Post-apocalyptic stories are a dime-a-dozen anymore – you can’t move through the menus of any streaming service without stumbling across a lot of them. It’s probably because of the world’s recent bout with the Covid-19 Global Pandemic and fears that we may or not be living in our very own authoritarian dystopia that fuel such stories, but it could reach saturation point soon. It takes something really special to cut through the proverbial chaff (I’m looking at you, endless zombie stuff) and reveal the succulent kernels of good storytelling hidden away. I feel that I may have stumbled onto one of those very stories today when I read U4, a new comic series by Pierre-Paul Renders, Denis Lapière & Adrián Huelva, published by one of my favorite publishing houses, Europe Comics. The interesting thing about this series is that it is split into five volumes, a fact that may not seem too surprising until you understand that each volume of the first four tell separate but interlocking stories that ultimately merged together in the fifth and final volume. The first I had the pleasure of reading was Koridwen.

At first, I wasn’t sure what this book was going to be all about, at the very beginning it almost seemed fairly similar to something such as Z for Zachariah, a classic in the genre. I was sure we were going to get the story of a lone girl trying to survive on a farm and the aftermath of some kind of huge cataclysm, probably coming toe to toe with some kind of evil interloper. Suddenly, the plot veers into the territory of establishing that the main character is following magical premonitions as told to her through a Celtic fairy tale passed down from her grandmother. Before she realizes that she is acting out every single section of said fairy tale in such a way that she starts to realize that it’s not mere coincidence that things are falling into place the way they are.

With the promise of the ability to time travel dangled in front of her like a carrot on a stick Koridwen makes a lot of tough choices in order to try to move herself and her special needs cousin Max, to what she hopes is a better life. They pack up everything they would need to make it to Paris with the vague promise of possibly meeting up with old friends met on an MMORPG similar to World of Warcraft. The whole story plays around with concepts such as time travel, mysticism, horror, coming of age, and your standard post-apocalyptic survival stuff In such a way that I haven’t really seen anything like it.

The artwork can be grim sometimes but retains somewhat of an illustrated children’s story sort of vibe that you generally see in things like Disney movies. In some ways this gives the story a little bit of innocence where a lot of post-apocalyptic fiction veers heavily into the darkness of the situation surrounding whatever character that is placed in that predicament. I enjoyed both the storyline and the artwork lot, and we’ll probably try to seek out more works by some of the creative staff in the future. The good thing is that with Europe Comics I have a way to easily look at other works that various authors they work with have released on their website, so that shouldn’t be too hard.

It’s honestly hard to give this a complete review at the moment because I’ve only read 1/5 of the total storyline that this comic is planned for. As a standalone, the story does move fairly well and wraps up in a pretty good place for what I assume is going to be the climactic final act. I just need to get ahold of more volumes of this to see where any other characters are going and what their paths are leading to. I am fairly certain that one of those characters has already run into our heroine by the end of this book, and since I have access to another book with a character that looks eerily similar to him on the cover, I feel like that will be a great way to see how these characters intertwine. European comics are always something special for me because of the way they are written and the fact that they don’t fall into the same superhero tropes that almost every American comic sticks to. this is no exception, and I applaud the creative team for trying to do something different with the post-apocalyptic fiction genre and a novel take on episodic comic releases. I will definitely be reading more of this and I highly recommend you do as well.

U4 - Koridwen by Pierre-Paul Renders

Publication date: January 7, 2022 (originally published in French)
Date read: July 11, 2022



A virus has wiped out almost everyone on Earth, leaving only teenagers left. No one knows why. Koridwen is left alone, except for the farm animals, and a mentally-disabled cousin that she loves like a brother. That, and a message she got before the internet went down, to meet someone named Khronos and try to save the world.

There are four volumes of this comic - Jules, Koridwen, Stephane, and Yannis - that can be read in any order. The conclusion - supposedly called Khronos - should be read only after reading the first four. *I say “supposedly”, because it looks like it was called Contagion in the French release…

(Yes, I copied a lot of that from the Jules review. Trying to keep it consistent.)

And, yes! To anyone who read my Jules review, the next volume has been released in English! I’m very happy.

I really enjoyed the character of Koridwen. She’s strong and independent, but also seemed realistic. She knows how to survive like this, but that doesn’t mean she wants to. And I loved her relationship with her cousin.

It was also pretty fun seeing Koridwen’s and Jules’s interactions with each other from the point of view of Koridwen this time. I do still recommend starting with Jules first, although starting with Koridwen would be fine as well. I just felt that the introduction to this dystopian world is a little more complete in Jules.

The same artist did both volumes, and as before, I really liked the style here. It’s simplistic but incredibly expressive, and the style allowed for death and violence to be shown without it getting gory.

I’m looking forward to finishing this series, and now that it appears that the complete set will be released in English at some point, I can fully recommend it. I think comic fans - especially fans of science fiction and dystopian comics - will really enjoy this one. Highly recommend these books.

Rating: 5/5 stars

Content warnings: mass death, pandemic, images of corpses, death of a family member, nudity, murder, child endangerment

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book.

A dystopian comic series about a virus epidemic. This is a five-part comic series; the first 4 comics are parallel stories that can be read in any order. This is the second I’ve read of the series.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one! I first saw Koridwen in the Jules comic and didn’t expect her comic to be so creative. This addition to the series introduces magic, witchcraft and time-travel which brings the series up to a whole new level.

This also has diverse characters including a disabled character (Max has a mental age regression, unspecified which), and
BPOC characters (Ibra, Youss, Kadi). I’m really enjoying this series and I can’t wait to read the next instalment. I recommend these comics to anyone who enjoys dystopian media. I’ll be buying physical copies as soon as they’re published in English in paperback.

Virus epidemic; Pharmaceutical Drugs; Death; Suicidal ideation; Poison; Christianity (Catholicism); Blood; Violence; Alcoholism; Fire; Animal birth (on page, graphic); “Special Needs” Institute; Witchcraft; Medical content; Guns; Nudity; Corpse; Gore; Attempted child sacrifice; Gang violence

Thank you to Europe Comics and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

U4 by Pierre-Paul Renders, Denis Lapière, and Adrián Huelva is a YA sci-fi/fantasy novel. The story revolves around Koridwen, a red-haired young woman who finds a letter inside a trunk left to her by her mysterious grandmother. The letter sends her on a mission and journey. According to the description, Koridwen is "troubled by the similarities between this prediction and the message Khronos sent out just before the internet shut down…"

Overall, U4 had a lot of potential, but ultimately, it was a letdown. I had no idea what was going on most of the time. I wasn't sure if this was dystopian, sci-fi, or fantasy. I would have given this a 3-star review, actually, but I was very put-off by a totally unnecessary shower scene in the middle of this book. This is categorized as in the YA genre, and I'm assuming the main character is a teenager. Is it really necessary to show her partly naked when it doesn't have anything to do with the plot? This appears to be a case of the "male gaze." Because of this scene, I don't feel like I can recommend this book to any reader of any age.

The premise of these graphic novels is you choose which volume to read first. The first four are parallel stories, so it doesn’t matter which one you start with. But you must finish with Khronos, where the four threads are finally brought together.

This volume follows the story of Koridwen, the sole survivor of her little hamlet after the entire village dies from a mysterious virus. She wants to die, to kill herself to end the loneliness and fear, but something always stops her. A feeling that she can fix what has happened, perhaps save the world. Using the memory of her grandmother, and the trunk of spells she left for her, Koridwen heads to Paris to meet with the others who believe they can travel back in time and undo the horror that has become their daily life.
This is the second story in the series I have read and is just as powerful and addictive as the first. I want to know if they manage to do the impossible. I want to believe they can, and that says all I need to about the strength of the storytelling.

Thanks to @netgalley, Europe Comics, Pierre-Paul Renders, Denis Lapière, and Adrián Huelva for the opportunity to read the eArc in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

Went into this story having almost no context, only to find out it's #4 in the "series". Felt like I was trying to play catch up to understand what's going on. That is, UNTIL the ending explained each part is written from a different characters POV, who cross paths, with their own stories to tell. Each part can be read in any order and still understand what's going on. There are even samples of others at the end, which I enjoyed.

Interesting idea, but I still felt very lost. Maybe it's a loss in translation, but I felt like something was missing trying to make this a "whole" story on it's own.
The dreams with a song were very confusing to me. Along with trying to keep up with exactly what our main character, Koridwen, was doing.
What's the goal she was actually trying to accomplish? What about her cousin? How did she get to point C deciding she has to go back to point A and try to start everything over?

I did not hate this. The idea and story were enough to keep me curious, but I also can't say I loved it because I felt frustrated a lot of the time.
Reading a single character's story wasn't enough to answer all my questions and personally I would read more.

**Thank you to Europe Comics and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.**

THANK YOU NETGALLEY FOR ALLOWING ME TO READ THIS ARC IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW.
4 stars
This graphic novel was good but I feel myself getting bored quite often. Maybe it’s because I need to read the other ones but I’m not sure. The writing style and art was good. And near the end the plot picked up more.

This is a series of four books which can be read in any order. A pandemic has killed the majority of adults and Koridwen has gotten used to burying them. Her grandmother was witch and foretold that Koridwen would save the world but she has always dismissed this until now. Koridwen knows she has to go to Paris to find answers and so together with her cousin she leaves her farm and travels to Paris.

Paris actually provides some of the answers she is looking for but it also provides more mystery and confusion. Koridwen meets people who help her but she also meets people who could hurt her and she is racing against time to understand what all of this means and to find out how she can turn the clock back and save the world from the pandemic.

This is an intriguing series with volumes that fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. The artwork is great and I could feel the build up in tension as Koridwen gradually solves the riddles, prophecies and dreams that beset her.

Now I am looking forward to the other volumes and perhaps a big re-read at the end. This is a great series to follow and also engaging especially seeing how Koridwen’s path crosses with Jules from an earlier volume.

Copy provided by Europe Comics via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

Having little context to this book going in, I found it a bit difficult to follow along (I didnt realise it was a follow up and not a #1) It felt very Covid-esque with a virus that was seemingly killing everyone (and whilst i'm not one for trigger warnings, I think this might actually be required) It was a difficult read considering the pandemic.

Thanks for the opportunity - but unfortunately this one was not for me!

Wishes do actually come true. Diligently reviewing Europe Comics' free-to-air files for critics over the years, the numbers of sequels and part two's we've managed to see can be counted on two hands, at most. But here we actually get two second parts in a month, and here we get part of a series I really wanted to be on board with. I wrote at length last time (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4687225621) about how the comics might be four prequels to one really big genre work, where the prose originals were dubbed four stand-alones with a bunch of added-on stuff to close it out. What I didn't claim to be important last time was that, while the French novels all came out the same day and date, here we're getting the adaptations once a month, and that order, if we follow it, might seriously impact our thoughts on it all.

Either way, this entry concerns Koridwen, a lass with bright copper-colour hair, living on a farm in Brittany when the plug is pulled, all amenities break down and we learn that only teenagers – and barely anybody older or younger – have survived the U4 virus outbreak (it's like listening to U2, but twice as awful). Once again, Koridwen is a gamer on a certain platform, whose master player has promised to replicate the time-shifting nature of their adventure, to reboot real life. Once again, Koridwen is keen on being part of that.

And once again we see the standard contents of this kind of fare – lone dogs encountering gangs, teens thinking they rule their patch without the adults around, perhaps too much circumstance and coincidence. But we get a lot that's fresh, at least from our point of view – who knew we'd have as heroine a lass whose grandmother was a witch, Breton style; and who knew Brittany had its own martial art form? It's only a good thing to have that aspect to these pages, even if it's not worn very heavily at all. Having said that, structuring a lot of the plot around some oddball old nursery rhyme that must have a small regional base if any, can make for some annoyance at times.

Also fun is how this story and the previous one we've seen interweave – and surely that only increases when we get the rest of the foursome. Common to all these books, what's more, is the same bludgeoning cliff-hanger, but if anything this was just good fun, and welcomely different to prove my faith in how well the potential of the series would be met. Halfway through meeting The4 to combat U4, this is still teasing of greatness. Roll on the next.

An amazing read. With no context going in it was captivating and held my attention the entire time. Koridwen is a killer character, knowing she wants to help save the world one step at a time is what held my attention the most. The crossing of faiths: her grandmother being a witch and wanting to keep the practice alive, the Celtic stories, and the Catholic Church is an interesting choice because but honestly is good one. I want to know more about the pandemic that has only allowed teens to survive, what caused it and how to stop it.

Knowing there’s no order to reading the first four books is interesting because it makes the series different from most. Personally I will be going with Jules next.

I appreciate having had an opportunity to read and review this book. The appeal of this particular book was not evident to me, and if I cannot file a generally positive review I prefer simply to advise the publisher to that effect and file no review at all.