No relation to the original story and characters
928699
Content is pretty bad, not at all related to the real epic story. Some artworks are amazing but some are completely irrelevant and absurd.
50722
The title of the book has nothing to do with the story whatsoever.  I guess it works to establish a certain mood, but I found it disappointing that there was no connection.  Lucie and her family are so complex that the book loses steam when the author chooses to focus on himself towards the end.  Overall a fascinating story, especially the elements of Japanese culture, with an unfocused ending.
4913527
I am so confused about whether this is a rip-off/spin-off and how this story relates to Hopf's The End/Nemesis series. The story lines, locations, and characters are almost identical. Perhaps it is just an attempt to sell more copies by just changing out several names of the characters...
2281076
Following the story line is NOT!  I really don't know WHY the TV and Movie people have to veer off from the original story lines, and add characters that were never there, or change their names.  MEH!  HBO is really irritating the heck out of me by bastardizing great writing (i.e. "Sookie Stackhouse"  books and "A Song of Fire and Ice" saga).  Of course, IF you can see it as something else, then it's ok, I guess.  For what it's worth, Peter Jackson's "LOTR" and "The Hobbitt" movies are just as perverted from the original story, if not worse.
2730014
I am a first time reader of the series and felt there was an over-reliance on established series characters. None of the characters are very bright, so the story ends up being boring. New characters (characters without a reference to past mysteries) are few so the bad guys become quickly obvious. The plot has moral and ethical issues.
195826
While the story idea itself may be of interest, I never made it past the first chapter.  In chapter 1, there is one named character - Alexandria (she's the only female character).  There are a couple of unnamed extras (toothless man, a dog, etc). The chapter is about the female character.  I was totally distracted from the story by the fact that she was identified by name at least 75 times!!  I'm not kidding.  I had to go back and count how many times the name Alexandria appeared in the chapter and then delete it from my device.
4201512
It has a lot to say about who knew what when leading up to Pearl Harbor, but that really has nothing to do with the "story", such as it is. I'm not really sure what the point of this was. Maybe just a setup for future stories about this group of characters, about whom I care very little at this point.
2476567
The character and abilities were fun to read, but the lack of a coherent story makes the book feel uneven in the end. There is no tension, no challenge, no purpose. Basically the book is an origin story for a superhuman with nothing to do worthy of her abilities. There is not even a setup for any challenge or adventure in the future, just a superhuman doing random things. That being said I keep checking in hoping for a sequel, so the character herself may be strong enough to carry the book even with its flaws.
2821927
I have to agree with the other one and two star reviews that there was no plot progression.  You could skip entire chapters and it would not have mattered.
4657439
Kids' Bibles can't cover everything, but there is a glaring omission in this book: there is no account of original sin, the curse, and God's promise of redemption.  Without this, there is no reason for the rest of the book.

I noticed this tonight when my four-year-old asked why Adam and Eve weren't wearing any clothes.  A great opportunity, I thought, to carry on to the next story where they got their clothes.  Only the story wasn't there.  I flipped back and forth several times, checking the page numbers, thinking surely the pages were stuck together or the kids had ripped them out.  No such thing: this book just doesn't have original sin in it.  It goes straight from God creating Eve to Noah.

Gobsmacked.
3400368
While I have a love/hate relationship with the Berserk story, these movies are a travesty. The "golden age" arc of the Berserk manga (and corresponding "first season" of the Berserk anime) are among the best stuff to come out of the disposable art of Japanese comics. Well described as a "bull in a China shop", the tale recounts the tragedy of the Band of the Hawk. However, what makes the manga/anime so strong is not the particular events, which could easily be summarized on a fan wiki in a page. Rather, it is the excellent character arcs, the growth and decline of relationships. However, such growth/decline can only be realized over a long period of time. Berserk (or at least, this early tale) is one of the few stories in the entirety of Japanese manga writing to fully explore such multi-dimensional facets of humans, unlike the vast majority of the pablum that (dis)graces American shelves these days.

So, what's the problem? The viewer loses completely the character momentum that leads one to scratch his chin (rather than his head) at the final events of the "Golden Age"). And what are we left with? A spoilt story with no real momentum whatsoever.

I question any review that suggests this as an "entry point" of the series. I can understand (slightly) the idea that people want to see the manga/season one in a more "modern" view, but honestly (and excusing my bad pun), with the guts completely removed from the story, this is hardly a reason to buy. Avoid.
1794283
I loved the old Excalibur. Great art by the sensational Alan Davis, lots of humour, and decent story lines that were somehow clearly distinct from the rest of the Marvel universe (meaning that they created their own characters, and seldom borrowed from the rest of the Marvel line). Unfortunately, none of that is evident here - characters drift in and out, the super-strong leader of Excalibur, Captain Britain, is hardly around, the battles are meaningless, and the art is clumsy and warped, with a rainbow of colours to dazzle and confuse. No storyline is resolved, and after seven issued we've learned nothing. Some villain called Albion shows up and does battle with Captain Britain, although we don't know why he's out to kill our hero, Lionheart seems interested in killing him too for strange reasons, and only the Dazzler, always one of the weaker Marvel villains, seems to seems to really get anything done (!!). There's also some strange "MI13" agent called Peter Wisdom, who always calls people "petal". Is that a cute British thing? An evil Professor Charles Xavier shows up from some universe where he's killed off all the superheroes (why?), sort of like the weak X-Men Noir stories. Cain Marco, Juggernaut, is now an ally of the superheroes and a member of the New Excalibur (!!), but under-utilised, until the end when he confronts Black Tom Cassidy in a rare Marvel example of hostage negotiation. The only item of interest is a small reference to Harry Potter.

In fact, this is nearly as bad as the intolerable Spider-Man clone saga - just skip it!
4793880
My main issue with this book is that none of the main characters are from Howls Moving Castle. It's sort of like a happen stance epilogue to Howls by way of another story. It is interesting and fantastical. It was a good read in its own right- but it would be a better read if it was not associated with Howls Moving Castle- as that brings expectations that this book does not live up to.
190826
Something was just missing from this story. It's probably the fact that the comic started in the middle with no build-up. You didn't know about the characters so were not invested in the characters. You didn't know about the destruction of the previous world, the whys, the how, who where left. The characters were drawn along make fantasy lines; overly muscles men dressed to show of muscles and skimpy dresses females. The visuals projected in the comic didn't fit made the characters descriptions. Nothing to protect skin  from demonic attack and no where to hold the weapons.
205726
I read the first Kick-Ass a couple of years ago and loved it. Mainly because of the originality of the story: what would happen if (super) heroes really existed. I always wanted to know how the story continued, so bought this. It was a major disappointment.

The story is very basic (nothing original) and you have loads of unnecessary violence that contributes nothing to it: toddlers being killed, high school girls being raped, decapitations, etc.

If you're looking for an explicitly violent comic, never minding the story, this is definitely for you. But this is not what the first one was, or the reason why most of us loved it.
1927113
I bought this book a couple of years ago. It wasn't until recently, when I was leafing through a very old copy that I found on my shelves that I realized that this book does not contain the following stories that were in the original: How the First Letter was Written; How the Alphabet was Made; The Crab that Played with the Sea; and the Butterfly that Stamped.

In particular, the Crab and the Butterfly are two of the finest Just so Stories and should not be missed.  I certainly would not have bought this book had I known it was an abridged version.  I suppose that's why the publishers  have cleverly entitled this book a "collection".  What's an added disappointment is that there is no indication or explanation anywhere in this book regarding the excluded stories--though I can guess at the reasons.

If I were buying, I'd look for a complete edition.
3383897
I was disappointed to find that the writing had been changed from the original, thus eliminating the charming dialect from the story. It changes everything and detracts significantly from the original, and nothing about this change was mentioned in the description. So sad.