Brilliant - Volume 1

Jinxworld

by Brian Michael Bendis (Writer), Mark Bagley (Artist), Nick Filardi (Illustrator)

The first creator-owned book by ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN co-creators Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley, BRILLIANT tells the story of a handful of college-age geniuses who challenge each other to solve the mystery of superpowers. Can the best and brightest change science fiction into science fact? And if so, how will the world at large react? BRILLIANT is a thriller of the highest order. It is a story of how true power can either destroy or protect the strongest of friendships. It is the story of how the world will react when our true potential is finally unlocked. Collecting BRILLIANT #1-7.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Science Fiction, Superheroes, Thriller, Adventure, Graphic Novels Comics

160 pages, Unknown Binding

First published October 1, 2012

About the author

A comic book writer and erstwhile artist. He has won critical acclaim (including five Eisner Awards) and is one of the most successful writers working in mainstream comics. For over eight years Bendis’s books have consistently sat in the top five best sellers on the nationwide comic and graphic novel sales charts.

Though he started as a writer and artist of independent noir fiction series, he shot to stardom as a writer of Marvel Comics' superhero books, particularly Ultimate Spider-Man.

Bendis first entered the comic world with the "Jinx" line of crime comics in 1995. This line has spawned the graphic novels Goldfish, Fire, Jinx, Torso (with Marc Andreyko), and Total Sell Out. Bendis is writing the film version of Jinx for Universal Pictures with Oscar-winner Charlize Theron attached to star and produce.

Bendis’s other projects include the Harvey, Eisner, and Eagle Award-nominated Powers (with Michael Avon Oeming) originally from Image Comics, now published by Marvel's new creator-owned imprint Icon Comics, and the Hollywood tell-all Fortune and Glory from Oni Press, both of which received an "A" from Entertainment Weekly.

Bendis is one of the premiere architects of Marvel's "Ultimate" line: comics specifically created for the new generation of comic readers. He has written every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man since its best-selling launch, and has also written for Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate X-Men, as well as every issue of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, Ultimate Origin and Ultimate Six.

Brian is currently helming a renaissance for Marvel’s AVENGERS franchise by writing both New Avengers and Mighty Avengers along with the successful ‘event’ projects House Of M, Secret War, and this summer’s Secret Invasion.

He has also previously done work on Daredevil, Alias, and The Pulse.

Reviews

[Daniel Sevitt · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s my own fault. I thought I was clever picking this up cheap in hardback. I thought it was a self-contained Bendis book that I might enjoy. I had no idea it was just the first five issues of an abandoned series with little coherence and no resolution. Bit of a waste of their talent and my time.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wonder how Bendis felt when he watched the movie CHRONICLE, because this is very similar. Except the powers are discovered through science and not (what's most likely) extra-terrestrial purposes. But it's Bendis and Bagley doing a story about young people discovering powers while also dealing with being young, so there are some small similarities with Ultimate Spider-man.

I don't know what it is with Bendis though, I just seem to enjoy his Marvel work more than his creator owned stuff? I love Scarlet (which is probably my favourite creator owned thing by him) and Takio is cool, and his old crime stuff is fun to look at and read. But his creator owned stuff just seems to be missing something for me. There's also the fact that they're quite often plagued with delays, but I don't like including that on Goodreads reviews since the review should be about the complete story/collection. It's just hard not to think about when I'm reading. And sometimes, it's just not worth the wait.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Such an easy, breezy, fast-moving read. Even though so little is actually explained - or maybe because of it - this just turns pages so damned fast. It's a perfect Sunday-with-a-steaming-cup kind of read.

Bagley is one of the artists from Bendis' incredible run on Ultimate Spider-Man, and this book can't help but feel like a side-chapter from that incredible collaboration. But what I don't quite get out of this is a sense of the characters through their facial expressions. Everyone seems to look a little muted, like those loose drawings never quite come into focus, so you lose the ability to really clarify what everyone is thinking or feeling.

The story of geniuses that somehow invent superpowers is a neat angle to explore, but is almost a complete aside to the core story. They're treated as any curiosity, and while the authorities are scared and skeptical, it's not like they would proceed any differently in any police procedural. In fact, as much as I've enjoyed Bendis in the past as joyously as I have, this did as little for me as it did for many of my GoodReads compatriots.

It's not that I don't care for these characters - though they were pretty bland, I at least didn't want to see them fry for doing so little. But there were few surprises as there was no previously stark or unique behaviour against which to surprise me. Stock TV teledrama characters, acting out the usual "how do we hide this from the government?"

I can see that Bendis is looking to crank this up a notch - slowly encircle the kids with corporate sharks who will make any gubmint authority look like child's play - and this is the only reason to give this series another chance whenever Bendis & Bagley can squeeze out another handful of issues. I am *all in* if they can really illustrate the insidiously sociopathic nature of corporate conglomerates - as long as it doesn't end up looking like a couple of bad seeds. It'll make me a helluva lot happier if, after taking down the first few evil powermongers, everyone realizes that the next ten to replace them are even worse, and there's no stopping the endlessly voracious and silently single-minded beast.

[Јордан Kocevski) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I guess most of the bad rating comes from the disappointment that Brilliant ended without ending it's story.

This being said, the art and the sequential story telling is great, using different paneling to tell the story. I really enjoyed the mix of getting a page with rectangle narrow scenes, then switching to dynamic and back to previous.

The story is also interesting, the premise of students figuring out how to wake superhuman abilities felt fresh. However the science part of it was skillfully avoided, and besides the main characters it seemed like all the other characters acted stereotypically and almost identically. It is a great story, which, unfortunately didn't came to an end.

[Andy Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first I thought this was a tired concept, then started to really enjoy it, then it ended with no sense of when the continuation will be.
Hopefully Bendis and Bagley will be able to finish it at some point.

[Jeremy Randall · Rating 4 out of 5]

annoying that it kind of just... ends. It doesn't really complete. But nice art. great tension. G`reat idea.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't read this when it first came out. I did read it in ARC form in the new edition, which I hope means that the story will continue, because this first volume ends abruptly with the story just started. I think that the plot's pacing was slow, which probably hurt sales in the original edition, but if some version of a continuation comes out now, it might be worth following. As a stand-alone volume, though, I can give it only three stars, because too much of the volume is filled with what amounts to fluff...alternate covers, a script breakdown, stuff like that which is really cool once readers are invested in the characters and the story, but not so much before that happens.
If a volume 2 comes out, then definitely give this a chance, because the story has the potential to be very interesting. It's about some seemingly genius-level college students getting together to achieve the impossible, but acting like idiots along the way because they're "just" college students. I don't really like the many assumptions that are made along the way, but mad scientists have to come from somewhere, right?

[Allen Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bendis rarely if ever disappoints. This, his first creator-owned book (with artist and cocreator Mark Bagley), has the potential to be among his best. It's a superhero story... sort of. Some extremely smart college students start talking about all the scifi and fantasy things that have made it into the real world, and realize that superpowers are the next frontier. The science bits seem very sketchy, but that's part of the point. The reaction when they succeed (if that's the best word) is rather expected, but that's also part of the point. It's a quick and easy read and if you're like me, will have you eager for the chapters to come.

[estar* · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe it's a slow burn but I couldn't get into it. Might check out more volumes on Bendis' rep alone.

[Paxton Holley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Brilliant students discover a way to give themselves superpowers. Cool idea, meh execution.

[Rickey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of setup in first volume, but definitely intrigued by where this is going.

[***Dave Hill · Rating 2 out of 5]

When some genius college students figure out how to create super-powers, they learn a couple of lessons: absolute power corrupts absolute, you can have too much of a good thing, and "you won't know who to trust." Friends betray friends, people go nuts, the government wants to know more, and it all goes pear-shaped awfully fast.

Bendis' writing is good, though not great -- it's a bit too earnest in places, missing its normal wit. Mark Bagley is a fine artist as always, but this almost needs more the realism of someone like Maleev to make it really zing.

No regrets reading it, and I'll read more if and when.

The hardcover contains issues 1-5, plus a lot of backup material.

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MAY 2020 UPDATE:

Just these five issues came out; 6 and 7 were solicited, but never arrived. It's not clear what direction Bendis intended to go -- absolute power corrupting absolutely, the threat of big government (or business), how teenagers shouldn't be experimenting on themselves, or what. On reread, the dialog is pretty good, as expected -- folk talk like old friends -- but even after five issues, I don't have a good feel for any of the characters, even the centerpiece PoV character, Albert. Largely enjoyable, but ultimately frustrating.

[Kate Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book shows a highly likely account of what would happen if (or perhaps I should say when?) a group of people found a way to give people superpowers on purpose - even if they weren't sure what those powers might be or how they might work.

My overall reaction to this was "Cool story bro" - the art is appealing and expressive and the plot is intriguing, but I'm not really excited about reading more of it.

I feel like I need to read more of it to get attached to these characters. The plot explodes in this volume, but before I get a chance to really invest and care about what happens to the people involved which is a flaw of many comic/serial stories because you have to get the reader invested in such a short amount of time.

I want to love several of these characters though - I just don't yet mostly because I don't know them well enough at this point.

[Anchorpete · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am really, really sorry, I can tell Mark Bagley is a nice guy, and he consistently puts out an amazing amount of work, but I feel like his work is not very dynamic. The characters blend together. they are the equivalent of template characters you can build upon in game apps. there just really isn't anything very interesting about his art in this book, at all.
Why am I talking about art so much, when I normally focus on the writing in a comic book trade? Well, it's because I am getting sick of hearing myself say that Bendis stretches out a story that could be told in one or two issues into a six issue trade. The only thing that works in here is the attempt at making the idea of super powers seem like something people in the real world would work on achieving.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast page-turner, so fast in fact, I'd have been disappointed if I had purchased this book with my own cash. (I checked it out from the library.) It was over in a flash. Some of the dialogue includes coarse language, but not excessively so. What's here is entertaining but there's not a lot of meat on the bone. College geniuses band together to invent superpowers through scientific means. The scheme works but one of the kids doses himself and the results are unstable. Bagley's art is utilized well to provide bright young faces for this new cast of characters. The book ends with a cliffhanger, so don't expect much resolution.

[Sonic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mark Bagley, ... Mark Bagley ... can anyone explain it to me?
When I first started reading "Ultimate Spider-Man" I thought why did they choose THIS guy as the artist?
But as it went on, I had to admit that he did a decent job with Bendis's teenage histrionics and snarky melodrama.
And Bendis's writing was so good. ...

But every time I have seen this guy's art since then I am just like, "why?"

And so here we are again,... the art is not terrible, it is actually mostly serviceable,
but I can't help wonder how this might look with a less goofy, and cartoonish illustration style ... ?

[Stewart · Rating 1 out of 5]

Meh. So, so meh. Seriously lousy artwork matched with a shopworn and cliche-filled plot, poor layouts, cardboard characters, crappy "OMG so edgy" dialogue, etc. I swear I've read/watched variations on the young-nerds-create-some-sort-of-super-blah-blah-blah who cares that halfway through this my eyes glazed over. I can't believe this is getting the reviews and press that it is, but I won't bother with the next volume.

[P. · Rating 1 out of 5]

badly written & badly illustrated. I can see what they were going for, but the attempt at high octane smart person patter failed, and I have never met one woman let alone three who wear form fitting crop tops and painted on cropped paints, which is the uniform de rigeur of the women in this comic (and a lot of comics, actually, is that some kind of male fantasy?)

[Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up for 3 bucks in the clearance section of half price books. for 3 bucks this was an okay book. If I paid the 25 bucks cover price of this collection my score probably would be a whole lot lower. Bendis and Bagley continue to do what they did in Ultimate Spider-man, making 5 issues of a comic feel like it should have been 1.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

It seems I enjoy Bendis with some artists and dislike his work with other artists. I'm not such a fan of Mark Bagley. The story DID pick up a bit of steam toward the end, but the collection cut off very sharply.

[Lady Entropy · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was... okay. Too cliffhangery, not particularly interesting original, but I don't regret buying it or reading it. I won't be picking up the next volumes unless they are in some amazing discount, however.

[Mary Spears · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nobody draws earnest youthfulness like Bagley.

[Nicole Westen · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting twist. Instead of kids accidentally gaining superpowers, kids accidentally INVENT superpowers.

[Gary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a fan of the paneling, and nothing much was explained about the origin of the superpower invention. Too much going on as well.

[Esutterlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only Skimmed this book - but wanted to save it here for future recommendations for Readers' advisory.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

The art was stunning. It's worth it for that alone. Sadly the story was pretty cliche

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good concept betrayed by way too much bad dialogue. I can see why it never finished.

[Jesse Richards · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is fine but sub-par for Bendis. The first issue is particularly poor but it picks up quickly.

[Ming · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in one quick standup session at the library. Pretty entertaining, though it feels a little bit more like a setup for further stories. Would pick up the next volume.