A Hugo Review: Best Graphic Story - Vision, Volume 1: Little Worse Than A Man

Vision, Volume 1: Little Worse Than A Man is about androids trying to become human.

Whew, that was really bad. I mean, I knew going in that I'm not a big fan of Vision, but it only took a few pages for me to dislike this book intensely, and only a handful more to decide I really didn't want to read it. I kept on, hoping for a solid conclusion that would turn my head around. Maybe a twist I wasn't expecting that would drag the story up from the standard "oh, humans are so strange and it's hard to be like them" tropes. I didn't get it. In fact, I failed to get anything more than the standard cliches out of this, and no proper ending.

The good: I honestly can't think of anything I enjoyed. It was endless, mindless moralizing that has been done far better in other media. Even Red Dwarf handled the "what does it mean to be human" storyline better than this. I suppose the art wasn't terrible - but it was pretty standard.

The bad: The stories were dreadful rehashes of every argument you've ever heard about synthetic beings and humanity. The murder was not only predictable, it was dumb. The fact that someone saw the burying was so cliche I think I felt my cliche-meter break. The problems the kids had in school were all bog standard. I don't know how many stories I've read or seen about robots trying to become human, but this book managed to hit every single common theme and added nothing to any of it.

Conclusion: This isn't worthy of a Hugo. It's not going to be on my ballot.

Best Graphic Story: I've read Ms. Marvel, The Vision, and Saga. I need to read Black Panther, Monstress, and Paper Girls.

Reviews of 2017 Hugo Finalists