posted
I liked it! Very true to the book in terms of the dialog, and the art was top notch. From Pasqual Ferry's pencils to the colorist, everything looks pretty. Though I must says Mom and Dad looked a little younger than I thought they would, and pre-obese Graff looked older than I imagined. Other than that I have no complaints.
The first issue focused on Ender's life before Battle School so Vally and Peter get a lot of panel time. We got a preview ow what the Formics might look like though the mask Ender wears during his game with Peter. We also got two panels that showed what IF and Bugger ships look like. I can't wait to see what Battle shool looks like in the next issue.
Posts: 1 | Registered: Oct 2008
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Nice. I don't make it to the comic shop before they close so it'll be Saturday before I can go. Also I forgot it had allready come out. Makes it nice, I hate waiting for things. Will Ender in Exile ever come out, November is like a million years away.
Posts: 143 | Registered: Feb 2008
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I got to thumb through it briefly at a comic store, so far I'm quite impressed. Though I think I'll wait til all 5 come out and buy the anthology.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I may be the only one, but I wasnt too impressed by the comic. It has no stand-alone ability, no real explanation of the third status, we saw Ender kick Stilson in the gut three times but Graff says it was the groin, Peter's hand isnt phased at all when he broke the mask (and while they simply held on to the book for every line they changed the rubber mask to a plastic face plate), there was no visible blood on Ender's shoe when he attempted to scare Peter, and Graff came off so much more so as the manipulitive child-thief that he really was. My point is that you have to have read the book already to fill in all the holes.
But I am curious to see how much of the book they can fit into five issues, becuase this first issue was simply chapter 1 from the book. Who are they willing to sacrifice? cut Salamander Army and the story with Bonzo and Petra? or his time in Rat Army and let Dink Meeker fade away? they could even cut time out of his time with Dragon army but then you would be wondering why Han Tzu, Suriawong, Fly Molo, and Crazy Tom are all in his Jeesh. I dont know how much of the Ender psyche they could show without all the time in The Game, that was all very defining to me.
Posts: 2302 | Registered: Aug 2008
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Does anyone know how long this is? Is it a short comic, or novel length? I know it is only the first chapter, but is it very long? And i agree, how are they going to get ALL of the story into five issues?
Posts: 13 | Registered: Oct 2008
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I know this is probably a very useless comment... But here in hick-town Idaho we aint much fer book learnin of the picturey kind and there isnt a comic store for like 55 miles! Posts: 93 | Registered: Apr 2008
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So CG and Clan I know you can buy it online. Amazon is selling it for 8 bucks, way to much to pay for a comic you should only have to pay $4 in the us. Borders and Barnes and Noble will sometimes carry a small selection of graphic novels but the likelihood of having an Ender Comic is iffy. I certainly don't condone stealing comics from the internet but I know people share them. Another option is online comics from Marvel.com I don't know if ender is one of those offered but its worth a look. I finally bought it and can't wait for the rest of the series.
Another note I have bought the hardback of Red Prophet One and Two as well as Ultimate Iron Man and Ultimate Iron Man II well worth the $20 I paid for each.
[ October 22, 2008, 11:22 PM: Message edited by: Rodger Brown ]
Posts: 143 | Registered: Feb 2008
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When complete, the series will almost certainly be released as a trade paperback. And you'll almost certainly be able to purchase that trade paperback from Amazon. I suggest using the referral links on this site to make the purchase, if that's your decision.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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I was bothered by the fact that Andrew doesn't appear to kick Stilson in the gtoin, yet Graff (or whoever it was) describes it that way in the interview.
Posts: 1407 | Registered: Oct 2008
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I will probably end up checking out this comic to have a few better visual aides in mind when reading. I'm not into the idea of purchasing the comics though when I have the full length novel to read instead. It'd be cool to see how some of what I've read is portrayed in actual pictures, but I kinda worry about the images I hold dear disappointing me....so I'm unsure.
Posts: 115 | Registered: Apr 2008
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SPOILERS AHEAD Instead of 'It could be worse, it could be an anal exam', Peter only gets to say 'It could be worse, it could be an a-' and Valentine cuts him off with 'Don't finish that sentence'.
Also When Hyrum and Ender are conversing about Ender leaving for Battle School,
quote: "I'm afraid," said Ender quietly. "But I'll go with you." "Tell me again," said Graff. "It's what I was born for, isn't it? If I don't go, why am I alive?" "Not good enough," said Graff. "I don't want to go," said Ender, "but I will."
In the comic version, they cut out the lines 'Tell me again' and the 'It's what I was born...', but they left in 'Not good enough.' The entire point of those lines was to Graff implying Ender had to be willing to go for himself/humanity, not because it was what he was born to do.
ALRIGHT SPOILERS ARE OVER.
Anyway, that really peeved me off. The other one was just something I noticed, the comic's somewhat graphic, I didn't think Peter's joke needed to be censored.
Posts: 5 | Registered: Aug 2005
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First post at Hatrack. Just got the comic this weekend and thought I'd chime in.
It's beautifully drawn but leaves out quite a bit. I don't think the images can replace the depth and detail found in the books. It felt like reading a storyboard for, oh, maybe an upcoming film - something I don't object to.
Got a question for The Man, though... are you dropping the "Buggers" term for "Formics?"
Posts: 2 | Registered: Nov 2008
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So I browsed the online comic, and can't help but be disappointed. While the art is certainly beautiful, I was really hoping for more of a Japanese treatment of the IP. I would even settle for the Clone Warsish Fake anime style...
Posts: 332 | Registered: Apr 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Rodger Brown: NO ANIME. Let an American comic book be American.
Never mind the fact that the comic is printed on paper (invented in Egypt) with ink (China) written in English (England) and using modern perspective techniques (Italy).
I don't mind the style they chose at all. But anime would have been fine. Posts: 2 | Registered: Nov 2008
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I think that the Shadow Comic will be much better than Ender. Look at the art and story at marvel.com
Posts: 143 | Registered: Feb 2008
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It's not really the book itself, but the concept of an Ender's Game comic that turns me off. Any variation from the original story will turn me off, and anything that looks differently than I pictured it will pull me out of the reimagining of the story.
The Mega Man covers for the Young Adult version of Ender's Game are bad enough.
Posts: 127 | Registered: May 2005
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Measure and Alvin are both blond in the Alvin Maker comics, and I dont think they're clothing fits the time period. That ticked me off a lot more than any deviation in this.
quote:Originally posted by Kat_Freeman: Got a question for The Man, though... are you dropping the "Buggers" term for "Formics?"
That bugged me (pardon the pun) quite a lot actually in the comic. I don't see any good reason why "bugger" couldn't exist as a cruder, slang term, as in playing "Buggers and Astronauts." I understand having Graff and the adults use the alternate "Formic" but the original term is so often used in EG and the following trilogy that it doesn't feel authentic to switch it out like that.
In Ender in Exile (no plot spoilers, just a style note) I did notice that both "buggers" and "formics" were used, though the latter far more frequently, and that didn't seem strange at all. I don't know why the comic uses exclusively the formal term; an indication of what could be expected in an EG movie, perhaps?
(I'm also looking forward to the ES comic more...I'm liking the artistic style and the way Bean is drawn in the previews.)
Posts: 973 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Beans early story is just so riveting and engaging that I think people want to see Rotterdam and the bullies. Game is so much more of an introspective book that it makes it difficult to translate into visual images. Either Way I'm hooked on the comic series that Card has done though I have to admit I haven't picked up Wyrms. Just Ender, Alvin, and the Iron Man.
Another thing to keep in mind is that Card is not doing the art and the comic is just one interpretation of Card's literature.
When and if the movie gets done this board is going to light up with all sorts of angry people who don't like this or that about the movie. Just keep in mind that it is a separate form of art. If it was identical why would you want to see it.
Posts: 143 | Registered: Feb 2008
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The problem with adapting Ender's Game to other mediums is that it's a story through-and-through and can't handle that much deviation. It's not about ambience or exceedingly-clever wordplay, but the entire story, coupled with characters and situations that the audience binds with.
As familiar as I am with the story it would be difficult to imagine Graff as a woman, the Battle School as some kind of shimmery donut ship, or Alai as a tall Irishman even if it doesn't affect the story told in the movie. It's not because I have a particular preference for Graff, per se, but that it would distract too much from the image in my mind.
Posts: 127 | Registered: May 2005
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So, just read the two "Battle School" series and the "Recruiting Valentine" standalone. On the whole, quite disappointed, though some of the artwork is first-rate.
The main problem, IMO, is that they stuck way too closely to the novels. Don't get me wrong, I generally loathe deviations from canon as much as the next fan, as far as content is concerned. But the point of an adaptation is to tell the same story in a way that works for the target medium, and that's just not happening here. As wonderful as some of the dialogue is, that's no excuse to simply transplant large portions of it as-is to a comic, at the expense of severely limiting the number of full- and double-page panoramic visuals. It's more pronounced in "Game" than in "Shadow", to the extent of preserving dialog even when the events the dialog is based on has been cut. For instance, the conversation between Graff and Valentine to get Ender unstuck in the mind game relies heavily on the Locke/Demosthenes backstory. The comic omits the backstory but preserves the conversation. Also, I think the strategy used for cutting the material down to an acceptable length is a poor one. Instead of boldly removing sideplots, they simply compress everything and prune details everywhere. This struck me particularly in "Shadow", where significant time is spent on Carlotta's investigations. Why not simply have Graff mention the results and devote that time to things closer to the central plot? If the series extends to the point where the characters introduced here (Pablo, Anton, Volescu, etc) recur, their backstory can always be provided in a separate issue if needs be. The effect of this strategy is that while the plot remains technically intact, a lot of the texture inherent in characters and situations is lost. Bad trade-off.
I was surprised by this, because adaptations usually go too far in the opposite direction for my taste. It must be either due to a serious lack of guts on the part of the creative team, or to Card not allowing this to be made in any other way. If it's the latter, I might have to change my opinion about his demanding significant creative control over a potential movie adaptation, which I previously thought of as a very good thing. Sigh.
Posts: 96 | Registered: Jun 2009
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"Ender's Game: Battle School" seems to have ended at issue 5, with a blurb at the end for "Command School", coming next. Does that mean they're skipping over all of Dragon Army, Bean's introduction, and the trip back to Earth and Valentine?
Seems like a heck of a lot of the story to skip.
Posts: 1 | Registered: Jul 2009
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I wondered the same thing at first, but I'm fairly certain they're merely cashing in on the appeal of the names "Battle School" and "Command School", rather than call it "Volume 1" and "Volume 2". Three pieces of evidence: If you look at the novels, the inception of Dragon Army marks almost exactly the halfway point in either (~page 100 out of 200 for EG, ~page 150 out of 300 for ES), which strongly suggests that the CS comics will simply map to the second halves and not just to the command school bits. Then, cutting out the part which has both the highest coolness factor and is best suited for illustration would be really shooting themselves in the leg. I doubt they'd be that dumb, even if it weren't for the fact that the result of Card's creative control seems to be close adherence to the originals. Finally, the first one and two, respectively, parts of the BS comics take place on Earth, which tells us that the titles aren't meant to be understood literally.
QED?
The one factor that suggests I'm wrong is obviously the arrival of Achilles in ES-BS-5, which isn't supposed to happen until after the Dragon Army era. I'll be interested to see what, if anything, will come of that if they do keep following the novel otherwise. Simply not having Achilles and Bean meet for several issues would be the only way to not make further-reaching changes, but that seems quite unrealistic.
Posts: 96 | Registered: Jun 2009
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So, having just read the first "Command School" issue, I can confirm that it picks up where "Battle School" ended, i.e. still at Battle School with some way to go before graduation.
Posts: 96 | Registered: Jun 2009
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quote:Originally posted by Kat_Freeman: I don't mind the style they chose at all. But anime would have been fine.
Bugger: Why is it you have not yet perished under my special-no-kyuritzuken ansible attack power 9?
Ender: you were once a great foe but you have no way to respond to TEAMLINK-SPECIAL-COMBO child genius MOLECULAR DISINTEGRATION ULTRA-10 FORRRTRESSSSSSS ASSAULT hhhyyYYYAAAAOOOOO
Bugger: NO, IMPOSSIBLE~~
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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