Anna never knew werewolves existed, until the night she survived a violent attack…and became one herself. After three years at the bottom of the pack, she’s learned to keep her head down and never, ever trust dominant males. Then Charles Cornick, the enforcer—and son—of the leader of the North American werewolves, came into her life. Charles insists that not only is Anna his mate, but she is also a rare and valued Omega wolf. And it is Anna’s inner strength and calming presence that will prove invaluable as she and Charles go on the hunt in search of a rogue werewolf—a creature bound in magic so dark that it could threaten all the pack…
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Text Adaptation of the novels: David Lawrence
Art: Todd Herman
Coloring: Mohan
Cover Art: Jenny Frison
This graphic novel collection is based on Patricia Briggs' novel Cry Wolf, this book rounding up the first four issues of the graphic novel adaptation. The cover also proclaims that this special edition offers a previously unpublished version of Issue 1.
In a nutshell, here's the rundown of the story: Anna Latham goes on what amounts to a pity date with this guy (she's not really feelin' him but agrees to go out anyway). Turns out the guy is a werewolf who essentially kidnaps her, takes her to his pack in Chicago (or the area anyway), transforms her into a werewolf and then him and his crew proceed to torture her in various ways until she is somehow rescued by the Cornick werewolves of Montana (this book doesn't really offer too much in details on that portion of the story, guess you'll have to rely on the novel to fill you in).
Bran Cornick is the "marrok" -- or basically the Godfather -- of ALL North American werewolves. His son, Charles, insists that newcomer Anna is an Omega wolf and claims her as his mate. But Anna is still struggling with some PTSD from her hellish experience in Chicago... and it seems there's also some more protocol ceremonial stuff to be done before these two are officially mated... so, in the meantime, they team up to try to track down and capture an elusive rogue werewolf who is on a murderous rampage lately, threatening the safety of the Cornick pack.
I have many friends who rave about Briggs' books and even though I'm a lover of the paranormal genre, I've never tried her books myself. Maybe because my personal interest gravitates to ghost stories over werewolves. Still, I found a bargain priced copy of this one and figured I'd finally give the woman's work a go. That said, I did notice that the title page notes "text adaptation by David Lawrence"... so maybe Briggs' name is just stamped on the cover because they're her characters but is Lawrence doing the actual story writing here? Not sure.
Plotwise, this fell short for me. I was left with so many questions. Granted, those questions might've been answered if I was an avid follower of this series in its novel form but as a Briggs newbie, I definitely felt out of the loop here. I also found it mildly irritating how everyone kept talking about what a superpower Omega Anna was, how strong and all that.. but her actions SCREAMED delicate, trembling snowflake most of the time. I realize there's only four issues in this collection but I didn't feel like I got a strong enough grasp on her character or what was supposed to be so amazing about her and I'm sorry, if you can't at least somewhat snag my curiosity by four issues, this series is probably not for me. To be honest, I was left not really giving a flip about ANY character in this story. Not. A. One.
Artwork: The issue covers for each section, done by Jenny Frison, were very nice. Clean, fluid lines, attractive color work.
The artwork within the issues themselves? Not so much. Todd Herman's art had an overall muddled look to me. What was going on with the faces? In nearly every shot, the characters look either angry, murderous, or even sometimes a little lecherous...even when it was a very average, uneventful conversation.. almost as if the act of conversing were the most painful thing ever. Everyone just walking around rockin' Joker faces at all times. Weird. Thankfully, this was toned down some by Issues 3-4.
The end of the book features a "Gallery" section where you can see samples of the artwork uncolored, initial sketches, etc. which I found interesting, especially when looking at the uncolored version of Issue 1 cover. It was nice with color, but I was surprised to see how much prettier I found the black and white sketch version.
Following the Gallery section is an excerpt from Patricia Briggs' novel FAIR GAME, so you can sample her writing style if you're a newbie to her work like me.
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