The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos Volume 1

The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos (2023-) #1-6

by James Tynion IV, Tate Brombal, Isaac Goodhart (Illustrator)

From the New York Times bestselling writers James Tynion IV and Tate Brombal ( Something is Killing the Children and House of Slaughter) and the artist Isaac Goodhart (Victor and A Gotham Love Story) comes this LGBTQ+ horror-hero coming-of-age story that’s Invincible meets Doom Patrol .

Meet teenage mad scientist Christopher Chaos. For all his life he knew he was different. His brilliant mind works in ways that defy logic and enable him to do things that push him beyond his peers. Unfortunately, these abilities have also caused great pain in his personal life—leading others to fear him and leaving Christopher with profound loneliness and guilt.

Then one day something cracked. When the cute boy at high school turns out to be a deadly creature, Christopher finds himself in a world of monsters, heroes, and a cult of hunters out to kill them all.

Tiny Onion Studios and Dark Horse Comics present a line of upcoming creator-owned work from the mind of James Tynion IV across a broad spectrum of his interests, from non-fiction supernatural encounters to high concept coming-of-age monster comics.

Collects the Dark Horse Comics series The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos #1–#6, featuring bonus process material and a ten-page prologue story never before seen in print.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Horror, Young Adult, Fantasy, Science Fiction, LGBT

272 pages, Paperback

First published June 18, 2024

About the author

Prior to his first professional work, Tynion was a student of Scott Snyder's at Sarah Lawrence College. A few years later, he worked as for Vertigo as Fables editor Shelly Bond's intern. In late 2011, with DC deciding to give Batman (written by Snyder) a back up feature, Tynion was brought in by request of Snyder to script the back ups he had plotted. Tynion would later do the same with the Batman Annual #1, which was also co-plotted by Snyder. Beginning in September 2012, with DC's 0 issue month for the New 52, Tynion will be writing Talon, with art by Guillem March. In early 2013 it was announced that he'd take over writing duties for Red Hood and the Outlaws in April.

Tynion is also currently one of the writers in a rotating team in the weekly Batman Eternal series.

Reviews

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Suprisingly a bit of a slog to read, seeming both under- and overwritten at the same time. The characters feel flat, and the story moves quite slowly, and feels overlong.. There's also something weird about equating queer people with monsters.. the idea is more that they're outsiders, I guess, but it's still an uneasy comparison.

(Thanks to Dark Horse Books for providing me with a review copy through Edelweiss)

[Ben Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Avg. rating of single issues - 4.75 stars

I loved every thing about this. The plot was really interesting, the characters were great, and the art style was beautiful. I can't wait to continue on with this series!

[Emily✨ · Rating 2 out of 5]

The blurb says "Invincible meets Doom Patrol" but I'd call it Riverdale meets The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I had high hopes for this, but the writing felt very scattered. Relies too heavily on tropes instead of properly developing the characters and world. The character designs are unique and effective, and I really like Christopher, but the cop side-plot is SO BORING. The story is fairly derivative, which I wouldn't mind if the characters were fully realized. I think this is a classic case of trying to do too much at once. The artwork is fantastic, love the colors. 2.5 stars

TW: violence and gore, animal death and corpses, child abandonment, death of a friend, grief

My thanks to the publishers for providing this eARC via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review!

[Courtney Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked it a lot. Drawings were on point and characters are great. The white cloaked bad guys are hard to figure out where they start and stop but that’s literally only complaint. Digging the vampire and totem girl they are good side kicks to Christopher Chaos.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

I'm usually up for James Tynion's weird coming of age books but this just didn't do it for me. It's very long, which I normally love but in this case I felt the whole thing dragged a bit.

I really respect Tynion's obvious love for the Universal Monsters (that I share), so I was pretty bummed out that this wasn't for me.

Isaac Goodhart's art is great though, so there's that.

This is not a criticism, but speaking as a "Christopher" I've never met anyone who goes by that name instead of the shortened "Chris".

[Matthew Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt like this one was slightly better than average. I wasn’t blown away or disappointed with this read. I thought the twists and the monster elements with the main characters were cool, but I just didn’t care a ton about the story or the “bad guys” much at all.

[Eli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love the representation, didn't really care for the characters or plot. Art was pretty good. I love James Tynion IV, which is why I picked this up. I don't know if I'll continue.

[Alex Sarll]

I was looking forward to this one, because I thought it was James Tynion; turns out that's only 'from an idea by', the script being solely credited to Tate Brombal. A writer who I believe does other stuff too, but who's known to me mainly from fleshing out the leavings of bigger names. Still, within that, his work in Tynion's sandbox, the first torrid volume of House Of Slaughter, was a hell of a lot better than the miniseries he spun off from Jeff Lemire's Black Hammer, a comic where merely recalling its existence still makes me angry. So some cause for optimism remained.

First problem: the title. Which, yes, in itself is brilliant. But it bears sod-all relationship to the contents which, OK, start in high school, but so did Buffy, and this gets stranger faster than that. In no time at all Christopher is resurrecting the dead (albeit only a dead pigeon), a classmate is revealed as a werewolf, and mysterious white-robed figures are descending on anything with a supernatural tinge. You could maybe just about get away with calling it 'oddly pedestrian' if, like Buffy, the story maintained a balance between that and everyday young person life, but it really doesn't; this is only the first volume, but by the final issues the kids are hiding out in an underground city with Frankenstein's monster, any connection to the pedestrian left far behind.

Given that, we should probably be grateful that the lead is at least called Christopher Chaos, but he's his own problem, though I was amused by his resemblance to Luce, the Vatican's latest attempt to connect with kids (even if you'd hope by now someone might have cracked down on priests making any attempt whatsoever to connect with kids). He spends much of the first issue pointedly speechifying about whether he can, or should, try to be normal, and even once that's out of the way he is much given to painfully direct lines like "I don't think you ever really knew me, mom." In general, there's a temptation to describe the comic as having a Garth Marenghi approach to subtext, but that might be unfair on Garth Marenghi; really it's more Legz Akimbo in its terribly earnest desire to provide a rallying cry for the young and queer. And sure, maybe if you've never encountered monsters as a queer metaphor before, or are still high on the first buzz of that, this could be an inspirational read. But for anyone a little older and more jaded, bloody hell. Not least because, like Mark Millar's recent vampire superhero series, its set-up feels incredibly indebted to Zdarsky and Loo's All-Nighter, a comic that seems to experience a very unfair ratio of 'homage' to actually being talked about.

Not that the experience was entirely painful. Isaac Goodhart has a name nearly as on the nose as the script, but his art is always at least solid, shading into adorable on the resurrected pigeon and another classmate's spectral cats; he also does a Frankenstein unusually faithful to the original conception, at once handsome and physically impressive yet somehow mismatched. And when the kids stop acting out workshops in the foreground, some of the adults are promising comic creations, like the headteacher desperately framing everything in terms of mental health buzzwords, or the detective doing her damnedest not to blame a crime scene on a vampire ("But if i didn't know any better, I'd deduce a kung-fu-practicing sous-chef with a feral Chihuahua"). Overall, though, I can only drag out a line as time-worn as most of Christopher's and say that I'm too old for this shit.

[Bertazzo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oddly charismatic.

[Jenna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stodgy narration with too many textblocks compared to speech bubbles, which made it difficult to get into the story and relate with the characters. It all felt too familiar, given it was leaning on regular monster tropes, werewolves, vampires, spirit callers, Frankensteins, Van Helsings, etc, nobody really had enough time to become fully realized characters.

Appreciated the diverse cast but again, they didn't have enough time to shine. Don't think I'd continue.

Chris really gave off Jubilee vibes as well..

[Vail Chester · Rating 3 out of 5]

"You look like the attractive, yet non-threatening, racially diverse cast of a CW show" - Cat Grant, Supergirl

But seriously folks, somebody really wanted to make a classic monster mash vs bad organization of monster hunters, and along the way, checked almost all the diversity checkboxes.
Blue-haired neurodivergent new Frankenstein, a South Asian girl who can summon ghostly cats, a Black, gay, trans vampire dude, all mentored by the Frankenstein creature, and fighting an uber-religious version of the church that somehow has ghosts in their employ. Not to mention these shenanigans happen in a lil Midwestern predominantly White town where nothing happens, but a gung-ho cop wants to get to the bottom of the conspiracy. Stranger things have happened eh?

[Niina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Supersankarisarjakuvaa muistuttava teos, jonka päähenkilönä on sinitukkainen poika, joka näkee maailman yhtälöinä. Hän kohtaa vampyyripojan Jordin (joka taitaa olla trans) ja Viveka-nimisen tytön, jonka kaulakorusta vapautuu kissahenkiä. Nuoret kuuluvat hirviöiksi luokiteltavaan kansanosaan ja heitä metsästää uskonnollisen kultin tapainen järjestö. Mukana on myös Frankensteinin eloon herättämä luomus, Adam. Ihan kiehtova alkuasetelma.

[Dallas Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book takes a long time setting everything up, choosing to lead everything with intrigue!
Which is done rather well!

Once we really get what this universe is and who these characters are though, we see a super enjoyable cast form that surely will have amazing continuations after this book!
Excited to see where this goes!

A few really noteworthy and creative presentations through the art and even ways to tell the story narratively!

[Chanel Chapters · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the illustrations but the story was messy.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Christopher has always been a little off, but since his parents died and he moved to a new town, things have been even more off - like werewolves and vampires off. When he sees a werewolf get killed by an army of white-clad warriors, he knows something is wrong in this town. With his newfound necromancy powers, he wants to resurrect the slain wolf, but this only puts him and his new friends in danger.

I found the character design to be visually interesting, but I never quite got a good sense of who Christopher was behind his powers and social anxiety. There also wasn't much by way of explanation here - there's a link to Frankenstein and classic horror monsters. The white army, called the Helwing, is certainly a reference to Helsing. Something about the story didn't quite make sense to me.

[Rahul Nadella · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos sets up an interesting new character and the book is a good blend of science-fiction, horror and superhero books. It contains enough narrative richness within its moments of open table setting to act as both an excellent standalone tale, as well as the first chapter in an expectedly good series. I do like the visuals and designs for the book and it flows really well with some great colors and a good sense of presence, space, and just engagement as a reader. The character development is good as we are introduced to several new characters early on in the volume. The only issue is that there is a lot going on in the later issues and some neat ideas are come across to the reader but it's throwing so much so fast so as to keep you engaged with it that it doesn't feel like it's telling a coherent story but rather a series of things happening that are loosely connected. Overall great, fun ideas, being rushed through without being able to connect to any of these characters on a level that isn't just the tropes and archetypes they're based off of. A stronger ending to a muddling series with great ideas and greater artwork and I am glad it's going to continue, but the series needs to do more to stand out and have clearer storylines in the future issues.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

James Tynion IV's name is on the cover for the idea and, admittedly, it's a neat idea. A teen with strange, almost Dr. Frankenstein-esque powers encounters a number of other teens with similarly horrorific powers, and they work to overthrow like, some ghosts or something. The "what if the Universal Monsters were teenagers" concept is fine, but the execution is seriously lacking.

For one thing, all the characters are one-note and are uniformly pushed together for plot reasons. Any conversation the characters have is related to plot - there's little humanity here. And Tate Brombal (the real author) digs a little too deep into world-building without offering necessary details. Like, who are all these ghostly soldiers? It's vaguely revealed at the end, but I should still know more so I care about them as villains. Similarly, what's the deal with the underground monster city. Should I care about that?

Everyone is LGBTQ+, so I guess Christopher Chaos has that going for it, if you're looking to pick up an inclusive read. And it's fast-moving and the art is pretty solid. It just feels like so much less than what it could have been if Tynion had actually written the script.

[Ziyad Baksh · Rating 4 out of 5]

fun YA adventure fantasy series with anime influences

a fun ride for anyone interested in anime and YA fantasy stories.

its a fresh take that captures what it was like being a teen.

[Adam Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review submitted to School Library Journal for potential professional publication.

[Kerowyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Y'avait de l'idée. Mais c'est un peu longuet et embrouillé...

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

A modern mishmash of several classic monster stories/tropes (Frankenstein, vampires, werewolves, witches, etc) that is a bit muddled - the first volume giving surface-level introduction of most characters/tropes but no depth yet - but might be a fun romp for readers wanting a Halloweeny mood without requiring too much thought, at least so far.
Though there is no homophobia/transphobia (multiple characters are LGBT and this is unremarked-upon and seemingly accepted, including by parents) the whole thing so far seems like an allegory for queerness and/or neurodivergence and the way queer/ND youth face barriers, exclusion, or persecution unless they hide their queerness/ND'ce. Our protagonist is a blue-haired kid who has genius to the point of weird powers: he notices tiny details to the point of seeing an overlay of advanced equations over everything, and his tinkering often causes electric outbursts, so his adoptive mom begs him to 'be normal'. One day he finds out a classmate's paranormal secret and sees him get slaughtered by weird masked white-clad Puritan types. This kicks off a series of events where he encounters other paranormally-gifted teens and they all try to escape execution by the mysterious white-clad vigilantes. The kids are not immediately friends, two of them having an antagonistic history. There's also a side-plot of something not being right in the local police force, but the extent and exact nature of that is still unclear; honestly, in the time we had, that part seemed to overstuff the plotline a bit. The addition of the monster underground history also stretched credulity a bit (that extensive, in what doesn't look like a very big city?) but hey, it's urban *fantasy*, so... *shrug*
Though it's clear our protagonist has some link to Frankenstein, his exact origins are unclear.
I'm not blown away, but things might clarify, deepen, and improve in the next volume.

Content concerns: no sex scenes or alcohol (so far); occasional swearing, including F-bombs; murder, animal deaths, gore (I'm talking flying intestines and slasher-level gouts of blood), religious extremism, mental anguish from masking one's true self

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great book! Especially compared to the previous book I read. If you're at all a little different from other people, here is the book for you. This book will be your friend, just like "friends" is what you need, friends who will be there for you and be your chance to make a difference. Because in the end, we all want something, somewhere to belong and friends to be with.

SPOILERS AHEAD.

«That's the problem, isn't it? Look as us. Playing the same old story beat for beat. We hide. We are hunted... We flee. It's like inserting the same tired numbers int some unsolvable equation, not even expecting different results.

I once thought I was alone in the universe. I thought, has anyone ever felt like me? And now, finally, I've found the missing pieces...I know out past. I know how many others LIKE ME there have been. And I see how it's all by design. We ALL feel alone, and that's HOW THEY WIN.

And no matter how much we RUN or HIDE or ADAPT, they will keep HUNTING. THEY WILL KEEP WINNING.

And the same old story will keep playing out again and again and again...Beat by beat. Tired numbers cycling in a never-ending equation. But I see now that if you have the POWER TO DO SOMETHING. You must, even if you're afraid.

Because YOU ARE YOU. You're ARE the one they FEAR and you don't play by someone else's RULES or with old pedestrian IDEAS. Because if we don't write our OUR OWN STORY somebody else will.»

-- James Tynion IV by way of "Christopher Chaos"

[Roman · Rating 3 out of 5]

​​На серію "Дивне Звичайне Життя Крістофера Хаоса" я наштовхнувся випадково, в принципі як і на більшість прочитаних мною коміксів не від великої двійкі, але вона зацікавила мене з декількох причин. По-перше, одним з авторів був вказаний Джеймс Тайнін 4, а по-друге, нам обіцяли історію про божевільного вченого (ну і ще через те, що кличка нашого героя викликає у мене асоціації з Батерсом із Південного Парку). Тож давайте дізнаємося, якою вийшла перша арка з шести номерів.

Крістофер Хаос має здібність яка постійно показує йому різні рівняння та діаграми за допомогою яких можна покращити різні технології. З самого дитинства він намагається приховувати це й жити нормальним життям. Однак в житті нашого героя настає переломний момент коли він дізнається, що хлопець який йому подобається є перевертнем після чого цього ж хлопця вбивають на очах у Крістофера. Тепер же наш герой, разом з двома своїми однокласниками, опиняється під прицілом мисливців на монстрів.

Я вище казав, що Тайнін був вказаний як один з авторів, але як виявилося він є автором ідеї, в той час, як обов'язки сценариста виконує Тейт Бромбал. І загалом зі своєю роботою мужик справляється. Взагалі під час читання цієї серії двічі думав, що історія піде по дещо іншому напрямку. Сюжет сам по собі не ж чимось оригінальним, однак за ним досить таки цікаво. З провисань напевно виділю коли на нас вивалюють експозицію і підсюжет з детективкою.

Також важливою частиною серії є підліткова рефлексія і загалом вона непогана, але не знаю, через неї я практично не відчув "божевільного вченого" у Крістофері. В інтерв'ю Бромбал розповідав, що початково хотів виписувати Хаоса саме як беземоційного, або справді як божевільного вченого, однак в результаті відкинув це, бо було б занадто клішовано й вирішив зробити його більш м'яким та емоційним персонажем. Щодо супортинґ касту то тут все добре, Вампір Бой та Адам Франкенштейн вийшли прикольними, Вівека сподобалася менше, але задатки на розвиток та інтригу має, як я прочитав вона була додана набагато пізніше під час роботи над серією як ідея Тайніна, що багато чого пояснює.

З малюнком тут теж все добре. Айзек Ґудгарт видав дуже красиву роботу на яку справді приємно дивитися і яка чудово задає тон серії. З того що ще б виділив це досить хорошу роботу колориста Міґеля Муерто.

Перша арка Крістофера Хаоса вийшла досить цікавим міксом підліткової драми та монстрів Universal. За серією однозначно буду слідкувати далі й сподіватимуся, що вона ставатиме тільки кращою.

[Miss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it, but missing Adam.

I just watched the new Frankenstein movie and remembered I hadn't read these Children of the Night issues in this series. Sadly, no Adam in this issue, but I was so immediately reminded of how he's drawn in these comics when I saw the long haired Jacob Elordi version of The Creature. This review will be quick so I can get to the other issues and my dear Adam Frankenstein.

Love the art, as always. Don't know if we've seen this homeroom teacher of Christopher's before, but that's a very well drawn man to substitute for Adam in this issue. We get some insight into Christopher seeking to shut off his emotions, which is relatable. Highlight of the issue is zombie Peggy's pigeon scratched "notes" as dictated by Christopher. I cannot wait to see what Dr. Jekyll and the gunslinger looking monster hunter will bring to the story.

One critique - there's a fair bit of repeated introduction and lore here like they expect alot of newbies to the world with this issue rather than us loyal readers here for more. If you are new to or curious about the series, Hi. Hello. Welcome. I highly recommend going back to the start of the series and starting from there to get the most out of the experience.

[Yani · Rating 4 out of 5]

I sometimes have a hit or miss relationship with Tynion's work. But this seems to be just based on an idea by him, and it works really well.

Take a group of queer teens, add supernatural horror monsters (vampires, werewolves, Frankensteins... both varieties) and pit them against a vast organisation determined to do them in.

There are some storylines that show up repeatedly for a reason, and honestly, this is one of them.

My main thing right now is that some of it is unclear. The titular Christopher is... filling the Frankenstein as creator role, but we have a Frankenstein as Monster character who is literally just Adam, the Creature from the book. And Christopher also has a non zero amount of Invisible Man coding going on too... so not sure really what the one to one vibe is there.

I like it though, although I do have a similar problem that I sometimes have with graphic novels, where this book is 270+ pages, but it's just the opening chapter to the story. Will I remember to come back to the story? Maybe. But sometimes I just wish that the stories were a little more one-shot or condensed.

It is fun tho.

[Jadyn❀ · Rating 5 out of 5]

*4.5* I did not even read the description for this book before starting it and honestly that was for the best because it was awesome never knowing what turn it was going to take next. I liked Christopher right away. He’s an underdog you can’t help but root for, as are his quirky new acquaintances Dracula Boy and Viv, who both have a lot more going on than this volume is able to get into. Weirdly (or maybe not weirdly at all) I think this would be a great recommendation to fans of the idea of Monster High, looking for a story a little less juvenile (absolutely not shade at Monster High, I love Monster High, it’s just intended for children).
My only critique would be that the subplot with the police was boring-to-frustrating, because it was so obvious what was going on with officer Rocco. I liked Tombs though. She’s a lot like Barbara Gordon, but luckily for y’all Barbara Gordon is one of my favorite characters.

[Evie M · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't think it necessarily fails anywhere, though it doesn't particularly excel anywhere either. This may absolutely hit the mark for some and miss completely for others. It feels like pretty much any young adult fiction book about mythical bloodlines making highschool an even more tumultuous experience, but it also has solid art and fun enough villains. Its hard to review because it's so by the numbers but also relatively successfully so I can't begrudge it it's formulaic writing too much.

On the scale of James Tynion IV works however this does definitely feel a bit disappointing. It feels like when a beloved unique director gets a big budget hollywood film, but the signature style and flair gets replaced with production studio meddling and audience-tested rewrites and reshoots. It just all felt a bit reigned in.

[Abigail Pankau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christopher Choas has always seen the world differently than other kids, and he has tried to suppress that in order to be more normal. Then one day he discovers that the boy he has a crush on is a werewolf, which means that monsters are real. But just as quickly, he sees his crush cut down by fanatical monster hunters. Driven to find a way to make things right, Christopher finds a way to reanimate his dead pigeon friend, Peggy. And then he meets other monsters who are just trying to survive unnoticed. Has Christopher finally found friends? And can they find a way to work together to fight back against the Helwing Corps?

An excellent and interesting graphic novel with classic monsters re-imagined for the modern age. The world-building is interesting, and the characters are quite relatable. I’m curious to see where this series goes.

[Lokita · Rating 2 out of 5]

Once again, I have allowed my obsession with Frankenstein's Creature to lead me to the bottom of the literary barrel.

The art is...serviceable. I can't give this book one star and still be honest because I love the whole team-of-monsters idea so very much. But this slurry of hopelessly derivative 21st-century TikTok tropes is an insult to the gothic literature that spawned it. No character gets sufficient breathing space to develop organically. And for a book so focused on inclusivity, they sure took pains to make the Creature conventionally attractive. Great idea-- but executed like the drivel I scribbled at the age of 13 while awake at 1 a.m. due to nightmares. I'm so thankful I read this from the library and only wasted time on it as opposed to money.

[Clint · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tynion has written so many comics in recent years, often to great results, but sometimes more like this first volume turned out: a clever enough YA horror premise with LGBT-friendly themes and flashy character designs, but it also feels very familiar to Tynion’s usual vol1 formula and barely fleshed out beyond the initial concept. He also falls back on his occasional habit of writing character dialogue as social commentary in a really didactic and clunky way; I’m good with the message but wish Tynion would incorporate it more skillfully.

Still, I’m interested to see how this develops in vol2, and its modern teen spin on classic monster story characters like Dracula and Dr Frankenstein is promising.