Graphic Novel Review--"Liberty: Deception."

When I attended Wizard World Saint Louis recently I actually talked with the folk behind the comic, "Liberty: Deception," but didn't mention them in any posts as I completely forgot to take their information (fliers, etc.) which is how I always keep track of the people I interact with at cons. However, I had given them my card so when they reached-out to me about if I'd like to have a digital copy of, "Liberty: Deception," sent over for the purposes I review I gave them my standard spiel about how I'll express an honest opinion about the comic that may upset them but would otherwise welcome the chance to read some good indie-publisher stuff (I'm reading so, so much less of Marvel and DC  lately and love good independent works more and more). Hence, a digital copy was provided and I delved into, "Liberty: Deception." What were my thoughts? Read on and find out, obviously!

An Uncomfortably Possible Premise (Besides the Sci-Fi Parts)

"Liberty: Deception," centers its story on a man named Tertulius Justus, an investigator for the Government of the terraformed planet Atrian. Justus is famed for his incredible combat skills, amazing deductive mind, and ability to make any lady swoon in seduced delight. Except, that is all a complete lie. Justus actually was just some underachieving kid who was given-over to the totalitarian Government by his parents in the hope he would have a better life. After that, the Planet's Government (controlled by the mysterious Archon Reeve who helped Atrian become as successful as it supposedly is) concocted an elaborate back-story for, "Justus," and made-up countless lies about his fighting for the people of Atrian when in fact all the television shows and stories about his exploits are utterly fake--he's just some actor pretending to be a planetary-hero.

There is something that feels uncomfortably possible about the idea that someone could be used by an evil Government as little more than a piece of propaganda, with their lies helping keeping the populace subdued and willing to ignore just how few rights they have because they are at least sufficiently entertained. This sort of thing has undoubtedly happened in a number of countries and the United States has had its own accusations of being dominated by politically-motivated media that is, "Fake news," as some say. I'm sure the team behind, "Liberty: Deception," had been working on it long before things got the way they currently are politically, but it just so happens their book has come out at a disturbingly perfect time that what once would have seemed far-fetched now feels nauseatingly conceivable.

It Only Gets Stranger!

This disturbingly realistic idea immediately hooked me into the story and it only got stranger as Justus is suddenly fired from his job and then abducted with the plan clearly being to murder him--the story hints that the shadowy Government perhaps worries their star is becoming a bit too beloved. This takes our story to the prison where Justus was going to be killed before all the guards realize who he is and figure he must be doing a deep-cover assignment (a lie which Justus is only too happy to further). From that point on Justus assembles a group with some other actual convicts and they make their way out of the prison to the no-man's land known as the Fringe.

I enjoyed watching Justus and his rag-tag team escape from prison, but right as things got really interesting with more of the Government's motivations revealed and everyone making it to the miserable place known as the Fringe, the book reached its end until the next one comes out! This was a real downer as while I enjoy a good prison-break story I found myself even more interested in all the secret corruption and how God-awful the Fringe looked. In the story itself Justus states he knows he has zero clue how to survive out in the Fringe as all the stories about him are lies, so I especially would have loved to see more of how this faux-hero struggles when he actually has to fight for survival.

More Cool Content

Thankfully, my thirst for more content set in the world of, "Liberty: Deception," can be sated as the good folk behind the comic actually also do in-continuity podcasts which tell cool stories about this sci-fi Universe. Plus, they also have a free role-playing game fans can do to create their own snazzy adventures! I personally like that this story isn't simply limited to a comic but exists in multiple formats for people to enjoy, as I am of course someone who loves creative concepts like this!

I greatly enjoyed reading, "Liberty: Deception," even if I found myself a bit perturbed that right when it really was getting going the story had to end on its cliff-hanger of wondering what the team will do next (or if they'll even survive in the Fringe long enough to make a plan). That said, I would rate, "Liberty: Deception," as a highly enjoyable...
4 out of 5 stars.

A digital copy of, "Liberty: Deception," was provided for the purposes of review.

All My Wizard World Posts Collected!--Wizard World Saint Louis 2017 In Review

To make things easier on folk who hate scrolling through articles, he is a master-list of my posts discussing Wizard World Saint Louis 2017 in chronological order...

1. My article discussing all the upcoming posts.
2. The superb cosplay I enjoyed.
3. All the cool stuff I bought.
4. The equally-cool people I met.
5. My overall thoughts on this year's convention.

I hope everyone enjoyed reading my posts!

Overall Thoughts--Wizard World Saint Louis 2017 in Review

A Strange First Five Minutes

Get it? The Arch and, "Gateway?"

I've been inside the main convention-center of Wizard World for all of 5 minutes and Kato Kaelin is jokingly yelling at me not to answer the trivia question he just posed to a clearly flustered older-gentleman in a Saint Louis Blues hat. I'm evidently clearly struggling to not yell, "The Baxter Building," to the query of where the Fantastic Four live and neither the older guy or the young kid dressed as the television-version of Barry Allen from, "The Flash," know the answer. I don't really want the t-shirt that they'll win, but it is just getting awkward to see these two guys get all these questions of varying difficulty that they don't know the answer to (and it doesn't help the man dressed as a DC character gets all the Marvel questions and the older guy probably was just coming with some grand-kids who like this stuff and got roped into doing trivia). So yeah, Kato is playfully yelling at me to be quiet and this Wizard World is clearly going to be weird.

For those of you unaware, Kato is most famous for being a small-time actor who was friends with OJ Simpson and staying in OJ's guest-house the night OJ left town/possibly murdered his ex-wife Nicole and Ron Goldman beforehand. So yes, Kato is arguably famous for not being murdered by OJ Simpson. This pop-culture relevance apparently made him the perfect MC for Wizard World Saint Louis and to his credit he was very nice and unlike most celebrities/"celebrities" at the show did not want to charge me to take a photo. Observe:

I was at Wizard World for a bit Late Friday and a good Chunk of Saturday, but my first five minutes of Wizard World Saint Louis 2017 encapsulated everything in itself as it was a mixture of fun, weird, and off-putting. Hey, let's use that for a header!

A Mixture of Fun, Weird, and Off-Putting

There were five actual vendors of comic-books at this Wizard World, which is ostensibly a comic-con but really more like a popular-culture convention. I'm not saying that to be negative, it just is worth observing that if you came to the show planning to look through long and short-boxes as well as shelves for cool comics, there wasn't much in the way of retail. I of course had the majority of my fun hanging-out in, "Artist's Alley," where the lot of stuff that appeals to me is found. Most of cool people I met or stuff I got occurred thanks to Artists' Alley or one of the few retailers.

It's not like I hate having random celebrities at this convention--it is par for the course that Wizard World gets random folk to come and sign autographs, but for every person who made sense--Kevin Conroy, the voice of Batman--there was someone random like Butch Patrick who played Eddie on, "The Munsters." I liked that show and his booth looked lonely so I went over to say hi and tell him about my enjoyment when it was on, "Nick at Nite." He thanked me and then some assistant insistently said, "This guy looks like he wants an autograph!" I had zero intention of paying Butch Patrick 40 dollars to give me a signed t-shirt so I politely worked my way out of that situation.

Butch, tell your assistant to cool it with pressuring folk to buy autographs. 

As that awkward moment illustrates, Wizard World had a weird assortment of folk who had next-to-nothing to do with comics and there weren't really any, "Celebrities," known specifically for comic-book work. Yes, we had plenty of cool creators of stuff in Artist's Alley, but what does Gene Simmons have to do with comic-books besides how sometimes comics have been made about KISS? Again though, I know that Wizard World is billing itself as less of a comic-book covention and more of a popular-culture convention. That said, if you can't manage to go as press like me it can be horrifically expensive, so get ready to shell out the cash to get parked, get in, and then buy an autograph from a random celebrity.

This sounds negative, and I don't mean to sound that way, it is just that some of the convention was off-putting as I mention in my header. I still had a great time talking with an assortment of vendors, all the cool folk in Artists' Alley, and I spent some time with friends from my comic-club enjoying the show. It was a fun time even if it was full of weird and off-putting moments as well. I would for sure go again, but with basically every year since the first one the focal point is less-and-less comics and more just a general celebration of popular culture.

I'm okay with Wizard World not being about comics as much though, because there is a show like the upcoming, "Saint Louis Comic-Con," which has me really excited to go to a con with an actual comic-book specificity. It'll be in its 2nd year now, was a ton of fun last time, and is very well-priced. I'm not throwing shade at Wizard World, but I do know a number of people who didn't go to it this year, forgoing attendance instead for Saint Louis Comic-Con. Both are very different shows with separate identities and concepts, but if you want something centered on comics this is a great place to go. This year they actually have Chris Claremont coming, so that is rad!

Honestly, if you can afford it you should continue to go to the Wizard World shows and the more comic-based ones like Saint Louis Comic-Con. Both are fun in different ways, and while in all honesty the comic-loving part of me gets a lot more excited for this Summer, the aspect of me that enjoys general popular-culture had a great time at Wizard World too. In summary, "Fun, weird, and off-putting," is both a sentence I am overusing for this article, and extremely apt. I hope to get to go as press again next year and if I do I'll make sure to write extensively about it!

Cosplay I Liked--Wizard World Saint Louis 2017 In Review

Fun In Costume

During my time at Wizard World Saint Louis 2017 I saw a lot of cosplay. I estimate about 50% of it was the Suicide-Squad Harley Quinn getup featuring a baseball bat and, "Daddy's Little Monster," jacket. I don't begrudge people for liking that outfit, but it isn't exactly creative (except for the middle-aged man fully decked-out in that clothing, that was fun). I myself don't cosplay but always enjoy seeing it. I am weird about what really grabs my attention as there isn't much of a rhyme or reason outside of, "That looks really cool to me." I have here for you to examine the cosplay that struck me enough I asked to take a photo and put it on the blog.

The Cosplay

Let's start off with someone dressed as my favorite character, Moon Knight! Such a great hero and such a great costume!

Besides Moon Knight there are some more Marvel heroes you are sure to find out patrolling the streets. Heroes such as Daredevil and Luke Cage.

Taking a break from comics, this D.VA getup was great! I saw other people dressed as D.VA when she is out of her mech, but this was the only cosplayer in a mech. As she said when I told her this, "Well, I think the mech is the best part!"

Deathstroke was on-site representing the mercenary life.

I almost got cut by Wolverine!

As someone who loves the, "Rick and Morty," television show I loved this duo. I saw other Ricks at the show, but nobody else had Rick and Morty so mad props there.

These two cosplayers made a stellar Spider-Gwen and Venom--love his fangs!

Last but not least, my good friend Greg from my Comic Book Club went as Doctor Strange!

Great Getups!
There were so many cosplayers decked-out wonderfully in addition to the handful of folk I'm spotlighting here. Whether your costume is elaborate or simple, revealing or conservative, expensive or cheap, the important thing is to have fun, and all these cosplayers were for sure doing so!

Wizard World Recollection-Posts Incoming!

Over these couple of days I will have some posts recollecting my Wizard World experience. Expect a posts today and tomorrow (see my update below) about cosplay, the cool stuff I got, neat people I met, and then a piece breaking-down how it all went.

UPDATE: Expect posts over three days, including Wednesday. I've been busy with life and my plan to post my thoughts on Wizard World is now going to happen over a bit more of an extended period of time.