Roku

Roku #1-4

by Cullen Bunn, Ramón F. Bachs (Illustrator)

In order to save a life, she'll have to kill a lot of people.

Once she was MI-6 agent Angelina Alcott, but Angelina died and all that's left is Roku. Honed to razor edge lethality, and enhanced with dark arts and looks that kill, she's become the ultimate underworld assassin. But now, the deadliest woman on the planet is about to be confronted with a target even she can't bring herself to kill…

Roku hits her mark right here in a bloody thrill ride with New York Times bestselling writer Cullen Bunn (Venom) and stunning artist Ramón F. Bachs (Detective Comics)!

Collecting ROKU #1–4.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Science Fiction

112 pages, Paperback

First published March 24, 2020

About the author

Cullen grew up in rural North Carolina, but now lives in the St. Louis area with his wife Cindy and his son Jackson. His noir/horror comic (and first collaboration with Brian Hurtt), The Damned, was published in 2007 by Oni Press. The follow-up, The Damned: Prodigal Sons, was released in 2008. In addition to The Sixth Gun, his current projects include Crooked Hills, a middle reader horror prose series from Evileye Books; The Tooth, an original graphic novel from Oni Press; and various work for Marvel and DC. Somewhere along the way, Cullen founded Undaunted Press and edited the critically acclaimed small press horror magazine, Whispers from the Shattered Forum.

All writers must pay their dues, and Cullen has worked various odd jobs, including Alien Autopsy Specialist, Rodeo Clown, Professional Wrestler Manager, and Sasquatch Wrangler.

And, yes, he has fought for his life against mountain lions and he did perform on stage as the World's Youngest Hypnotist. Buy him a drink sometime, and he'll tell you all about it.

Visit his website at www.cullenbunn.com.

Reviews

[Lukasz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Roku...Roku has a killer haircut. Literally. She shreds her targets to pieces with it. She throws knives with it. She dismembers others with it.

Roku, you see, is the deadliest weapon on Earth. She overcomes armies of goons in short, blood-spattered action scenes.

Visually engaging but weakly plotted.

ARC through NetGalley

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have to say I've been a bit disappointed in Valiant comics since DMG took over. That trend continues here. Roku is an overpowered assassin with Medusa like hair and the ability to control minds. The plot is generic with lots of random action. Bachs's art is kind of terrible. There are zero backgrounds in over half the book. The figure art is boring and pedestrian. The whole thing feels phoned in. Cullen Bunn continues his trend of lackluster comics for other publishers and great creator owned ones.

Received a review copy from Valiant and NetGalley. All thoughts are my own and in no way influenced by the aforementioned.

[Erika Sarutobi · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story is overly cliche with nothing new to the mix besides the superpowers that were introduced. The artstyle was fine but not my cup of tea.

Roku is an assassin that's over powered and defeats everyone with her hair and telepathic powers. Despite the bad guy being able to control sharp stuff including her hair, she still managed to beat him by throwing him off the elevator, like that's gonna kill him. He obviously comes back but she manages to defeat him easily (despite her mentioning she barely "made it out") and keeps him alive to share the lies she implanted in his head.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with the digital copy for an honest review.

[Xavier Hugonet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roku, a graphic novel written by Cullen Bunn, auteur extraordinaire, especially on his creator owned works such as the terrific Harrow County.

On this title, he teamed up with artist Ramón F. Bachs, colorist Stéphane Paitreau, and letterer Dave Sharpe.

This mini-series could have been titled « The Girl Who Knew Too Much ».

Roku is a character initially created by Matt Kindt and Clay Mann for the valiant comic Ninjak. However, this series requires no previous knowledge of the character, and is hence a perfect jumping on point.

Formerly Angelina Alcott, Roku was an agent of MI-6. She died, and was resurrected, but altered. Deprived of her memories, of empathy and compassion, mystically enhanced with psychic abilities (mind reading, mind control, and telekinesis), she’s been made the deadliest assassin in the World.

When her first mini begins, she’s acting as a freelance assassin. After a successful mission, she’s tasked with retrieving a mysterious weapon about to be put up for auction in Moscow.

The nature of this particular and extremely dangerous weapon will put Roku face to face with her past, and make her question her life.

This graphic novel is non-stop genetic and tech powered action, with an hint of espionage. Rather unusual for Cullen Bunn, this is a comic of little words. The art isn’t very detailed which, combined with a fast paced story, makes for a little too quick read. However, the action sequences are well executed, served by an adequate layout. Furthermore, the colors are vibrant, and they render particularly well when seen on a digital device.

Read in TPB form, some recaps are a little repetitive, but do not distract too much from the unfolding story.

The ending is clever, and sets up what could become a very interesting series. However, I have the feeling it would be better served as a series of minis, rather than a monthly that might stretch it too much.

Thanks to Netgalley, Valiant Entertainment, & Diamond Books Distributor for the ARC provided in exchange for this unbiased review.

[BellaGBear · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fun book for people who love action comics, especially the assasin kind. However, in the first volume I did not read many things that made me want to read the next volumes. The drawing style is nice and dynamic. However, the characters are just another band of assasins

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 2 out of 5]

My experience with Valiant superheroes tends to be that they have poorly defined superpowers, which then means they get overextended, which then means the heroes tend to be overpowered.

So here we have Roku, who has been 'altered' so she can telekinetically use her hair as a weapon - edged weapons to be precise. There's a lot of gory stabbing (it is written by Cullen Bunn, who does like his gore). But wait, there's more! She also has telepathic powers that are so vaguely defined they can be ridiculously useful when the plot demands it.

These unclear parameters mean it is made hard for the reader to assess the stakes properly. It doesn't help that Roku isn't a very engaging character. She describes herself as an emotionless assassin, and that isn't half as interesting as some writers think it sounds.

The most engaging character, as far as I'm concerned, is Marybeth, a young girl who constantly receives limitless information from the dark web, surveillance, etc. You could do a lot with that idea - she basically has a limited power to predict the immediate future. Not that anything like that happens in this book, although there are hints towards it.

The art is.. functional. There are a lot of fight scenes, and they're pretty easy to follow. The overall design of the characters is a bit bland.

Roku will return, apparently. Not sure I will be there to meet her.

(Received an ARC through Netgalley)

[Josema · Rating 3 out of 5]

Acción, espionaje y conspiraciones en una historia entretenida sobre agentes con habilidades extraordinarias.

[Ruthsic · Rating 2 out of 5]

Warnings: physical and gun violence

Killer assassin with some killer hair sent on a mission to get an asset for her anonymous employers but instead decides to protect the girl she has been sent to retrieve, is a nice concept, but unfortunately that's the extent of this graphic novel. It felt mostly a collection of cliches - enhanced assassins, killer with a heart, a person from the past, a powerful child to protect, other powered assassins coming after and our main character having to fight them - and it doesn't do anything with the character herself. Roku's characterization is so minimal you don't even know why she hesitates to complete her mission - obvious, yes, as it is a child, but not for a top cold-blooded assassin who supposedly doesn't have any memories. Value for human life isn't exactly one of her strong points when the story starts with her causing a shootout in a club just to get her target. The character who recognizes her from the past also doesn't fill in much details, and the other assassins who come after her also lack much personality. The fight scenes were meh, and the telekinetic hair may have been the only exciting thing about it. The ending wrapped up the mission storyline well enough, though, so I guess it has that going for it.

Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review from Valiant Entertainment, via Edelweiss.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really weak, generic crap. Roku is an enhanced assassin with hair that can turn into knives or be used to strangle people with? She's trying to capture/protect a young girl who can tie her mind into the Internet, as well as peoples' thoughts? It's all pretty underdone and the artwork is pretty bad, too. When Bunn wants to, he can write a good comic (6th Gun, Harrow County), but more often than not, he just seems to be on cruise control with stuff like this...

[Theediscerning · Rating 1 out of 5]

Meet Roku. Yes, you're right, she does sound like a music app, but she's a deadly woman with the most risibly lethal hair. She can strangle people with it, stab two human skulls with but one thrust of it, all while using the rest to write a better script than this book gets. Issue one shows her in action, while the arc builds into letting us see what happens when she tries to steal a super-weapon before all the Doctor Nyets and Neins of this world fight over it at auction. What happens includes the presence of a Magneto Lite, who can mentally manipulate lots of stabby things. The whole book is pure trash, of the kind that thinks it gets serious when it interrupts things to have Roku yacking to herself about how she was dead once. The only serious it gets is seriously bad, and it stays that way throughout – even for Valiant, it's poor.

[Jenn Marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Roku is about the ultimate assassin. But will she follow through on her latest job? Or is it too much to ask?

Cullen Bunn is one of my favorite writers. I love his work with Deadpool, Bone Parish, Dark Ark, Empty Man. Roku is different than what I am used to, just because I love his horror stuff so much. That being said, Roku was still amazing.

The art by Ramon F Bachs is a perfect compliment to Bunn's story. Everything looks great and when combined with Stephanie Paitreau's colors I was blown away from page 1.

Creative Team
Writer Cullen Bunn
Art Ramon F Bachs
Colors Stephanie Paitreau
Letters Dave Menchel

[47Time · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought Roku was an evil character. She is pretty cool in this story. She has mad skills and does the right thing in the end. Sure, she kills people, sometimes brutally. We don't often get that with superheroes. Or supervillains, for that matter.

The bounty hunter Roku is quite effective thanks to her hair that she can control with deadly accuracy. Her telepathy and telekinesis are also useful. She gets a well-paid mission to acquire an item from an auction. She encounters another hitgirl who seems to know her past. She steers clear to focus on her mission. Her target is a girl named Marybeth who also knows her past. Things only get more complicated from this point on.

The hitgirl turns out to be Ember-1, Roku's former partner at MI6. Roku's real identity was Angelina Alcott, before she was killed by the Agents of the Shadow Seven and resurrected with her memories replaced by an identity designed to make her into an efficient killer.

The Minister of Blades makes Roku look like a bloody mess before she throws him down an elevator shaft. Then Ember strikes again and flees with Marybeth. Roku retrieves the girl on the train to Minsk. Roku and Ember are forced into a temporary alliance when Blades attacks again. They each want Marybeth because of her ability to receive information seamlessly from many sources. Blades doesn't shy away from killing her, though. But then Roku destroys her implant.

In reality, Roku used her telepathy to make it seem like Marybeth was dead. The latter is alive and Roku needs her to get revenge on her employers.

[La Gran Biblioteca de David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Angelina Alcott era una agente del MI-6 pero murió. Todo lo que queda de esa mujer es Roku. Un arma letal, una asesina entrenada, sin corazón, sin remordimientos y sin recuerdos. Alterada con artes oscuras, es la mejor asesina, todo bajo un precio, pero cuando recibe un encargo todo va a cambiar.

Roku es un personaje con dos caras. Al principio es una mujer sin sentimientos, fría, calculadora, que vive solo para cumplir su misión y matar. Pero como a la mitad del tomo, esta sufre un cambio radical y comienza a plantearse una serie de dudas en torno a su personalidad, quién fue y qué está haciendo ahora. Es un personaje con más oscuridad que luz, pero apasionante desde el punto de vista psicológico.

En este tomo vamos a encontrar que la fuerza recae en la acción, siempre continua y en aumento, frente al diálogo, más escaso que lo primero. Lo más interesante son los momentos donde vemos los pensamientos de Roku. Esto nos ayuda a meternos en su cabeza, en su completa psique, y hace que podamos empatizar.

El apartado artístico es excelente, un dibujo con mucha acción y movimiento. Se trata de un dibujo que bebe de los clásicos de los cómics de superhéroes. El trabajo resultante es muy fluido, casi como una película se tratara. La única objeción es el fondo, el cual está ausente en algunas escenas, pero no es nada grave.

https://lagranbibliotecadedavid.blogs...

[Nina (the fussy reader) · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 *
It was alright.

First off, I liked how quickly we dived into the action.
There was no hanging around before introducing us to Roku.

It’s very visual and the artwork is great. There’s something reminiscent of retro comics about it. Bright with vivid colour and lots of action sequences.

I have a soft spot for the female assassin trope, though it can be a little iffy. It’s been done so often so I feel like the trope has to be particularly spectacular to stand out. Unfortunately, I don’t think this brought anything new to the table. It’s an idea that’s been explored many times, so in the end, they all start to sound the same.

Roku’s hair was interesting. It has a lie of its own and she uses it as a weapon. It’s a cool idea, but there were times the artwork of the hair was a little overkill. Tone it down a little, like, I get the point. It’s dangerous and there’s a lot of it.

But she seems to have all these other strange powers that are showcased early on, but not explained. I felt a bit lost at the beginning. This almost feels like a volume 2. Like I should already know all this stuff and already be acquainted with Roku’s personality.

Not the most original idea I’ve ever read, but still a fun read. And I’m all up for ore badass females in books.

I received a digital copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Roku's not the first character I expected to see in her own solo series; her origin is so intrinsically tied to Ninjak and his world that having her strike out on her own feels odd. There's also the fact that she's a little softer than we're used to, which feels a bit jarring as well. The whole series has this air of 'this'd be a good story to tell for almost any other character'. You could swap Roku out for someone else and it'd probably play out exactly the same.

The supporting characters feel a bit bland as well. There's a few foils for Roku who never really get expanded upon, and the most interesting character doesn't live all the way to the end, so that's a shame. Plus Cullen Bunn seems to have forgotten that Roku can start fires with her hair, so she becomes a vaguely psychic Medusa-esque assassin.

Ramon Bachs' art is serviceable, if a bit plain. There's not very much energy to it, but I think this lies more in the colours than the pencils, since the black and white inked pages in the back of the trade feel much more solid.

This is fine, and not in the 'Dog sitting in a burning room' kind of fine. It's just fine. The most middle of the range, 3 star book you can get, which is...fine. But fine doesn't make you memorable, and Roku deserves a lot better.

[Wayne McCoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

'Roku' by Cullen Bunn with art by Ramon F. Bachs is an action driven comic about a killer hairstyle.

Roku is MI-6 agent Angelina Alcott brought back to life as lethal assassin. She has the art of using her hair as a living weapon. She is sent to recover a young girl with an even stranger power, she is the living embodiment of the internet, specifically the dark web. Roku finds that she is not the only assassin sent to retrieve this particular package and finds her loyalties questioned.

That plot could have been the first book, but was stretched out over multiple issues. It's certainly action packed and moves along pretty quickly, but there's not a whole lot here I cared about when it was all said and done. The art is passable, but lacks background details, so it feels a bit flat at times.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Valiant Entertainment, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

[J Earl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Roku is a fun little read. The art is nice and the story is fairly straightforward. Given the skills that the "secret weapon" possesses I would have liked to have seen the story get a little deeper. This didn't have to turn into full-fledged social commentary but making some kind of statement about what the girl represents within our actual society would have added some thought-provoking elements rather than just a generic assassin tale. What commentary is this about our current surveillance state that we live in, especially given that the girl admits that she just picks stuff up all around, not from any web connection, dark or otherwise.

I did enjoy it and will read the next one, should it come out, but I am not waiting impatiently for it.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[msliterary · Rating 3 out of 5]

What drew me to Roku is the visually stunning cover. The art is amazing but that is about all Roku has going for it. I gave it a generous three stars because it wasn't all bad it just wasn't mind blowing. Roku is a solid attempt at a graphic novel with all the makings of a great story but it sadly lacks in depth. Nothing is ever really explained and you, the reader, are just thrown in the deep end and expected to make your own conclusions. There is a lot to be said about massive info dumps at the beginning of stories but at the same time at least give the reader something to go on. Roku just came off as one note and lackluster to me and it did not leave me needing to know more, as any good tale should.

[Amit Verma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roku ( Angelina) was dead and someone revived her and converted her into fearsome assasign.
She kills in a eye blink and has got exceptional powers.
She is on a mission to retrieve most dangerous weapon for her boss.
To get there there are many groups after the same target.
Story is very interesting. It maintains thril throughout.
Artwork is marvellous.
Emotions are painted clearly on face of characters and fight scenes are lively.
And climax is justified and paves basis for another action packed comic.
Roku is out for many more exciting adventures.

[Almasy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great art, likeable main character personality, decent plot. I feel this is a very good "grab your attention" sort of preview that makes you want more. I, for one, would love to keep reading the series. I would love for more background and world building. Diving more into individual characters. That's one thing I always love about graphic novels. Depth.
It's not perfect, the main character is too overpowered for my taste. The main antagonist was kind of lame and it's pretty predictable. But It's still overall enjoyable.
Thank you for the advanced copy.

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

In many ways an attempt to do a female Ninja-K from the same universe.

Lots of fighting and mysterious backstory, but hard to really get into with a background of a hero we are not really connected to.

[Elia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I mean, it's basically Medusa from Inhumans being a hired assassin. Do we really need two super-chicks with red hair that also happens to basically be sentient death-hair? I don't think we do.

[Sarah]

I haven't read the book, I just wanted to say that the name change was both clever and lazy because roku is '6' in Japanese.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting story, complex characters and kickin graphics!

[Ribrarian Not · Rating 3 out of 5]

Libro de historietas con ISBN. Tomo único.

[Mario · Rating 3 out of 5]

Se me queda muy corto

[Kami · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring, forgettable, unoriginal, shallow emotion.

[Kapitol Tank · Rating 2 out of 5]

Traduce los 4 números de la irregular miniserie de Valiant.
La traducción deja bastante que desear.

[Dony Grayman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Edición supuestamente argentina que repite ISBN de la española.