Hatter M, Volume 5: Love of Wonder

Hatter M #5

by Frank Beddor, Liz Cavalier (Co-writer), Sami Makkonen (Illustrator)

In the 5th and final volume, looking glasses shatter as our worlds collide and characters from Wonderland increasingly cross over to aid or block Hatter in his single-minded quest to find Alyss and bring her home. Redd's Black Imagination has ruled Wonderland for 13 years without fear of reprisal and now the specter of Alyss' return to claim the throne has unleashed a storm of paranoiac rage. Hatter Madigan is at the center of this crusade as he must simultaneously battle the enemies of wonder as well as his own beliefs and loyalties. All paths through time and space, through blood and steel, from his world to our world, have led Hatter Madigan to this moment -- a life or death confrontation with the only warrior in the Looking Glass Wars universe capable of defeating him and destroying the love of wonder.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Comics, Fiction, Comic Book, Adventure, Fairy Tales

Unknown Binding

First published February 1, 2015

About the author

Literary Sleuth and world creator Frank Beddor dared to expose the true story of Wonderland in the New York Times bestselling young adult trilogy The Looking Glass Wars. To satisfy the awakened curiosity of his readers he continued to tell the parallel adventures of Royal Bodyguard Hatter Madigan’s search for the lost princess in the graphic novel series Hatter M. He lives in Los Angeles.

Reviews

[Ije the Devourer of Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great to come to the final volume of this graphic novel series.

The ending felt rushed so that was a bit disappointing. The authors also quoted from the bible (1 Corinthians) at the introduction to part two of the story and instead of using the correct citation they listed it as 'anonymous'. This is actually unprofessional and lazy.

So mixed feelings about the way this ended especially after the first four volumes. I would have preferred waiting for an additional volume and having a more enjoyable and detailed last battle and finale.

[Lost Planet Airman · Rating 2 out of 5]

So. There it is. The final volume of Hatter Madigan's adventures. If I liked this series at the start (and I will have to go back to my reviews someday and discover my feelings then), well, it has lost it's appeal. The premise started well -- Wonderland was not a fantasy, but a fantastical reality, the Red Queen a usurper and Alice (Alyss) a royal exile -- but the charm of the premise has faded through long issues with only minor advancement to the plot.

There are concurrent novels marketed in each volume, so there must be a larger world out there, where more words can be spent on expostulation and explanation and character development, but so much gets abbreviated in the graphic novel form that the plot is murky and the characters two-dimensional. The mystery has become so unsolvable by this fifth volume that deus ex machina is invoked to get the plot moving forward. Or perhaps to market the Next Great Concept From The Artist.

The art and the dialog -- well, neither is strong enough to help advance the weakness of the other.

As always, your mileage may vary -- there are apparently many who love these graphic novels. For me, it was an effort of active will to pick up and read this volume after every break.

[Heaven Ashlee · Rating 5 out of 5]

A super exciting and cohesive ending! It tied into the first novel of the series really well and made me want to reread the books!

[Earl · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed The Looking Glass Wars novel trilogy so when this graphic novel spin-off series first came out I was excited. But, the magic kind of wore off as the series progressed - and the later volumes became so hard to find in bookstores and libraries. In fact, I only happened to run across this by chance volunteering at a used library book sale in a different state! It's been awhile for me to fully remember all the plot lines but I'm glad it's over.

[Tamara · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, this finishes the whole Hatter M series and I gotta say, they are pretty damn good. The story was interesting enough for me to purchase the rest of Beddor's Looking Glass Wars in novel form, and I'm looking forward to reading them, but what I thought was the creme-de-la-creme about these graphic novels was the art. Makkonen was a perfect choice for the job of showing the story unfolding. All-in-all, these Hatter M graphic novels are totally 5 stars.

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great Graphic Novel series!!
I love how this book brings the story back to where Beddor's
trilogy starts...
I liked the illustrations & the funny dialogue.


*Spoilers*


Sad what happens to Hatter's brother Dalton, but Redd had her grip on him
and he couldn't see past his own interests to see where his allegiance should have been...

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now I can't make a real review on this book because it is the 5th and last of the series, I was confused, like Wonderland without Alice? Alyss. There was some good art and the last part of the story seemed a bit rushed but I think this would be good if I started where I should have started. I will say it, This was a Good Read.

[Wisdom Wasp · Rating 3 out of 5]

My rating is about the art, i dont know what to make of it. yes it's highly stylised and yes it's a matter of taste, but some times it came across as lazy, but sometimes inspired. The action is sometimes very difficult to make out, the moon wasn't drawn as a perfect circle, surely that couldn't of been to hard to do. But the action can look very good at times.

[Nick Callebaut]

FCBD

[Doozahh · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took a little to understand it but the art was really cool and as a Alice and wonderland fan it was wonderful 😊

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

More about Wonderland in this volume. I still really hate the art style though.

[Reanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

First impression before reading: Physically, this book is very nice. (I have the paperback.) It's sleek and beautifully printed. It feels nicer in my hands than most other paperback graphic novels I've read. (I know, kind of a book-geek thing to say, but I appreciate a book that's got a nice physical form. Nothing against e-books, but I prefer a well-made hard copy.) Also, it's pretty thick, so you're getting a lot of book for your money (relative to other graphic novels, at least).

Review:

I didn't really like the first volume of this and had no intention of continuing this graphic novel series. But I ended up with a free copy of it, so I figured I'd give it another try.

As far as the art goes, it really depends on if you like this artist's style. If you do (he's the same guy that did the previous volumes, I believe), then you'll probably be quite happy with the art in this book. I personally don't care for this style. I like cleaner lines. The style here is messy and it makes my eye kind of slide off and not get a good grasp of what's being presented. But it does kind of fit, thematically, with the whole 'imagination' aspect of this story. I think the art is a bit better than the first volume, and certainly it's clear that a lot of time has gone into it, but it's not to my personal taste.

A lot of this story takes place in Wonderland, which I really like. I don't know if Wonderland has shown up before in this series (I don't remember it doing so in the first volume, but as I said, I didn't read past that one). But I really liked how it included characters I enjoyed from the novels like Dodge and Molly.

Though I do find it constantly distracting that one of the queens was so obviously made to look like Whoopi Goldberg. It just seems out of place and strange. (I know it's totally intentional on the author's/artist's part, but I still didn't care for it.)

There are quotes on some of the title pages and such. Quotes about love. This is common and fine, but one thing irritated me. See if you can figure out what's wrong with this: "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." - Anonymous. No, Frank, it's not anonymous. It's the Bible (1 Corinthians), and the author is Paul.

There's a couple of nice action scenes, especially near the end.

Overall, I did enjoy it more than the first book. Fans of this series will probably find it a very satisfying conclusion. I enjoyed the Looking Glass Wars novel series that this is spun off from, but I'm still not terribly crazy about this graphic novel series. I do think they both totally stand on their own, which is good.

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have the FCBD version of this. Apparently it is a summary of the actual graphic novel. I thought it was really well done. It was really easy to follow what was going on. I really enjoyed the illustrations. I had read the first graphic novel from the library and some of the pages it was really hard to tell what was going on in the illustrations due to the art style. But this still had the same style, but more contrast so the reader could differentiate the images.

I've also listened to the first novel. Reading this free comic made me want to continue the novel series and also pick up the graphic novels. It's such a unique take on Alice in Wonderland (which I'm actually not a fan of).

[Drucilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this is when events of the graphic novel start overlapping with the events of The Looking Glass Wars and for the most part, it works out fine. There are a few contradictory things, though, and the ending does feel kind of rushed. If you were to read all the graphic novels back to back, the series would probably feel slow to start and quick to tie up loose ends. That being said, Hatter was always a character you wanted to know more about in the novels (Dalton was a really neat inclusion) and it’s nice to see him being brought to life this way.

[SharlzG · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finished this and wanted to read the series and the book series all again.

I love that this gave life to some of the imagined beings/creations that were difficult to conceive from text alone and will make rereading the books a slightly different experience.

As with the other volumes, I loved the quotes used between chapters. Well chosen and inspiring.

Whilst I did find that sometimes the contrast in the imagery made it difficult to make out all the detail contained therein, I realise that this was to exaggerate the lack of "light" in the world.

I definitely plan to reread one day...

[Nikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Per usual, Frank Beddor is an amazing story teller. The graphic novel art is brilliant, as always. Hatter Madigan is such an engaging and surprising character. If you're a fan of this series, keep going. Pick this one up!

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid offering from Free Comic Book Day. Slightly confusing for those who jump into the series here (i.e. me, who should know better than to do that), but the plot becomes clear as the pages turn, and it's enough to make me want to read the full-length version.

[Kristina · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last volume of the Hatter M series... Murder, Betrayal, Hope...

Now I'll have to get to The Looking Glass Wars soon.

Long live White Imagination!

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. Now, I want to go back and reread The Looking Glass Wars

[M.i. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The artwork is certainly better than previous versions. It gives us an idea what Hatter was up to whilst the bulk of the parent book was going on.

[Damian Serbu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fun addition to the Hatter M series!