When Elle starts at a new school, she immediately makes friends with a group of four other students. Things are going well for a few weeks until Elle is confronted by a variety of stressful triggers and starts acting differently. Her friends think these might be different versions of Elle peeking through various emotions, but are confused and hurt but Elle’s actions. Maelys, one of Elle’s new friends, isn’t ready to give up on their friendship, though, and starts working with Elle to identify these other personalities and how to control them. As they start to put together clues, things about Elle’s past don’t add up and she has even more questions than before. Meanwhile, inside Elle’s head, a blue version of her wants to be in charge and is the one activating the other personalities to cause mischief.
Volume two continues the story of Elle’s main personalities, Rose and Blue. Rose is now stuck in her subconscious looking for a way out while Blue is in control of Elle’s body. Rose finds herself traveling thorough each part of her subconscious, learning more about her other personalities while trying to find her way out. Maelys is sure that this Elle isn’t her friend and tries to talk to Blue about the changes she and their other friends have noticed. When Blue won’t listen, Maelys tries something drastic to help her friend.
The best part of these two volumes is the use of color. The artist did a brilliant job using color to show the reader the six distinct personalities of Elle across both volumes. Besides being integral to character development, the colors are bright and vibrant and create the perfect atmosphere for each part of the story, even the sad and tense moments. I also like the variation of panel layouts and how those affect the pacing of the story. There are lots of small, short panels to indicate faster pacing while full page panels have the reader slowing down to admire the details and think about the story.
I highly recommend this series to any reader over the age of ten. Although each volume is just under 100 pages, the subject of multiple personalities and exploring feelings and anxiety can get heavy. The main characters are young teenagers, so there is also plenty of regular teenage angst in the mix as well as the mystery of Elle’s personalities. It looks like there are only two volumes planned at this time, so I’d like to note that many of the story threads are wrapped up in volume two, but readers may want to spend longer in this world exploring Elle’s head space.
Elle(s), vol 1: The New Girl Elle(s), vol 2: The Elle-verse By Kid Toussaint Art by Aveline Stokart Ablaze, 2022 vol 1 ISBN: 9781684970933 vol 2 ISBN: 9781684971282
Publisher Age Rating: 12+ NFNT Age Recommendation: Teen (13-16), Tween (10-13)
Deep within the mountains of northern Spain lies a hidden temple. Here, the secret order known as the Knights of Heliopolis labor to shepherd the destiny of humanity and guide them towards enlightenment. As selective as they are secretive, the Knights of Heliopolis make up for their lack of numbers in divine power, having mastered true and holy alchemy and acquired the secret of long life.
Set in an alternate 18th century, the story opens as the ten Knights of Heliopolis on Earth are preparing to induct a new member to their order, a youth known to them only as Seventeen. After Seventeen completes the final trial to secure their place among them, Seventeen’s master, Fulcanelli, reveals the secrets that made it necessary for him to hide Seventeen’s identity and origins from the rest of the Knights. For Seventeen is Louis XVII, the secret child of Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI of France!
This is a matter of great import, as the Knights of Heliopolis’s gifts include the power of prophecy. Their dogma speaks of the coming need for a warrior who must balance both the masculine and feminine aspects of themselves—along with body and soul—to save the world from the Knights’ greatest mistake, a would-be emperor now known as Napoleon, who has corrupted their guidance and teachings in a bid to make himself into an immortal god-king that will rule the Earth forever! In addition to their royal lineage, Seventeen is also of great interest due to being intersex (within the text referred to by the historical term “hermaphrodite”).
The Knights of Heliopolis is an interesting graphic novel that is hard to pin down into a single genre. It is a work of alternative history and includes several historical figures among its cast, yet it is far more fanciful than most alternate history works. Yet those fantastic elements and the Alchemy employed by the Knights are based on real-world mystic traditions. It also draws upon several literary works, most notably The Man in the Iron Mask. Throw in a little bit of science-fiction in the fourth and final chapter (as the Knights are revealed to have acquired their knowledge from ancient aliens) and you have a book whose setting is both familiar in many respects yet uniquely its own beast.
The script by Alejandro Jodorowsky is more concerned with mythology than character development. The Knights do not get much in the way of personality apart from Louis XVII. Even then, their chief conflict centers around their belief that they are destined to destroy Napoleon yet love him as a fellow mutant manipulated by fate. Thankfully, the story is engaging, and the ideas put forth intriguing.
The artwork by Belgian artist Jérémy is simply stunning. Intricately detailed and beautifully colored, Jérémy does a fantastic job of depicting the various period costumes as the story progresses from the French Revolution through World War II. The action sequences are well-blocked and even the static conversations seem eternally active.
Knights of Heliopolis is rated for audiences 17+ and that is a fair rating. The book is full of sex and violence and does not shy away from the gritty details of both. There is full frontal nudity of men and women, several sexual assaults and severely grisly deaths and dissections. This book is not for children or the faint of heart, but it is memorable and well worth reading if you are a fan of alternative history tales.
Knights of Heliopolis By Alejandro Jodorowsky Art by Jérémy Titan Comics, 2021 ISBN: 9781787736085 Publisher Age Rating: 17+
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+) Creator Representation: Belgian, Chilean, French Character Representation: French, Bisexual, Intersex
One otherwise ordinary day, five teenagers suddenly find themselves with the ability to mentally access all recorded public knowledge. Research studies, the entire Internet, every book and movie ever made… it’s all in their heads.
Four of the teens reveal their powers immediately and become media sensations before being whisked away to a safe house by the FBI. It seems great: they have a fancy villa to themselves, they’re world-famous, and they’ll never have to go back to school. But the fifth teen hangs back, not trusting the authorities. She’s right not to: some members of the FBI have sinister plans for these teens, and a secret organization is also desperate to get its hands on them. Will all the world’s recorded knowledge be enough to keep “the omniscients” safe? And how did they come to have this power, anyway?
Despite the series title, the teens aren’t actually omniscient. Most of them can only pull up information that is public knowledge, meaning their ability is not that much more useful than having a smartphone. One, however, can access information that is more private, like police reports, while another can see events in the recent past, even if they have not been recorded. The boundaries of their powers and the differences between them are a little fuzzy, with the teens not trying to parse or explain them until very late in the book. Still, their abilities have interesting implications, from telling them the locations of security cameras to effectively spoiling the ending of every book and movie in existence.
While they all live in America, the five teens hail from very different families and situations, as well as different races. One is the child of successful lawyers; one is an undocumented immigrant separated from his parents; one is the overworked and underappreciated daughter of a family struggling on the edge of poverty. These differences shape how they react to their new abilities and changing situations.
No single character emerges as the main protagonist of this story, though Jessica, the skeptical girl who does not rush to reveal her powers and join the other four, gets more solo page time than the rest. The book jumps between points of view, including not just the titular “omniscients,” but FBI agents and members of the secret organization that is after the teens. There are also brief, intriguing glimpses of an anonymous person who may be connected to how the teens got their abilities.
This volume has virtually no violence. Any tense situations are all comfortably resolved by the end (though there are hints that the mystery of these new powers will continue to be explored). There is no nudity or sexuality unless you count a couple of random guys hitting on Jessica. No romance, either—perhaps surprising for a story where a group of teens is thrown together with danger, superpowers, and little supervision. The complexity—and things like the FBI alluding to preparing “a little Guantanamo” for the teens—push this toward teen, rather than kid, territory. At the same time, there is some clumsy exposition, with characters explaining things to people who would already know them.
The art is detailed, clear, and expressive. The characters are realistic, and their poses, expressions, and movement feel natural, but with a slight comic-book exaggeration for emphasis. They are all distinct and easy to recognize. The backgrounds are fittingly realistic, detailed without being cluttered, and good use is made of color to add to the mood of various scenes and settings.
This is a mostly gentle story of five teens brought together by the strange power that changed their lives. They aren’t exactly superheroes; as of yet, they aren’t fighting crime, just trying to figure out their own circumstances. Fans of supernatural stories with relatable, good-hearted protagonists—and nothing too scary—might enjoy this volume.
The Omniscients, vol 1: Phenomena By Vincent Dugomier Art by Renata Castellani, Benoît Bekaert, Europe Comics, 2020 ISBN: 9791032811191
NFNT Age Recommendation: Teen (13-16), Tween (10-13) Creator Representation: Belgian, Italian Character Representation: African-American, Latinx
When Elle starts at a new school, she immediately makes friends with a group of four other students. Things are going well for a few weeks until Elle is confronted by a variety of stressful triggers and starts acting differently. Her friends think these might be different versions of Elle peeking through various emotions, but are confused and hurt but Elle’s actions. Maelys, one of Elle’s new friends, isn’t ready to give up on their friendship, though, and starts working with Elle to identify these other personalities and how to control them. As they start to put together clues, things about Elle’s past don’t add up and she has even more questions than before. Meanwhile, inside Elle’s head, a blue version of her wants to be in charge and is the one activating the other personalities to cause mischief. 
