The untold story of Sherlock Holmes’ greatest rival, Moriarty!

Before he was Sherlock’s rival, Moriarty fought against the unfair class caste system in London by making sure corrupt nobility got their comeuppance. But even the best-intentioned plans can spin out of control—will Moriarty’s dream of a more just and equal world turn him into a hero…or a monster?- Goodreads

I have had the great pleasure to read the first volume of this series. Thank you, Viz Media.

I was genuinely  surprised by this manga. Mostly because I wasn't expecting it to be as dark as it was. It wasn't dark because of the death. It was dark because Moritary is the definition of "the road to hell is paved with good intentions." His logic made way too much sense and just off this first volume it is hard to look at him as a villain.

The first volume has 3 stories and they provide background information and a clear  road that Moriarty wants to go. AND we get to see one of my newly favorite character :) The only hint you will get is. . .  he likes guns. 

I like this manga so far because villains aren't always black and white and Moriarty is completely in the grey. This is not to say that I will or mostly sympathize with a villain but evil isn't just the bad guy that murders someone. It can be the landlord that has the only doctor in town and refuses to let him help someone in need.  

There are different sides to evil and it makes you think. Again Moritary is "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" And I am really looking forward to diving into this series. 

Oh! And the artwork is pretty good. It isn't nothing new you would find in a manga but that doesn't make the detail and the emphasis found less amazing. 

Overall, 

3 Pickles

As a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes, I didn't know what to expect when I picked this up. But, it was fantastic! There's tidbits of facts about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, London, and Great Britain scattered throughout. The Moriarty family and their adventures are a fun read.

I will say the cover is violent and could be triggering, so i would probably not include it in a school library.

This manga is a potential origin story for the Sherlock Holmes nemesis, James Moriarty.
He and his brother were orphaned and penniless when the oldest Moriarty son brings them into his home as family. James' brilliant mind being the biggest part of why the Moriarty family agreed to adopting them. The mother and younger son are bound and determined to see these two boys kicked out of there home, and are willing to do anything to accomplish it.
The oldest Moriarty son, Albert, has other plans in mind. He and James want to change the world, ridding it of the evil deeds of the nobility however possible.
Seeing the cruel ways in which all 3 boys carry out their tasks makes for a gripping story, and it's hard to not root for them to win. I am genuinely interested to see what will happen as the story progresses.

We've seen all of the countless takes of the great Sherlock Holmes. Both in the movies, and on television. Now it's time for us to take a closer look at his greatest rival, Moriarty.

Moriarty the Patriot Vol. 1 follows the one and only Moriarty, though in manga format. This his story, before he ever came up against the in/famous Sherlock Holmes. His childhood, his hopes, his dreams. It's all there, and then some.

Written by Ryosuke Takeuchi, with artwork by Hikaru Miyoshi, this manga is about to take the writing of Arthur Conan Doyle in a whole new direction.

First, I just want to say that I absolutely adore the idea of focusing entirely on Moriarty. I've always felt like he was a character that got overshadowed by Holmes. And yes, I am saying that knowing full well that he is considered to be the primary antagonist by many.

They say that a series is made or broken by it's villains. That is certainly true of Moriarty. He's a villain worth keeping an eye on. Seriously, don't take your eyes off of him. It's not a safe or smart idea.

Moriarty the Patriot Vol. 1 was an interesting start to this series. I knew that it was going to tell his origin story, and yet I was still surprised by how young Moriarty is at the start of it all. Weird, I know. But I was.

It was truly fascinating to see how whole backstories laid out like that. They did an excellent job of making it all feel personal. Again, this went a long way in establishing his character, and the threat that he would later become.

I'm looking forward to seeing how Moriarty's character develops over time into the character that any Sherlock fan would happily point out. It's going to be an interesting journey, at least, I hope it will be!

Arc provided by NetGalley

This was great. As a lifelong fan of sherlock holmes stories I always love to hear others' perspectives on him and his world. The bit of the world that this book has chosen to bring to the forefront is that of Moriarty. An incredibly interesting character, I had a great time reading about him. I find that anti-heroes are sometimes even more fun to read about than true heroes. The tension built up over the course of the book was great. This book does a great job of introducing the reader to the world or more accurately the time period and the characters who will be at the forefront of the preceding series. I have some hesitations of things becoming repetitive but I get the feeling that there is a significant opportunity for more in-depth stories than is present here. I look forward to sharing this series with others specifically as a transitionary material for getting them into manga.

Despite his legacy as Sherlock Holmes' greatest foe, Professor Moriarty only appears (or is mentioned) in six of Arthur Conan-Doyle's canonical works, and he is, it must be admitted, relatively underdeveloped. Enter Ryosuke Takeuchi's Moriarty the Patriot, which seems to take as its raison d'etre the exploration of what motivated the professor to pit himself against the great detective.

It's not because he was a mustache-twirling villain, I can tell you that. Takeuchi's Moriarty is a man deeply embittered by the power discrepancy between the gentry and nobility and the common man, and he sees this as a failing of the British Empire as a whole. Therefore he sets himself up as a "crime consultant" - a man you go to when you have no legal recourse. Moriarty and his cohorts make the problem go away...very permanently. His goal is to fix the social ills of the Victorian era, one murder at a time, and it makes for compelling reading. He's Robin Hood by way of a serial killer, and only one thing's for sure: if Holmes didn't die at Reichenbach Falls, there's even less of a chance that this man did.

He's playing the long game.

Moriarty the Patriot Vol 1 explores Sherlock’s nemesis James Moriarty and the man he was and how he became that man.
I didn’t have very high expectations starting this but I fell in love immediately. Moriarty is sick of the corruption of the rich and teams up with his brother, the elder Moriarty son who got James and his brother Louis adopted into their family.
Together, and with some other characters I enjoyed at the end of the volume, they will take on corruption and get revenge for the poor and downtrodden that ask for their aid, and even those that don’t. I very much look forward to where the rest of this series is going to take his story. (Anime coming soon too based off this.)
***
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher I was able to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was really intrigued by this and I think this is one of the manga series I’d like to continue you.
The artwork is good, it is a familiar style, but the lines are clean, and I always like it when panels don’t get to overcrowded.

You don’t meet Sherlock in this book, there is a brief glimpse at the very start but volume one is all about Moriarty’s beginnings. I am interested to see how this story is told, as the story builds but for volume one it certainly sets everything up well and ends so you want to continue.

Dark and murderous alternative backstory to Professor James Moriarty that seeks to cast him as rather more heroic than he is. Similarities between Moriarty's two adopted brothers made the initial comic often confusing as it wasn't always clear who was speaking or what their motivations were. The level of disdain for the adopted children is also unlikely and some of the plot set up required willful misunderstanding of Victorian-era social order. Mostly I was left wondering why this was needed. It would have been an interesting story on it's own, but by shoehorning in the Sherlock Holmes ties meant readers were left questioning plot points the would have otherwise have accepted at face value.

This has zero Sherlock Holmes feel to it. I don’t believe the writer ever read one of the books. Would be a lot better if I did not have evil murder mystery expectations.

Moriarty came from nothing, but was adopted into a noble family. He hates the current system where nobility looks down on the poor and treats them like dirt, so he vows to change the system.