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ODY-C
ODY-C, Vol. 2: Sons of the Wolf
Some people would do anything for love... even go to war... forever. What happened to Ene the Conqueror, and He, of Troiia, after the end of the Troiian War and they departed for home, reunited at last? It doesn't go well for either of them, it turns out.
You think war is hell? Try being married to these two. This legendary couple find themselves trapped on a world where madness reigns and blood flows daily. To escape, Ene must hunt and kill the bastard son of a god and He must weave stories night after night hoping to stay alive long enough for his bride to rescue him...
The second volume in this critically acclaimed series collects issues #6-10.
"Fraction and Ward are doing wildly imaginative work combining fantastic Greek mythology with futuristic science fiction, and the book has a visual sensibility unlike anything else on the stands." A.V. Club"
You think war is hell? Try being married to these two. This legendary couple find themselves trapped on a world where madness reigns and blood flows daily. To escape, Ene must hunt and kill the bastard son of a god and He must weave stories night after night hoping to stay alive long enough for his bride to rescue him...
The second volume in this critically acclaimed series collects issues #6-10.
"Fraction and Ward are doing wildly imaginative work combining fantastic Greek mythology with futuristic science fiction, and the book has a visual sensibility unlike anything else on the stands." A.V. Club"
144 pages, Paperback
First published February 16, 2016
7 people are currently reading
264 people want to read
About the author
Matt Fraction
1,221 books1,863 followers"How he got started in comics: In 1983, when Fraction was 7 years old and growing up in Kansas City, Mo., he became fascinated by the U.S. invasion of Grenada and created his own newspaper to explain the event. "I've always been story-driven, telling stories with pictures and words," he said.
Education and first job: Fraction never graduated from college. He stopped half a semester short of an art degree at Kansas City Art Institute in Missouri in 1998 to take a job as a Web designer and managing editor of a magazine about Internet culture.
"My mother was not happy about that," he said.
But that gig led Fraction and his co-workers to split off and launch MK12, a boutique graphic design and production firm in Kansas City that created the opening credits for the James Bond film "Quantum of Solace."
Big break: While writing and directing live-action shoots at MK12, Fraction spent his spare time writing comics and pitching his books each year to publishers at Comic-Con. Two books sold: "The Last of the Independents," published in 2003 by AiT/Planet Lar, and "Casanova," published in 2006 by Image Comics.
Fraction traveled extensively on commercial shoots. Then his wife got pregnant. So Fraction did what any rational man in his position would do -- he quit his job at MK12 to pursue his dream of becoming a full-time comic book writer.
Say what? "It was terrifying," said Fraction, who now lives in Portland, Ore. "I was married. We had a house. We had a baby coming. And I just quit my job."
Marvel hired Fraction in June 2006, thanks largely to the success of his other two comics. "I got very lucky," he half-joked. "If it hadn't worked out, I would have had to move back in with my parents.
- 2009. Alex Pham. Los Angeles Times.
Education and first job: Fraction never graduated from college. He stopped half a semester short of an art degree at Kansas City Art Institute in Missouri in 1998 to take a job as a Web designer and managing editor of a magazine about Internet culture.
"My mother was not happy about that," he said.
But that gig led Fraction and his co-workers to split off and launch MK12, a boutique graphic design and production firm in Kansas City that created the opening credits for the James Bond film "Quantum of Solace."
Big break: While writing and directing live-action shoots at MK12, Fraction spent his spare time writing comics and pitching his books each year to publishers at Comic-Con. Two books sold: "The Last of the Independents," published in 2003 by AiT/Planet Lar, and "Casanova," published in 2006 by Image Comics.
Fraction traveled extensively on commercial shoots. Then his wife got pregnant. So Fraction did what any rational man in his position would do -- he quit his job at MK12 to pursue his dream of becoming a full-time comic book writer.
Say what? "It was terrifying," said Fraction, who now lives in Portland, Ore. "I was married. We had a house. We had a baby coming. And I just quit my job."
Marvel hired Fraction in June 2006, thanks largely to the success of his other two comics. "I got very lucky," he half-joked. "If it hadn't worked out, I would have had to move back in with my parents.
- 2009. Alex Pham. Los Angeles Times.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 reviews
June 11, 2016
So this is volume 2 and it surprised me by being quite different from the first volume of ODY-C. I really liked the first one, it blew me away with the colours, the crazy story, and the writing, but this one (although just as colourful and crazy) took a bit of a different turn. I liked the introduction of new characters and the focus on rape culture and stories was pretty cool (they did a decent - if bloody - job dealing with the topic).
This graphic novel has some truly horrifying, bloody pages, and some superb, beautiful ones. It's definitely a story which will visually stimulate your eyes and make you look deeper into the psychedelic colour-scheme, but it's also a story with some great writing. Some of the phrases felt ages old and wise, others felt witty and funny.
As a complete series, the first volume felt a bit stronger to me, but I still liked this a lot. It's certainly a series I will continue with though, that is for sure :) 4*s
This graphic novel has some truly horrifying, bloody pages, and some superb, beautiful ones. It's definitely a story which will visually stimulate your eyes and make you look deeper into the psychedelic colour-scheme, but it's also a story with some great writing. Some of the phrases felt ages old and wise, others felt witty and funny.
As a complete series, the first volume felt a bit stronger to me, but I still liked this a lot. It's certainly a series I will continue with though, that is for sure :) 4*s
April 9, 2018
"Boys. Who Rape. Shall All. Be Destroyed."
I am putting this at the beginning so we all know there is going to be some trigger warnings about rape and abuse, this book dealt quite well with both, but it is quite graphic on the manner. And it is the lesson to get out of this book.
This volume is not a continuation of the story from the previous one, there is no search for the home Odyssia seeks, nor are the gods bent on never having them be happy. No; here they find their own unhappiness, and the punishment comes to them, no matter if deserved or not. Or perhaps they find what they were looking for, it is never as clear to the reader with this series.
I appreciate that instead of continuing with the previous story, which I still hope they get back to really soon, they jump into new characters. In the first volume we are only shown a small glimpse of Ene and He, they are never given much, until now. I would have liked for them to have added a bit of the past, since I am still hungry to know how they adapt what led them all to war. I want to see how they deal with the taking or escape of He with Paris. (although so far it has given the impression that he was taken, but I want to now for sure)
"It never had such a thing as He and lets nothing impede his crude sampling. Not even free will."
This book has many references to other legends, and the ones that are shown speak a lot about the rape of a woman by a man that did not understand the word no, and who got the wrong lesson from the stories themselves; but when it comes to rape occurring at the moment the story is told, it is He who endures it, and it is important to have such a contrast. It does not leave it as a simple "men rape women," but as a "men and women can both be raped." It is a story-line that has to, sadly, remind us that we live in a world were people violate others, and that pain is endured in ways it should never be.
The fact that He is simply known by a pronoun instead of a name like everyone else (or it could simply be a shortening for Helen but I choose to believe it is both, intentionally), adds a lot to the story, because it makes us be immersed in it more, we become He in a very odd sense.
"Wanting a thing and demanding a thing doesn't mean you get what you covet."
The art is still as fantastic as it was before, and the colours just as vibrant. I don't think I will ever have complaints when it comes to the aesthetic of this work, the surreal view of it all matches the story wonderfully.
Even if you have not read nor loved the first volume, give this book a chance. Pick it up at your comic book store, or online, or at your local library, and give it a read. You might just love it.
Even if you have not read nor loved the first volume, give this book a chance. Pick it up at your comic book store, or online, or at your local library, and give it a read. You might just love it.
Even if you have not read nor loved the first volume, give this book a chance. Pick it up at your comic book store, or online, or at your local library, and give it a read. You might just love it.
"Ene nor I, your most humble narrator, did die after Proteus expelled us from Heaven. Though in the centuries since then I've wished it weren't so. So I've spent almost all of the years since that day telling anyone anywhere who might listen my tale. Over and over again. Written down or sung out or with pictures and words. Anyone anywhere anytime hence... who finds need in the whiling of hours...let my tale be a warning: sure as blood shall be all our undoing, it is stories that set us all free. The stories are all that matter."
I am putting this at the beginning so we all know there is going to be some trigger warnings about rape and abuse, this book dealt quite well with both, but it is quite graphic on the manner. And it is the lesson to get out of this book.
This volume is not a continuation of the story from the previous one, there is no search for the home Odyssia seeks, nor are the gods bent on never having them be happy. No; here they find their own unhappiness, and the punishment comes to them, no matter if deserved or not. Or perhaps they find what they were looking for, it is never as clear to the reader with this series.
I appreciate that instead of continuing with the previous story, which I still hope they get back to really soon, they jump into new characters. In the first volume we are only shown a small glimpse of Ene and He, they are never given much, until now. I would have liked for them to have added a bit of the past, since I am still hungry to know how they adapt what led them all to war. I want to see how they deal with the taking or escape of He with Paris. (although so far it has given the impression that he was taken, but I want to now for sure)
"It never had such a thing as He and lets nothing impede his crude sampling. Not even free will."
This book has many references to other legends, and the ones that are shown speak a lot about the rape of a woman by a man that did not understand the word no, and who got the wrong lesson from the stories themselves; but when it comes to rape occurring at the moment the story is told, it is He who endures it, and it is important to have such a contrast. It does not leave it as a simple "men rape women," but as a "men and women can both be raped." It is a story-line that has to, sadly, remind us that we live in a world were people violate others, and that pain is endured in ways it should never be.
The fact that He is simply known by a pronoun instead of a name like everyone else (or it could simply be a shortening for Helen but I choose to believe it is both, intentionally), adds a lot to the story, because it makes us be immersed in it more, we become He in a very odd sense.
"Wanting a thing and demanding a thing doesn't mean you get what you covet."
The art is still as fantastic as it was before, and the colours just as vibrant. I don't think I will ever have complaints when it comes to the aesthetic of this work, the surreal view of it all matches the story wonderfully.
Even if you have not read nor loved the first volume, give this book a chance. Pick it up at your comic book store, or online, or at your local library, and give it a read. You might just love it.
Even if you have not read nor loved the first volume, give this book a chance. Pick it up at your comic book store, or online, or at your local library, and give it a read. You might just love it.
Even if you have not read nor loved the first volume, give this book a chance. Pick it up at your comic book store, or online, or at your local library, and give it a read. You might just love it.
"Ene nor I, your most humble narrator, did die after Proteus expelled us from Heaven. Though in the centuries since then I've wished it weren't so. So I've spent almost all of the years since that day telling anyone anywhere who might listen my tale. Over and over again. Written down or sung out or with pictures and words. Anyone anywhere anytime hence... who finds need in the whiling of hours...let my tale be a warning: sure as blood shall be all our undoing, it is stories that set us all free. The stories are all that matter."
June 1, 2017
This series grew on me. I recall being ambivalent about volume one, but, with volume two, things started to click for me.
It's a high concept series: Homer's The Odyssey set in outer space with the genders swapped. Matt Fraction writes this in the Homerian mode, very poetic and lyrical and flowing, but with intentional undercutting of the poetry when characters speak. Example: '..."Proteus, son of Poseidon herself, trapped in here with us. Massive, unstoppable --prescient, too -- It is Proteus, endlessly scanning the storm for escape, that has rendered us cut out of space and from time. Nothing can touch us as we can touch nothing outside of ourselves, it seems."
'70. "Ene of Achaea know if you leave it means death in the maw of the beast," says Zhaman. "Fuck it," thought Ene and went on her way...'
The epic poetry style was part of my problem with volume one, I think. But once I got into the flow of it, it wasn't so bad. It's a different style for Fraction, and, really, for comics in general. As I said, it does grow on you.
Christian Ward's artwork for this series is flat out amazing! The colors, the layouts ... this book is a trip. It brings to mind P. Craig Russell and Peter Max in equal proportions. In fact, if you were to throw Homer, Peter Max, P. Craig Russell, Michael Moorcock (particularly the Jerry Cornelius novels) and the Dangerous Visions anthologies into a blender, the result would be very similar to this book. It has a very new wave science fiction feel to it.
This appears to be the final volume, and I'm hoping that a deluxe edition combining the two volumes into one is in the works. This story really deserves to be read straight through for the full effect. Recommended!
It's a high concept series: Homer's The Odyssey set in outer space with the genders swapped. Matt Fraction writes this in the Homerian mode, very poetic and lyrical and flowing, but with intentional undercutting of the poetry when characters speak. Example: '..."Proteus, son of Poseidon herself, trapped in here with us. Massive, unstoppable --prescient, too -- It is Proteus, endlessly scanning the storm for escape, that has rendered us cut out of space and from time. Nothing can touch us as we can touch nothing outside of ourselves, it seems."
'70. "Ene of Achaea know if you leave it means death in the maw of the beast," says Zhaman. "Fuck it," thought Ene and went on her way...'
The epic poetry style was part of my problem with volume one, I think. But once I got into the flow of it, it wasn't so bad. It's a different style for Fraction, and, really, for comics in general. As I said, it does grow on you.
Christian Ward's artwork for this series is flat out amazing! The colors, the layouts ... this book is a trip. It brings to mind P. Craig Russell and Peter Max in equal proportions. In fact, if you were to throw Homer, Peter Max, P. Craig Russell, Michael Moorcock (particularly the Jerry Cornelius novels) and the Dangerous Visions anthologies into a blender, the result would be very similar to this book. It has a very new wave science fiction feel to it.
This appears to be the final volume, and I'm hoping that a deluxe edition combining the two volumes into one is in the works. This story really deserves to be read straight through for the full effect. Recommended!
November 4, 2017
This is as psychedelic as the first volume, but switches from just gender-swapped Odyssey to include an Arabian Nights retelling. It's all about rape and rape culture, but also gender-swapped (Helen of Troy is a man, the Bull, who also takes the place of Scheherazade), and it's pretty brilliant but also graphic and weird. I love the colors, but the art style is still too drippy, melty, and confusing so I have to rely on parsing the language (which is also odd) to follow the story.
May 19, 2016
Highly recommended if you like rainbows, penises and gore!
November 8, 2017
That was completely mind-f**k and I didn't really understand half of what was happening. Plus there was far too much rape for my taste...
July 15, 2016
In which we take a brief break from the voyages of Odysseus to follow our Helen-of-Troy analog, who has fallen afoul of the Arabian nights. This volume takes head on the sheer amount of rape in the Odyssey, (and most classical literature) and it is bloody furious.
Emphasis on "bloody".
Basically the thesis of this volume is "boys who rape will be destroyed". Which thesis it executes beautifully. It's just not a fun thesis to read about, in any way. As before, Christian Ward's colours are fantastic, but good god he's using a lot of red in this issue.
I think the story was a trifle harder to follow, but I'm hesitant to put that out there as an absolute review, because a.) I'm depressed and therefore find it hard to follow complex things, b.) I'm less familiar with the base myths in this one than I was with vol 1, which I read twice and then read aloud to a friend.
It was a dark time. We were stubborn and refused to give in. I'm basically Homer now. This is normal.
Emphasis on "bloody".
Basically the thesis of this volume is "boys who rape will be destroyed". Which thesis it executes beautifully. It's just not a fun thesis to read about, in any way. As before, Christian Ward's colours are fantastic, but good god he's using a lot of red in this issue.
I think the story was a trifle harder to follow, but I'm hesitant to put that out there as an absolute review, because a.) I'm depressed and therefore find it hard to follow complex things, b.) I'm less familiar with the base myths in this one than I was with vol 1, which I read twice and then read aloud to a friend.
It was a dark time. We were stubborn and refused to give in. I'm basically Homer now. This is normal.
October 10, 2016
This is an "oh-god-it-got-better-but-leaves-you-rocking-in-a-corner" kind of book. My man Fraction dropping the mic Homer-style (i.e. the mic is covered in blood and is not actually a mic, it's a spear with your eyeballs still impaled on the tip).
February 1, 2017
not for me
May 18, 2020
Volume two and we swap The Odyessy for Arabian Nights. As with the first volume, the art and colouring are beautiful but very stylised. While I'm sure nearly everyone could look at a page and find it stunning, it really isn't very reader-friendly.
When people said there was a lot of rape in this they weren't kidding. I don't know how we went from a universe where the only man in existence is a sex slave in a gimp suit, to a world where men not only exist in abundance but they're apparently all rapists. Some reviews have described it as a "deconstruction" of the prevalence of rape in mythology, but considering the only thing Fraction seems to have to say about the matter is "rape is bad" I'm not sure I buy it.
Excessive (and I do mean excessive) rape aside, I actually enjoyed this a lot more than the first volume. While it was still beyond confusing in places it was a lot more coherent for the most part, with some genuinely powerful moments.
And unlike the first volume, I actually found myself caring about the characters here. Specifically He and the Boy. And isn't that a kicker, in a series billed as being almost entirely about women, in a volume where nearly every man is a rapist, the two most sympathetic characters are both males.
When people said there was a lot of rape in this they weren't kidding. I don't know how we went from a universe where the only man in existence is a sex slave in a gimp suit, to a world where men not only exist in abundance but they're apparently all rapists. Some reviews have described it as a "deconstruction" of the prevalence of rape in mythology, but considering the only thing Fraction seems to have to say about the matter is "rape is bad" I'm not sure I buy it.
Excessive (and I do mean excessive) rape aside, I actually enjoyed this a lot more than the first volume. While it was still beyond confusing in places it was a lot more coherent for the most part, with some genuinely powerful moments.
And unlike the first volume, I actually found myself caring about the characters here. Specifically He and the Boy. And isn't that a kicker, in a series billed as being almost entirely about women, in a volume where nearly every man is a rapist, the two most sympathetic characters are both males.
April 16, 2019
Unbelievably brilliant.
February 23, 2025
An uncomfortable read which explores rape culture through a gender-flipped sci-fi retelling of Homer’s ‘The odyssey’
Like volume one, Christian Ward’s artwork is absolutely stunning, with some exceptional character design while Matt Fraction’s poetic prose also works well in this volume. I must admit though, this particular writing style detracts some of the emotional impact some scenes require.
Like volume one, Christian Ward’s artwork is absolutely stunning, with some exceptional character design while Matt Fraction’s poetic prose also works well in this volume. I must admit though, this particular writing style detracts some of the emotional impact some scenes require.
March 20, 2016
In what will be the second volume of this re telling of the Odyssey, we leave Odyssia and instead follow Ene and He as we see what has happened to them since they left Troiia. And as well as the Odyssey it takes on 1001 Nights and Moby Dick.
Where as the first arc, by being a gender bent re telling of the Odyssey, gave the story to the women, this volume really began to examine what has been women’s roles within out stories and mythologies. Through introducing elements of 1001 nights (as well as in the Moby Dick story line) it confronts the prevalence of rape in myth and makes a stand that instead of teaching that women should avoid being raped, our stories need to be saying that men shouldn’t rape (and of course this doesn’t just apply to the hetronormative gender binary). Because of this subject matter this story arc does include challenging material in graphic detail which some readers may find upsetting or triggering, however I feel that it had been handles incredibly well.
As with the first arc the art is as much responsible for the story telling as the worlds, more so than in most comics. Themes of language are carried through into the visual creating beats and rhythms alongside the text. It is storytelling that has to be experienced to be understood.
I loved the first 5 issues but for me this volume just took it to the next level of what is possible. I can’t even imagine where they will take it next but I can’t wait to read it.
Where as the first arc, by being a gender bent re telling of the Odyssey, gave the story to the women, this volume really began to examine what has been women’s roles within out stories and mythologies. Through introducing elements of 1001 nights (as well as in the Moby Dick story line) it confronts the prevalence of rape in myth and makes a stand that instead of teaching that women should avoid being raped, our stories need to be saying that men shouldn’t rape (and of course this doesn’t just apply to the hetronormative gender binary). Because of this subject matter this story arc does include challenging material in graphic detail which some readers may find upsetting or triggering, however I feel that it had been handles incredibly well.
As with the first arc the art is as much responsible for the story telling as the worlds, more so than in most comics. Themes of language are carried through into the visual creating beats and rhythms alongside the text. It is storytelling that has to be experienced to be understood.
I loved the first 5 issues but for me this volume just took it to the next level of what is possible. I can’t even imagine where they will take it next but I can’t wait to read it.
September 5, 2016
I found this book initially disorienting since I was prepared for a continuation of the Odyssey from the previous volume, and instead found myself wondering why I couldn't remember any of the background story. I gradually realized that this volume is kind of a side story, based loosely on the the legend of Helen of Troy, and mixed with Arabian Nights. The artwork is of course vividly hallucinogenic, wildly colorful, and gorgeously bloody. The subject matter is grim, being a modern reaction to the frequency of rape in ancient texts and legends, portraying the nastiness, and providing a strong recrimination. There are some ghastly scenes in this book. One of the most gruesome is the section in which Proteus has captured Ene, presenting her a meal of her own leg, raw and sliced through the bone, along with a gutted dove, and proceeds to force feed her, becoming essentially another figurative rape.
"Watch as I take from you bone, blood, and want... and then give you my breath."
Not for the faint of heart, and certainly triggering for some, but a powerful meditation on ancient literature and myth.
"Watch as I take from you bone, blood, and want... and then give you my breath."
Not for the faint of heart, and certainly triggering for some, but a powerful meditation on ancient literature and myth.
July 4, 2018
Those stars belong entirely to Christian Ward's art.
I don't think I've ever gone from loving a first volume to disliking a second one so quickly before. Yikes. Everything that made the first volume cool--putting the Greek Gods into the stars, turning it into an ultra matriarchy, and so on--kinda peter out here. We've got men assaulting women, random sexual depravity, and a lot of talking talking talking in the form of captions.
I was so confused I was worried I'd grabbed a volume three instead.
Maybe my taste has changed, maybe I just wasn't in the right place, but overall, this story of absolutely cruelty, which focuses solely on the awful parts of mythology's dark side (the assault of humans by gods and god-like figures) is just too grimdark for me, even with Ward's amazing colors. I'd pass on this one.
I don't think I've ever gone from loving a first volume to disliking a second one so quickly before. Yikes. Everything that made the first volume cool--putting the Greek Gods into the stars, turning it into an ultra matriarchy, and so on--kinda peter out here. We've got men assaulting women, random sexual depravity, and a lot of talking talking talking in the form of captions.
I was so confused I was worried I'd grabbed a volume three instead.
Maybe my taste has changed, maybe I just wasn't in the right place, but overall, this story of absolutely cruelty, which focuses solely on the awful parts of mythology's dark side (the assault of humans by gods and god-like figures) is just too grimdark for me, even with Ward's amazing colors. I'd pass on this one.
Read
October 23, 2016Taking a very different turn from the first volume, you could almost consider this Fraction's companion to his wife's Bitch Planet, as it takes echoes of different mythologies and structures them into an intricate, devastating enhanced reflection of male entitlement and sexual violence. Christian Ward's art, as ever, is stunning - making the impossible and barely comprehensible look real, yet without ever sacrificing its strangeness.
September 5, 2017
CW: rape
I'd been looking forward to more stories following the protagonist from Vol. 1 but this volume covers a completely different cast of characters. The art remains beautiful but dear lord there is so much rape in this volume. I get that it's the mythology but I found it to be graphic and gratuitous.
I'd been looking forward to more stories following the protagonist from Vol. 1 but this volume covers a completely different cast of characters. The art remains beautiful but dear lord there is so much rape in this volume. I get that it's the mythology but I found it to be graphic and gratuitous.
July 6, 2016
the most beautiful comic ever created/amazing job incorporating the homeric oral tradition of stories within stories/queen ene 5ever/"Boys. Who Rape. Shall All. Be Destroyed." for best line in anything created past present or future
October 30, 2018
Not for me. Extremely explicit, tons of rape, tons of blood. It does not continue on with Odysseus' story but moves on to something else, with Scheherazade's story as a background. I'm done with the series.
November 22, 2016
how is there not an age restriction on this!?
December 12, 2016
Jesus, this shit is mad.
November 4, 2017
1.5 stars
I liked this even less than Volume 1. This volume was a lot more bloody/violent/gross, and I wasn't entertained by the storylines as much. The ODY-C just isn't for me.
I liked this even less than Volume 1. This volume was a lot more bloody/violent/gross, and I wasn't entertained by the storylines as much. The ODY-C just isn't for me.
August 10, 2022
I think I understand what they were trying to do with Helen and Menelaus's gender-bent story (mixed in with the sons of Herakles) but it didn't work for me.
This felt - even more than the first - like two men writing gender-bent stories with an (only semi-successful) attempt to write from women and sexual violence victim's perspectives. I personally find that their world is still utilizing all the stereotypes of women behaving exactly like men if they held all the power, in order to make the mythological retelling aspect "work" a certain way. Which really sacrificed an amazing opportunity to rewrite mythology in a more genuine and realistic (yes, realistic) way if the universe was matriarchal.
I do appreciate the lessons/themes that "boys/men who rape shall be destroyed" but no one needs that many on-page rape scenes. Just no.
There's also the logical inconsistency of Zhaman and Hyrar (the two brother kings) demanding a new virgin every night for sacrifice. Yet if all children who reache age of majority/adulthood must be sacrificed... who's left to repopulate the planet? Maybe I missed something, but this wasn't the only element that was poorly explained.
The art's still awesome though.
Also content warnings for blood, gore, murder, forced self-cannibalization, possible sex/rape of minors, on-page rape, etc.
This felt - even more than the first - like two men writing gender-bent stories with an (only semi-successful) attempt to write from women and sexual violence victim's perspectives. I personally find that their world is still utilizing all the stereotypes of women behaving exactly like men if they held all the power, in order to make the mythological retelling aspect "work" a certain way. Which really sacrificed an amazing opportunity to rewrite mythology in a more genuine and realistic (yes, realistic) way if the universe was matriarchal.
I do appreciate the lessons/themes that "boys/men who rape shall be destroyed" but no one needs that many on-page rape scenes. Just no.
There's also the logical inconsistency of Zhaman and Hyrar (the two brother kings) demanding a new virgin every night for sacrifice. Yet if all children who reache age of majority/adulthood must be sacrificed... who's left to repopulate the planet? Maybe I missed something, but this wasn't the only element that was poorly explained.
The art's still awesome though.
Also content warnings for blood, gore, murder, forced self-cannibalization, possible sex/rape of minors, on-page rape, etc.
May 14, 2021
The original concept of ODY-C is a direct binary gender-swapped version of the Odyssey that would take the male hero archetype and explore what would happen by making 'him' a woman to change the feel of the story, and ODY-C 2 continues this exploration as Odyssia, Gamen, and Ene journey after the siege of Troiia.
The gender manipulation in this book doesn't just break from the norm, it takes a turn that is political, daring by putting women and transgender women in positions of strength, at the same time straying towards making the existence of gender almost trivial.
The character of 'He' is more central in this book. 'He', the equivalent of Helen, is the first man born in ten thousand years, because of the interference of the gods, and a handful more follow, which brings about much of the conflict of the books. The gods themselves also display diverse gender expression.
The story in ODY-C 2 is pacy and breathtaking in its telling and its savagery, portrayed again in bohemian, indulgent, psychedelic artwork that jumps off the page in vivid graphics. It is a powerful book, making powerful statements about gender, emancipation, abuse and equality, each broached in challenging imagery and storylines that are often uncomfortable yet equally poignant.
The gender manipulation in this book doesn't just break from the norm, it takes a turn that is political, daring by putting women and transgender women in positions of strength, at the same time straying towards making the existence of gender almost trivial.
The character of 'He' is more central in this book. 'He', the equivalent of Helen, is the first man born in ten thousand years, because of the interference of the gods, and a handful more follow, which brings about much of the conflict of the books. The gods themselves also display diverse gender expression.
The story in ODY-C 2 is pacy and breathtaking in its telling and its savagery, portrayed again in bohemian, indulgent, psychedelic artwork that jumps off the page in vivid graphics. It is a powerful book, making powerful statements about gender, emancipation, abuse and equality, each broached in challenging imagery and storylines that are often uncomfortable yet equally poignant.
March 23, 2017
A strange, psychedelic epic which reworks the 1001 Nights, Sumerian and Greek mythology, and the more obscure corners of the Homeric epics (specifically, the story of Helen and Menelaus after Troy) into a bloody, gory tale (or collection of tales) of revenge against rape. I think I liked this volume more than the first, partly because I'm less familiar with the stories Fraction recycles here, partly because this time I knew from the beginning that there was a specific rhythm to follow when reading the text, and partly because, with its re-examination of the theme of rape in world mythology, I thought this volume went a little bit farther conceptually than "let's gender-reverse the Odyssey and turn it into a space opera". Not that that's not a cool idea in itself, just, this is more interesting.
January 16, 2022
Vol. 2 follows Ene and “He” of Troiia (gender-bent Helen of Troy) as they find themselves stuck on Q’af after the war. Ene goes off on a journey to hunt & kill Proteus in order to find a way off the planet, while He stays behind. This is where is starts to venture into other legends, specifically The Arabian Nights. He is Scheherazade.
I liked this one a little more than the first Volume. It was easier to follow (that is, until the end when Ene’s story got so confusing my eyes glazed over). I enjoyed He’s story more, tbh. Again the art style (though wonderfully colored) can make things confusing, so I had to rely heavily on the writing (but that too gets muddled and confused).
If there’s a third volume in the future, I don’t know if I’ll read.
TWs: violence/bloodshed, SA
I liked this one a little more than the first Volume. It was easier to follow (that is, until the end when Ene’s story got so confusing my eyes glazed over). I enjoyed He’s story more, tbh. Again the art style (though wonderfully colored) can make things confusing, so I had to rely heavily on the writing (but that too gets muddled and confused).
If there’s a third volume in the future, I don’t know if I’ll read.
TWs: violence/bloodshed, SA
December 6, 2016
A trippy, psychedelic, gender flipped version of The Odyssey, this series is a perfect space for amazing art and amazing storytelling. The second volume in this series is great but not as perfect as the first volume was. This volume is too focused on new characters and hardly mentions Odyssia. Instead we are told stories of others that, while great stories, don't propel the series along on any sort of timeline, instead weaving off on interesting but unnecessary tangents. The art is the main reason for the 4 stars. Christian Ward is a genius! His work is perfect and transformative. I am interested in seeing where a third volume goes and hope it ties volumes one and two together.
August 16, 2020
While the first one is very visibly a paraphrase of Homeros' work, this reminds me somewhat of A Thousand And One Nights as well. I didn't enjoy it as much. And it somehow makes the first volume feel more unfinished.
The art is still interesting, the book is still raw, and the language hints at iambic pentameter, but I'm not knowledgeable enough in it to discern whether it actually is - I just know it doesn't flow QUITE as smoothly as I'm used to with iambic (discounting the breaks of spoken words, which waver between poetic style and regular speech)
The art is still interesting, the book is still raw, and the language hints at iambic pentameter, but I'm not knowledgeable enough in it to discern whether it actually is - I just know it doesn't flow QUITE as smoothly as I'm used to with iambic (discounting the breaks of spoken words, which waver between poetic style and regular speech)
November 2, 2019
Full disclosure: I accidentally read this one before volume one, which is legitimately the only reason I read it at all.
This book is just one giant trigger warning. It is not exaggeration to say that every other page someone is raped and/or murdered. It is gratuitous, and isn’t ‘resolved’ in the clever progressive way Fraction clearly thinks he’s writing and patting himself on the back over.
This was such a great premise with such horrible execution. I’m so mad.
This book is just one giant trigger warning. It is not exaggeration to say that every other page someone is raped and/or murdered. It is gratuitous, and isn’t ‘resolved’ in the clever progressive way Fraction clearly thinks he’s writing and patting himself on the back over.
This was such a great premise with such horrible execution. I’m so mad.
October 12, 2021
Setting aside Odyssia seems a strange choice, but following around "He of Troia" in a weird version of 1001 Nights is pretty cool. The art, though more consistent and less odd (?), is not always as striking as it was in the first story arc.
If you liked the earlier issues, I can recommend this, but it IS a bit different...at least, different enough for me to comment on.
There.
If you liked the earlier issues, I can recommend this, but it IS a bit different...at least, different enough for me to comment on.
There.
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