I've always loved the creations from Kieron Gillen, but this one seemed a bit underwhelming. I feel like 100 pages are not nearly enough for the story that could've been told.

We get to see a postapocalyptic world (greatly described) and how it functions, and we get to know three charismatic characters, but I feel like I was constantly wanting to know more. I couldn't relate to Lori because I barely knew her motivation, same with the rest. Also, as much as I love what they show us from the world building, we don't get to know anything about it. How did the people dissappear? Where do giants come from? Why do they act the way they do and give us that ending? I get what they were trying to evoke, but It just wasn't enough for me.

With that said, I was absolutely stunned by the art. I hadn't seen anything by Stephanie Hans beforehand, and I honestly loved how vibrant it was and how it translated the entire story to the pages.

Overall, I found it entertaining and interesting, but it may be one of those books you read and barely remember a few weeks later... Such a shame.

Thanks to NetGalley and Image Comics for the ARC.

Strange story, but it was a good read! I really liked the giants. I wish there were more answers to things.

Gorgeous art from Stephanie Hans, which is no surprise, but overall it was missing something.

This is the story of what happens after a rapture, when there are few people left trying to survive. There is a stoic character, a hopeful one, a trusted adult, a roving gang of awful people, and...Giants?

While I think I can see what metaphor was being attempted here, I feel the execution did not work out. I felt little to no emotion for any of the characters, nor for the events unfolding. There wasn't enough information given about anything to make me care.

A disappointing read from Kieron Gillen.

People really do love their pets, is what we seem to have here. And then your pet will get you killed.

Lovely art by Hans, as is to be expected. Kind of a ho-hum story by Gillen, that'll remind you of a lot of stuff you'll already have read and watched. I expect more from Gillen, I guess.

3.5 rounded up to 4 for the artstyle. Rendered in gorgeous colors and visuals, it is still a one-metaphor fable and reads as such: it’s short and mostly philosophical. I can’t say it made a massive impression on me emotionally, but I enjoyed it on a visual level.

<i>We Called Them Giants</i> by Kieran Gilles exists, in my opinion, primarily as a surface level introduction to the world. As a reader, you don’t really come away with a thorough understanding of the setting, but you’re intrigued enough with the tidbits you have that you’d be willing to read a bit more. Unfortunately, the graphic novel is so short that it truly feels like nothing further than the prologue to a video game with perhaps some outlining for some of the fights you’re likely to encounter later on in the game.

I don’t feel like I really got to know the characters all that much, though it was a bit more than surface level—but again, it feels like the prologue or the outline, like what you would discuss in a drafting meeting with the rest of the writers as you begin talks about what the rest of the game will be like. You’ve only just begun the drafts, but you’ve definitely got a lot of great ideas that show promise.

All of that is to say that I never felt immersed in the story nor did I feel I knew the characters well enough to feel a connection. And while this can often be a staple of this sort of storytelling simply by virtue that it can take a great many pages in graphic novel format before you truly delve into the story, it’s something I’ve grown to actively dislike about it. I’ve read enough graphic novels that I know this does not always have to be the case and while I can deeply appreciate the beautiful artwork here, I am also very disappointed in how little actually happens.

There are no great revelations, there is truly no genuinely discernible plot. We’re just at the beginning and yet the book has already ended.

Thank you to NetGalley and Image Comics for allowing me to read a digital ARC of this title.

The artwork was good, but I simply did not understand the story. Nothing was ever explained. I had so many questions at the end of the book. The main character wakes up and everyone is gone except 1 friend. Then, all of a sudden, there is a gang running things; where did they come from & how did they end up in charge? Then the Giants appear with absolutely no explanation as to where they came from or why they are there.
Too many unanswered questions for me.

From the award-winning team that wrote Die, Inkpot Award Winner, Kieron Gillen (Uncanny X - Men, The Wicked + The Divine, Young Avengers), Hugo Award Winner, Stephanie Hans (Die, Journey into Mystery, Black Bolt, Lucifer), Eisner Nominated, Clayton Cowles (Daredevil, Batman, Die, The Wicked + The Divine) and Graphic Designer, Becca Carey (Redlands, Vampirella/Red Sonja, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) get together to tell the story of a group of people fighting to survive in a post-apocalyptic world, where titanic Alien beings have mysteriously appeared.

When foster kid Lori wakes up one morning to find that her new adopted parents have broken the one promise that they gave, to get her a kitten, she believes that they have done the same thing everyone else does. They left!

However, it soon becomes clear that something is not right. The world is silent. No one is where they should be. Believing that everyone has gone, she soon bumps into Annette, a spoilt little rich kid from school. Soon an unlikely bond forms between the two as they fight for survival against hunger, vicious gangs, feral creatures, and beings from somewhere else.

We Called Them Giants is a haunting tale that revolves around trust and love. Let down by the everyone, Lori doesn’t trust anyone, whilst Annette is the polar opposite. Brought up by a caring and loving family, she is wont to trust everyone a little too much, which sometimes gets her into trouble. However, as time moves on, we see the relationship between the two girls grow.

As We Called Them Giants is a standalone story, the writers do not spend much time holding the reader’s hand and they leave a lot of things unexplained, leaving the judgement to the reader, rather than giving large amounts of exposition and back story. This lean approach to story telling can leave some readers not connecting with the story. However, I found this tale touching and moving.

The whole comic is gorgeous, and the team have done marvellously to bring the story together. Stephanie Hans’ art is as sumptuous as ever, and the lettering and design by Clayton Cowles and Becca Carey adds to the story (I can sometimes find the lettering to comics a little off putting).

Thank you to both Image and Netgalley for the chance to read this one early, and I would definitely recommend it.

3.5*

The artwork in this graphic novel is beautiful and I spent a long time looking at the details on each page. I really enjoyed the premise and the post apocalyptic setting; the giants were magnificent, I just want to know more about them. Unfortunately, I felt like the book moved too fast for me to really feel transported to the world in the graphic novel; and I want to know more as to how most of the people disappeared in the first place and what the three lady’s are going to do next. This was a fun and intriguing read however, and I always enjoy an Image comic.

Thankyou to NetGalley and Image comics for the advanced readers copy.

This comic had an interesting premise and the characters had a lot of potential, but it fell short. Mainly because it was such a short length, there wasn't time to develop or explore things.

We Called Them Giants is a poignant tale of survival and interdependence between humans and the "giants" that appear after a rapture removes the majority of humans from Earth. Our main character fights to survive and we follow her on the journey to find safety. This was beautifully illustrated, and the main character's voice in the dialogue is very strong.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy of this comic book in exchange for my honest opinion!

I love that this gorgeously illustrated novel focused on a trio of girls/women in an apocalyptic setting. I feel like we so rarely get to see women's POVs during books like these, especially the three different personalities we got in the main trio. Lori honestly reminded me so much of a feral housecat that needed to be taught love and trust, and Red an owner looking after three small humans. As someone, with major trust issues, I really related to her and was glad when she had a coming-of-age moment at the end of the novel. I would love to see more of this world if the author/illustrators were ever so inclined!

I recieved an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. My opinions are my own.

Overall, I really liked the artwork and story. The artwork is 5/5 and the story is 4/5, so ill round up to an overall 5/5.

I didn't like the ending. It seemed like it was setting up for a series or much larger story and I was very dissapointed with how it left off. I like to story that was told, but it felt like a story that existed in a much larger universe that wasn't fleshed out well enough.

I enjoyed (spoilers!) that they didn't fall into the sterotypical red=evil visual, and I liked that they never learned the gian't language. It just loved them, and that is all that mattered. The Christian parallels were also interesting, even if nothing other than the rapture comments were intended.

I looked up the author and found out that he also wrote some of "Young Avengers" which I quite liked so it isn't all that suprisig that I enjoyed the writing. I have also read comics drawn by the same illustrator, but I prefer the artwork in "We called them giants".

Loved the concept and the art but I felt that the story seemed a little undercooked, I got what the creators were trying to say with this but there were ways I felt would have been more interesting and in depth.

As a massive fan of Gillen, Hans and Cowels, this was a delight. I love the elements of that striking artstyle they did so well in Die, I can't wait to read more from this post world where so many people disappeared and fantastical giants walk. I really liked Lori as a character too, she's brave, curious and defiant, a great set of eyes into a world like this!

We Called Them Giants is a fantastic standalone comic which has a really unique art style and stunning visuals. (The Giants? Wow!) We follow Lori trying to survive in a world where most people have suddenly disappeared, most of the food has gone & there's no electricity. To further complicate things, is the arrival of the Giants. The story wraps up nicely and is quite bittersweet but is well worth a read.

Thanks to Netgalley & Image Comics for the arc!

We Called Them Giants is a readable and at times thought provoking graphic novel that I left with mixed feelings on.

The illustrations by Stephanie Hans are just beautiful and I really enjoyed savouring the gorgeous colours and designs. This alone makes it worth your time.

I think the post apocalyptic/rapture premise was interesting and I was genuinely really intrigued. Unfortunately the intrigue isn't always satisfied here because I felt like the book was too fast paced. You're not given time to care about the characters (although sympathetic they're not particularly endearing) so in this short space of time a character has to be instantly likeable or unfortunately, they become rather forgettable as is the case here.

The alien beings are really interesting and I could sit here all day and say this was interesting or that was interesting... Because all of it was. The issue is that there was little payoff for the interest. The best way I can describe the plot is that it's like this was a draft storyboard with an overview of some of the key parts, in place of more in-depth events that might be happening we don't read about.

You could undoubtedly make a great book with the ideas and visuals used here because there are some awesome ideas but compared to the other Image comics I've read, this one fell short in the execution, which is a shame because I thought the setting was great.

I'd still recommend this to appreciate the illustrations and because the story is inventive despite the lack of development.

This is the first time I have read a graphic novel. The book cover drew me in with the stunning artwork! Then the plot sounded right up my street. I don’t usually like male authors as much as female authors but I thoroughly enjoyed this story, which took me by surprise. I am grateful to receive this ARC thank you.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing a review copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

We Called Them Giants by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans sees the creative superteam behind the critically acclaimed DIE comic series reunite for a new standalone graphic novel.

This ambitious story detailing the fallout of a rapture-like event on Earth struggles to deploy the kind of narrative or character-based hook that tends to be a trademark of GIllen’s work. Equally, this very human-scale story with minimal fantastical elements (giant robots aside) doesn’t seem to play to the strengths of Hans’ gorgeous art. Any potential scope for a sweeping grand narrative is curtailed by the storyline’s very brief page count. It sadly feels overall like a missed opportunity.

For fans of this concept who’d like to see it pushed further, I recommend August Kitko and the Mechas from Space by Alex White.

We Called Them Giants has a super cool concept, and some beautiful panels in its 96 pages. However, for me personally, it was nothing more than that. The story of found family wasn't nearly enough thought out, and it didn't help nothing else was either. There is no explanation for anything and most of time I wouldn't care but this is one of those stories that needed it. Even if just a little bit. Once the story picked up pace it was over.

I feel like if it had another 100ish pages to fully flush everything out I could truly love it.