through menopause as opposed to being a superhero whose source of power is menopause.
Like, how great would that be? Some superhero who's used to running around in a skimpy outfit, everything is easy, all the superteams want her to join, then she ages a few decades, hangs up her tights, but decides to hit the streets and probably some jerks in the face, again in her 50s? Everything is a little different, a little harder. News outlets are reporting that they find the same outfit, which everyone loved 30 years ago, is "gross" on an older lady. As little respect as she got when she was a young woman, it's maybe a little worse as an older woman. NO super teams are interested all of a sudden, even though she's just as powerful as she always was.
What I'm rambling towards here is that the problems presented in the book, menopause and the political stuff, are ALL solved by superpowers, and that's not super satisfying.
What makes a problem like gentrification a problem is that it can't be punched in the face. There IS no face to punch, no viking vampire or whatever who you can just throw into a dumpster, dust your hands off, and move on.
What makes something like menopause frustrating is similar, and I think seeing a superhero go through menopause and dealing with some changes would be a more effective way to tell the story than having a woman go through menopause and then be pretty much not going through menopause anymore.
If I was writing about a superhero who had, oh, I don't know, just pulling this out of my hat, occasional bouts with depression, I wouldn't write a superhero whose depression was an advantage, I would write a superhero whose depression was something they had to figure out how to work with.
Last thing:
Whoopi wrote this comic because there weren't superheroes out there who looked like her and were a lot like her, so she wrote The Change.
And it makes sense. The Change IS Whoopi with superheroes.
But...I think we can consider a small change of course.
Now, I'm not suggesting all superheroes be white guys with gleaming smiles and bulging bulges. I'm saying that part of the point is seeing ourselves in people who aren't our exact analogues.
Of course there need to be Black superheroes, female superheroes, atypical body shapes, etc. But I think we've moved into territory where, in order to feel seen, people feel they need to see themselves, exactly, in comics.
I can't help but wonder if this is a symptom of how divided the world feels today.
Truthfully, I know a lot of superheroes were white and male, and it seems like I should've been able to see myself in their shoes. But that just wasn't the case. I never saw Captain America and saw myself. I don't think of myself as a "Chris Evans type" and while I can understand why people might, I AM incredibly handsome and do own a piece of American flag apparel, a fannypack, it's not what appeals to me about these characters and never has been.
I think kids relate to Spider-Man because he's the underdog, and being a kid is kind of a constant exercise in being an underdog. He gets picked on in school, his aunt is a little overbearing. And I think what people relate to is that he really is trying to do what's right.
I think people relate to The Hulk because we all feel out of control at times, like our emotions got the best of us.
We relate to The Thing because we feel like our outsides don't match our insides, and we have an asshole sibling who picks on us all the time.
I think what makes Wonder Woman relateable, and what's often unexplored, is that she was created by her mother and born into very high, unrealistic expectations that she would save the world. And she was raised to believe things about the outside world that she's finding to be untrue.
We related to superheroes because of their problems, not in spite of them.
And I think we relate to superheroes not because they are just like us, but because their struggles feel familiar. Someone raised in an ultra-conservative household who goes out into the world and meets some gay people will start to question whether the things they've learned are true, and they will struggle with love for their mothers while at the same time seeing their mothers are not perfect.
They don't need to be made of clay.
People feel out of control when big emotions overcome them, and they feel like they become a different person, and it's difficult to pick up the broken pieces that out of control person leaves behind. They don't have to be a white scientist man or a Korean supergenius or a lady lawyer to understand that.
This is the core of why The Change doesn't work for me. I had to write my way to it, but here we are: The Change isn't relateable to me, not because we share no demographics in common, but because The Change solves her problems by having superpowers. Superpowers don't cause her problems, they fix them.
Whoopi, the comic book character, is relateable. Her body is doing things she doesn't want it to do. Even though I can go through menopause, I can relate to feeling betrayed by biology. I can relate to the way she deals with it, sometimes joking, sometimes feeling bummed out.
But I can't relate to peacekeeping with my traitorous body by manifesting superpowers.
July 14, 2024
I haven’t read a comic book in a while, but I got this because of it being about ‘the change’ and written by Whoopi. I am unfamiliar with comic books written by celebrities. I am a little torn about whether it would have been better to set the good guy(gal?)/ bad guy battle as the first book and let the origin story come later. However, for those of us familiar with the effects of menopause, the origin of her powers is sooooo ‘Yes!’
I love the humor in the story. The grandson, Fury, had me laughing. I will buy the next book.
I love the humor in the story. The grandson, Fury, had me laughing. I will buy the next book.
August 8, 2024
This little book -graphic novel- packs a LOT into a small space. Subects covered are so fast and furious that if you're not careful you might miss some of them.
With THAT said, it's an easy read, except for the tiny print (and my recent eye surgery). I adore Whoopi Goldberg, and I would have bought this had it not sold out immediately when it was first released. I grabbed a copy from my local library after waiting on the wait list for a bit. My first reaction when the book finally made its way down the list to me was that of surprise at both the size of the book, and at the print size. Also, somehow I had missed that The Change was a graphic novel.
I guess I expected a little more mature version: More of a handbook for women entering into or fully immersed in "the change"of life. This book is more of a download of content that comes fast and furiously, but which I feel like doesn't fit into any typical genre. That's not a bad or good thing; it's just an observation about the writing style, and about the format. Maybe it is fine for some women in the throes of menopause, and maybe it's more for those who enjoy super heroes, and/or graphic novels. I fit into none of those categories, so my review shouldn't hold much weight.
There is some language that may be offensive to some. But hey, it's Whoopi. Her authentic voice rings clear throughout.
With THAT said, it's an easy read, except for the tiny print (and my recent eye surgery). I adore Whoopi Goldberg, and I would have bought this had it not sold out immediately when it was first released. I grabbed a copy from my local library after waiting on the wait list for a bit. My first reaction when the book finally made its way down the list to me was that of surprise at both the size of the book, and at the print size. Also, somehow I had missed that The Change was a graphic novel.
I guess I expected a little more mature version: More of a handbook for women entering into or fully immersed in "the change"of life. This book is more of a download of content that comes fast and furiously, but which I feel like doesn't fit into any typical genre. That's not a bad or good thing; it's just an observation about the writing style, and about the format. Maybe it is fine for some women in the throes of menopause, and maybe it's more for those who enjoy super heroes, and/or graphic novels. I fit into none of those categories, so my review shouldn't hold much weight.
There is some language that may be offensive to some. But hey, it's Whoopi. Her authentic voice rings clear throughout.
March 4, 2025
Was at first leery, as is common with seeing a celebrity book drop. It pleasantly surprised me, then had some weaknesses when we got to the fleshing out of the story. Some parts are deftly handled—the relationship between Isabel’s powers and menopause is really good and something I haven’t seen before. However, she gets really overpowered and unnecessarily so, which gives a Mary Sue feeling. Knowing that Goldberg makes her intentions known in her introduction regarding the role of the superhero and what she’d like to do, I do find it interesting that we went from your everyday villain to giving him vampire-like abilities to charm and feed off others. Some dialogue was awkward; especially the doctors at the end. The more we leaned into the superhero story *tropes* is where a lot of the novice is exposed, and I think if it had stayed as down to earth as it started, it could have turned out to be a surprisingly elegant debut. However, I still found it enjoyable; there was a lot of charm that I appreciated. I hope to see things cinch together in the next one =]
January 4, 2025
Wow! This was really good. It flowed well and read like a film.
The main character’s physical characteristics are similar to Whoopi’s and the dialogue reads in her voice as well. Making for a somewhat immersive read if you are familiar with Whoopi Goldberg.
Whoopi has a gift, discussing serious topics with a sprinkle of comedy. There are so many moments where I literally laughed out loud.
I look forward to reading more graphic novels like this, as highlighting the physical, internal, and external changes that manifest with age and life phases isn’t something that’s discussed much outside of a nonfiction book that’s either a memoir or something written by a doctor. The Change is refreshing and we need more books like it.
If you are willing to try something different, read from a different perspective, a different type of superhero, I recommend that you read this book.
The main character’s physical characteristics are similar to Whoopi’s and the dialogue reads in her voice as well. Making for a somewhat immersive read if you are familiar with Whoopi Goldberg.
Whoopi has a gift, discussing serious topics with a sprinkle of comedy. There are so many moments where I literally laughed out loud.
I look forward to reading more graphic novels like this, as highlighting the physical, internal, and external changes that manifest with age and life phases isn’t something that’s discussed much outside of a nonfiction book that’s either a memoir or something written by a doctor. The Change is refreshing and we need more books like it.
If you are willing to try something different, read from a different perspective, a different type of superhero, I recommend that you read this book.
January 10, 2025
I liked how the classic superhero ropes are still utilized, yet, for obvious reasons, our main character is an older woman. She’s seen loss, love, life, and ultimately change. The musical changes aren’t because of library but menopause, a taboo topic. Isabella navigates the world as a woman, Black wkman, wife, grandmother, and teeters towards senior citizen. These inform her decisions. If add a complexity that “normal” superhero stories don’t have because of Isabella’s intersecting identities. She does fall into the trope of “angry Black woman” at times but the narration shows it’s justified. She’s been pushed to the side for so long she’s done with everyone’s shit. This isn’t a subversion but an expansion through a different, usually un-utilized, lens.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 24, 2025
Nailed it! I'm obsessed!
Writing 5/5 (except for "something's got my balls, ain't that a bitch" lol)
Art 5/5
Story 5/5
Evil developer forcing people out of their homes in Sunset Park, BK. Whoopi Goldberg, I mean Isabel Frost, is married to the councilman who is bending to the developer's will. And she's doing it while going through The Change, yes, menopause, but also....fire-starting, super-strength, super-speed (I can't wait to hit menopause). Her grandson is helping her train so she can fight the every day crime and stop the power hungry billionaires.
She is the superhero we've been waiting for and I'm pleased as punch. :)
Writing 5/5 (except for "something's got my balls, ain't that a bitch" lol)
Art 5/5
Story 5/5
Evil developer forcing people out of their homes in Sunset Park, BK. Whoopi Goldberg, I mean Isabel Frost, is married to the councilman who is bending to the developer's will. And she's doing it while going through The Change, yes, menopause, but also....fire-starting, super-strength, super-speed (I can't wait to hit menopause). Her grandson is helping her train so she can fight the every day crime and stop the power hungry billionaires.
She is the superhero we've been waiting for and I'm pleased as punch. :)
July 1, 2024
For a comic book written by a celebrity, this is the rare one that doesn't suck. The main character is clearly supposed to be Whoopi Goldberg. She's going through menopause and randomly starts getting powers as the book progresses. It's surprisingly pretty funny as I've never been a fan of hers. I have nothing against her, just not my thing. Her husband is running for State Senator in New York City. The bad guy is very undeveloped. I'm surprised he wasn't sporting a mustache he twirled. The book here is all setup and ends just as its really beginning. I liked it well enough that I'll check the next book out when it's available.
July 14, 2024
It's high fucking time someone created a menopausal superhero whose anger starts fires and whose feelings of invisibility turn her invisible. Thank you, Whoopi Goldberg & the team of writers and artists.
"You asked me to try to control it. But like everything else that's messin' with me, clearly I can't. I'm not giving up, Fury [her grandson]. I think I need to focus on the few things I CAN control right now."
"You asked me to try to control it. But like everything else that's messin' with me, clearly I can't. I'm not giving up, Fury [her grandson]. I think I need to focus on the few things I CAN control right now."
September 21, 2024
Whoopi Goldberg wins again, in my opinion!
It seems Whoopi Goldberg does exceptionally well at whatever she sets her mind to and does! She and Jaime Patois ave created something very special indeed. The Change is a unique Comic Book to say the least. It exudes Tongue-in-Cheek Humour and courage that Women of a certain age will love (and probably find some what empowering.) And, yet, I has something for everyone. I can't wait for more to come!
It seems Whoopi Goldberg does exceptionally well at whatever she sets her mind to and does! She and Jaime Patois ave created something very special indeed. The Change is a unique Comic Book to say the least. It exudes Tongue-in-Cheek Humour and courage that Women of a certain age will love (and probably find some what empowering.) And, yet, I has something for everyone. I can't wait for more to come!
December 15, 2024
I like the idea of turning your menopause symptoms into superpowers, but overall, this book just wasn’t my thing. Actually, that’s not quite true. I was having a good time until the book suddenly ended, still in the beginnings of the story. I guess if it was a normal comic, I would have expected that, but this seems like a novelty, one-time-only kind of deal, so it didn’t occur to me that it was just episode one. Very unsatisfying.
November 15, 2024
I’m a big fan of Whoopi Goldberg since she’s been on The View and she plugged her graphic novel that had something to do with menopause. I’m not a huge fan of superhero comics, but gave it a try and ended up enjoying it because I can relate to the big M that seems to be never ending! Interested in seeing where the story goes. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
August 3, 2024
more please a great read
I’m seriously loving this. I need more. A well ordered and grounded origin story with heft, relevance and grit. I never knew that Whoopi had this in her but I gotta say, it hit me hard.
I’m seriously loving this. I need more. A well ordered and grounded origin story with heft, relevance and grit. I never knew that Whoopi had this in her but I gotta say, it hit me hard.
August 5, 2024
There is really just one thing to say about this graphic novel (comic book):
Whoopi Goldberg has done it! This is an amazing story and it is highly recommended. No spoilers. Pick it up. Read it. Enjoy it.
Whoopi Goldberg has done it! This is an amazing story and it is highly recommended. No spoilers. Pick it up. Read it. Enjoy it.
November 29, 2024
The story was way more comic-book-y than menopause-y, but the superpowers were definitely related to the change. Graphic novels aren't my preferred genre, but it was worth reading just to see a moody and hormonal female middle-aged main character kicking butt and taking names.
June 22, 2025
More of a 3.5 for me. It was a more original take on the superhero origin story. Most happen to younger people. I liked the whole vibe of this graphic novel. Goldberg is a good writer. I'm kind of interested in seeing what happens next.
Read
December 11, 2025Fantastic
This storybook is so powerful. I love how it includes the whole family and how true this world today it can be. Thou impossible in a way but gives us somethingvto hope for.
This storybook is so powerful. I love how it includes the whole family and how true this world today it can be. Thou impossible in a way but gives us somethingvto hope for.
July 2, 2024
This was pretty good. I liked the story and I really enjoyed having an older main character.
July 14, 2024
3.5 stars. Hate that this hardcover 72-page book looks like a graphic novel but is actually a long comic that ends
August 3, 2024
Great start!
August 16, 2024
3.5 stars actual, since GR doesn't do partials
September 10, 2024
I enjoyed the read. My only complaint was the font size was small and made the print difficult to read. Remember, the change happens in our eyesight as well.
November 7, 2024
A 3+
I read this because it was by Whoopi Goldberg.
It definitely leans to being a book targeted at women of 'a certain age' but there is a relevant and solid hero story for all too.
I read this because it was by Whoopi Goldberg.
It definitely leans to being a book targeted at women of 'a certain age' but there is a relevant and solid hero story for all too.
November 16, 2024
Excellent work, but you’re not done yet Ms. Goldberg!
November 16, 2024
Because this needs to be in the world
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