The Un-Men, Vol. 1: Get Your Freak On!

Un-Men #1

by John Whalen, Mike Hawthorne, Tomer Hanuka

Breakout writer John Whalen and Eisner-nominated artist Mike Hawthorne (THE EXTERMINATORS, Queen and Country) bring chilling new life to THE UN-MEN the former SWAMP THING adversaries created by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson with a series that explores what it means to be a freak in a society filled with gawkers. After a sideshow attraction called The Gill-Boy is murdered, an albino agent known as Kilcrop is dispatched by the government to solve the case. To uncover the truth, Kilcrop must infiltrate Aberrance, where society's most misshapen outcasts find their own kind of freedom.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Horror, Graphic Novels Comics, Science Fiction

128 pages, Paperback

Published April 22, 2008

About the author

John Whalen writes and edits books, comic books, and screenplays—comedy, satire, horror, crime, and fantasy and other stuffs.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars
Un-man was Un-good - Al

It was weird and not in a particularly good way.
I'm not even really sure what happened here. The Un-Men weren't at all interesting, despite everything about them being designed to catch your interest.
I'm not even sure how that's possible.



Honestly, this was just an incoherent mess of a plot with way too many things going on for its own good. And the end of this volume was just gibberish.
There's a reveal about the main character on the last page, but I just don't see how I could care any less.



The Un-Men are apparently Swamp Thing villains, but I've never heard of them, and nothing about this was accessible for a newbie to these guys. I'm guessing a lot of the charm of the story is going to depend on prior knowledge or inside jokes.
Either that, or it is just badly written.
Regardless, I'm definitely not going back for more.
I'm not saying this won't be for everyone but it wasn't for me.


This was a Halloween gift from a spooky Goodreads friend.
Thank you!

[Cale · Rating 2 out of 5]

The biggest positive for this book was that it made me want to revisit the alan Moore Swamp Thing era, which it is (very) loosely related to. The book itself was a turn-off in just about every way. It seems to exist solely as an excuse to create grotesqueries; while there is a story talking about 'freaks' and a society that accepts them, it decorates them with plans for a reality TV series and a series of murders of the original mutants. The characters are unlikable as a whole, with certain ones (Janus and Von Schadel) outright disgusting (and not just physically). It's all politics and corruption, with the secret behind the transformed individuals coming back to bite everyone. The action is acceptable but not particularly impressive; none of the characters is particularly sympathetic, and most of it plays out in a fairly standard way for this type of story. The artwork seems to revel in the disturbing and depraved. It may be enjoyable for some people, but it just didn't work for me at all.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was like a fun parody of the terrible remake of The Thing, done right, with some actually compelling conspiracy thrown in for good measure. I hope I can track down the other book.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

The mystery in the story took a goodly amount of time to unfold, but the "mystery" of the lead protagonist was and still is a non-event. The dialogue was pretty much stock from the usual comic-book cliches, and most if the characters were pretty throwaway/one-dimensional. Why are so many comic books so good with story ideas and art that moves the story along but so bad with execution (plotting, dialogue)?

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The kind of thing where I'd pick up volume two but I wouldn't make an effort for it. Aberrance is a town full of mutates and freaks, secretly taken over by the Un-Men (monsters from old Swamp Thing story). Now there's power struggles and religious struggles, none of which were very clear, and I'm not sure why they keep talking about fake freaks when they all appear to be real. Muddled, but interesting.

[Xavi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Que cosa más bizarra. A ver como continúa el segundo...

[Dony Grayman · Rating 3 out of 5]

TP USA. Tomo 1 de 2 que recopila la primera mitad de la fallida serie de Vertigo que más o menos vendría a ser un spinoff de la Swamp Thing primigenia.

[Brad · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the Vertigo universe, freaks get their own city (called Aberrence), their own reality TV show, their own Albino G-man, and their own convoluted storyline. See, a lot of the freaks aren't really genetic freaks, but just the result of bizarre experiments by the creepy Dr. Cranius.
This whole book is mostly creepy, with only small bits of humor and story. I kind of enjoyed the diabolical two-headed power-suited Janus, and the lady with wings was all right. Unfortunately, the plot really stops making sense after a few issues. This isn't a Vetigo series I think I'll be continuing.

[Ma'Belle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish more comics would start from this kind of political allegory stance (There's even an allusion to the eugenics movement!). But of course "you can't win 'em all," and as this series progressed into the second volume and introduced a transgendered character, it became less clear when the writer was trying to portray realistic biases against the protagonist "freaks" and when those biases rang true with the writer himself. There were moments that were really awesome, but were sprinkled with things that made me wince hard in offense.

[Fugo Feedback · Rating 3 out of 5]

La premisa, el guion, los personajes y la resolución están bastante buenos. Divierten, incomodan, despiertan curiosidad e interés. Donde baja bastante la calidad es en el dibujo, que en ningún momento logra retratar a estos "engendros" con la misma efectividad que el guion.Más bien al contrario. Así es como un hombre con aletas en lugar de extremidades me pareció simplemente un hombre sin extremidades durante muchas páginas, entre otras inexactitudes. Aun así, el resultado sigue siendo positivo, y aprueba con cómodas y merecidas tres estrellitas.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A silly, gross, but altogether engrossing graphic novel in the same grotesque vein as its original incarnation as a Swamp Thing side-show. While the ending could have been a little clearer, the overall plot, character development and exquisitely detailed and lush artwork more than make up for it. Pay attention to the minuscule background jokes that about in several scenes, evoking influences and rivals alike.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good. Interesting how Marvel do well with their mainstream heroes, but D.C. mostly produce bland crap with their iconic characters while channelling all their creativity into Vertigo titles like this one.

[Matt Buchholz · Rating 1 out of 5]

An uninspired (David) Lynchian concept filtered through painfully awkward noir dialog. Sometimes Vertigo gets it really wrong.

[Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listen to my review at http://vforvertigo.blogspot.com or on iTunes.

[Ming · Rating 1 out of 5]

The premise has promise, but the writing is really clunky, and the art is poor at visual storytelling (and really unattractive, to boot).

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Without having the Swamp Thing background, I definitely lost something. That being said, these were alright stories. At times the artwork faltered, that odd lumpiness that sometimes occurs.