I appreciate what Jonathan Minott does in The Draycox Awakens. There is a long traditional of antihero work in literature, and it's great to see this comics approach to this character archetype. The visuals are also well-rendered -- an enjoyable comic with interesting literary work.

The violence and bloodshed are bad enough but what really made me dislike this story is the discontinuity in story telling and the way one sentence can end so abruptly and jump to another.

Also the grammar especially You’re and Your. It needs further work before publication.

In the realm of comic book style graphic novels, The Draycox Awakens stands out with its unique perspective, presenting the narrative through the eyes of an anti-hero rather than a conventional hero. This captivating book challenges the notion of a guaranteed happy ending, exploring the complexities of human nature and the inevitability of making mistakes along life's journey. With a deep emphasis on empathy, the story allows readers to view redemption through diverse lenses, igniting introspection and understanding. Themes of family, friendship, personal power, and the transformative impact of life experiences permeate its pages, offering a thought-provoking and emotionally charged odyssey that will resonate long after the final panel.

The artwork is really good and the story is decent but the narration in this does not fit the medium at all. It would be better written as a novel or rewritten in a way that better fits a comic book.

The Draycox Awakens is an exceptional comic book style graphic novel that pushes the boundaries of the genre, introducing readers to a fascinating anti-hero protagonist. Through stunning artwork and a compelling narrative, this book immerses us in a world where not every story guarantees a happy ending. It beautifully captures the complexities of human existence, highlighting the mistakes we make along our personal journeys.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

I decided to give this comic a chance, even though the odd plot description made me raise an eyebrow. Now that I've finished, I really wish I didn't give it a chance. This was a perplexing and at times awful comic to read. The ENTIRE comic has a narrator explaining what is happening in the panels you're reading. Except, why are you telling me via narration instead of just showing me? This is a comic, you don't need a narrator to give you a play-by-play of the exact thing you're looking at for the ENTIRE comic. The plot itself was horrendous and stereotypical and honestly made me roll my eyes. A bullied foster kid encounters alien debris which gives him superpowers, and then he uses those powers to get revenge. But it's not just revenge on his bullies, it's revenge on literally ANYONE he thinks has wronged him or that he thinks is "bad". He comes across some kids trying to steal someone's lunch money, and he kills them brutally. It goes from Disney Channel Movie level to Rated R Deadpool in the blink of an eye. He rips a guy's arms off, melts another guy from the inside out, and turns two dudes into ashes. All of those deaths are just full gore and honestly extremely startling. The tone of this story is all out of whack. His powers aren't explained at all besides "I found an alien egg and it gave me powers!". From what I can tell, it gave him powers roughly on the level of Captain Marvel. There is nothing of him testing out his powers to see how they work, he just immediately starts killing people and destroying stuff. There is also literally NO world-building. A superhero shows up in the last scene to fight Micheal, but who is this hero? Does this mean there are other heroes? Are super hero's a thing in this universe? Did this other guy also get powers from an alien source? Also, why is Erza (the hero guy) referred to as "Earth's Last Hope"? Literally, nothing is answered at all, it feels like the book just expects you to have prior knowledge. The dialogue is also pretty terrible, and the way it fluctuates between word bubbles only having a handful of words and then others having massive multiple paragraphs is honestly a bit infuriating. The dialogue is on the level with the Disney Channel Movie tone, which makes it bizarre to read when the plot tone switches to the Rated R Movie in gory scenes. The art style itself is also pretty bad. It keeps changing style from page to page, sometimes in classic American comic style and sometimes in almost a manga style. Several times, characters clearly were just photos of real people that had either been traced over or had a "Comic Filter" slapped over them. The sound effects also were oddly jarring and shoved it in a way that ruined the pages. There would be random sound effects (which is normal for an American-style comic) but the font they were in was HUGE and always in some sort of neon color. It distracts you from reading the page, cause half of a panel just says "CRACK" in huge letters and is neon yellow. I have never said this before about a book or comic, but reading this was a massive waste of time.

Also, this was formatted horribly. The Kindle version puts two pages onto one page and makes them tiny and impossible to read. The NG App version is slightly better, but it still made the page super small. My poor eyes.