DISCLAIMER: I was given a free digital copy in exchange for an honest review.
✧ This review is spoiler-free! ✧
Title: Punderworld, Volume 1
Series: Punderworld, #1
Author + illustrator: Linda Sejic
Expected Publication: Aug. 3, 2021
Publisher: Image Comics
Category: YA/adult
Genre: mythology, romance, graphic novel
Pages: 176
My Rating: ★★★☆☆
Goodreads page
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Synopsis
Hades and Persephone’s love-struck misadventures.
The classic tale of Greek mythology, but 100% more awkwardly relatable. Hades is the officious, antisocial ruler of the Underworld; Persephone, daughter of Demeter, is an earth goddess of growth and renewal – they’ve been crushing on each other for the past two centuries. But when a festival (and a little liquid courage) present an opportunity to put an end to their olympian will-they-won’t-they, a meddlesome pantheon and several titanic misassumptions threaten to give every god in the sky the wrong impression… and leave their romance dead before it can bloom.
[ This synopsis was taken directly from Goodreads. ]
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Thoughts
Punderworld is a web comic about Hades and Persephone that is being turned into a graphic novel series.
As much as I love reading different renditions of the Hades + Persephone story, I found this comic to be a little lackluster. I wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t amazing either. I think part of the reason this story fell flat to me was because I went in thinking this was going to be a retelling with a twist. Instead, it’s just the normal Hades/Persephone story in comic form.
I like that Hades is depicted as this shy, introverted god. Usually he’s this tall, dark, handsome, confident dude, so it was nice to see him with a different personality for a change. Also, the art style is really fun. I like how Linda uses different kinds of speech bubbles to show the characters’ moods/emotions.
That being said, I found that Demeter’s toxic behavior was a little triggering. I should’ve seen it coming. The story doesn’t stray much from the original mythology, so it’s no surprise that Demeter in this comic is also overprotective of Persephone.
Other than that, the story felt pretty average. Maybe it’ll go in a different direction in the sequel, but we’ll have to wait and see.
TL;DR
✅ beautiful art style
➖ average Hades + Persephone story
❌ nothing special that makes it different from the original story (so far)
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Conclusion
I give Punderworld (vol. 1) 3 stars!
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Stay awkward and amazing!
The Awkward Book Blogger 