They're Not Like Us Volume 1: Black Holes for the Young

(ARC was provided to read and review.)

Right at the start of the story, a young woman, Tabitha, is on the brink of committing suicide. She is standing on top of a tall building, but still hesitant to jump. Then mysteriously a rather sinister looking male appears and tries to talk her out of it, and at first I assumed, he's a police officer, but I couldn't have been more wrong.

The dark and brooding character turns out to be the Voice and he's the leader of a group of kids, teenagers and young adults, who all have special abilities. He tells Tabitha, "You are one of us." and wants her to be part of his group.
He's able to make her understand, that she isn't crazy, as she was let to believe her whole life so far. She is telepathic and that's show more why she hears all the different voices in her head. The group offers her for the first time in her life help to control and to use her ability.
There are group members who can see into the future, move so fast that all you can see is a blur, are very strong, etc. They all live together in two adjacent houses, where the interior offers actually quite a bit of luxury. There are paintings on every wall and they owe a most exquisite record collection.
Generally they keep themselves to themselves, there are no visitors and no connection to their past lives. In fact, they all get a new name, when they start living with the group. Tabitha will be Syd, a name chosen by the Voice and his psychic abilities are obivously strong enough to achieve that the group members are unable to remember their old name once they got the new one. And what's more, to make sure, there are really no connections left to the past, he "forces"/persuades his newbie members to kill their parents.
Something which didn't go down well for most of them in the long run and gives quite a few of them serious nightmares. Worse still, what looks on the outside like some heaven for young "superheroes", who have all suffered from abuse and misunderstanding during their childhood, as they were rather seen as crazy and disabled, than as gifted, well, it isn't the paradise it seems to be.
Their abilities are used to commit crimes and that's also how they amassed the wealth in which they live, by robbing and stealing from others. Their whole life is very controlled, restricted and isolated. To me it sounded very much like the life of a member of a cult.

From the moment Tabitha/Syd enters the group, things start to go wrong, underlying cracks of the group start to show, which will inevitably lead to severe consequences for all of them. But I must admit, towards the end I found some parts of the story weren't perfectly logical. Considering there is a group member, who can see into the future or others with telepathic abilities who can read minds, they should've seen certain things coming.

Generally, They're Not Like Us is a gripping and fascinating story, which raises quite a few moral questions. What makes us evil? When are evil actions rectified? (If at all.) Has the victim the right to take revenge or even kill the abuser? What if the abuser was a victim first, too?
At the same time, the whole group and its characters are interesting. I cared for quite a few of them, but my absolute favourite is the Voice. There is so much more to the character and I hope he will be in Volume 2 and in the one after that.
Simon Gane's artwork ties in perfectly with the story, he is able to breath life into the characters. Blurgirl's nightmare sequence is one of the highlights you don't want to miss.

The series has me really hooked so far and Volume 2 is on my wishlist now. In fact, I'm quite looking forward to it. show less

It's easy to try to compare the characters in They're Not Like Us to those in the X-Men universe (at first glance anyway). They all have special powers, such as the ability to create illusions and superhuman strength. The thing that sets them apart is that this group doesn't seem especially interested in being heroes; rather, they seem angry at "normal" people for treating them differently/badly. This is especially true for their parents, who had trouble accepting that their children were special and saw their gifts as curses; as a sort of initiation, the members are expected to murder their parents.

Then along comes Syd, a young telepath who doesn't understand the constant barrage of voices she hears day in and day out. She wants to show more make them stop at any cost, until The Voice (the leader of this group of misfits) finds her and brings her to his house. She's so tormented by her gifts that you almost assume that she will do whatever he says because he helps her control the voices. Syd is no push-over, however, and she quickly realizes that the people she meets are less like heroes and more like monsters. She refuses to blindly follow orders and questions their motives at every turn.

There are a lot of characters introduced in Volume 1 and we don't get to know all of them very well. The story pretty much centers around Syd trying to figure out if she wants to become part of the organization, as The Voice tries to convince her why she should. There is some background given about The Voice's childhood and one of the other members, Maisie (who can see into the future), insists that there is more to his story than Syd understands yet. I'm definitely interested in reading more of this comic to find out if there really is more to why they do what they do. I really liked Syd because she didn't just take what she was being told at face value; she continued to ask questions and stick to her morals.

The illustrations were just okay for me. I thought they were a bit rough and the colors were very subdued, although this last observation worked with the tone of the story. The story itself though was very interesting and I loved how it blurred the lines between good and evil. It makes you question what you might do in the same situation. By the end, it's apparent that there is some discord within the group and it remains unclear how everyone will proceed from there. This was a great introduction to what could be a very engaging series, and I am very much looking forward to finding out what happens next with these characters. show less

There are a lot of ideas in this. This is one of those morality meets superpowers ideas that I always find interesting. Now, there are some murky bits here and there where I wonder what the heck is going on like that random sex scene, but this volume has me intrigued. Every single character is selfish, emotionally wounded, at times, whiny, and always battling their demons. You would not think anyone could like a book where none of the characters are “likable,” but I do. Also, the art style is dope to me because something about it is pleasing to my eyes. I liked the ending, and I will be reading volume 2.

4.5

X-Men without morals. That's the pitch I got for this series and it's a great summary. (Way better than the one on the back of this collection, IMO). Great art. Interesting and engaging characters (most of whom you want to punch, pretty much always).

Looking forward to the next story arc.

The story opens with a teen looking for a respite from the, very real, but disbelieved by everyone else, voices in her head. She sees suicide as the only way, the only peace she can find. But someone else offers her an out she takes it and then discovers that their morals don't line up quite with hers.

Interesting exploration of othering.

Teenagers with super powers acting poorly is nothing original, but a solid and intriguing start leaves me wanting the next volume of this series.

My first of impression of They’re Not Like Us Vol.1 was that the plot is similar to the Runaways (by Brian K. Vaughn),which features a group of teenagers with super powers. In this case the focus is on young adults who deal with the issue of controlling and utilizing super powers which ranges from telepathy to being psychic. It puts the twist on the mutant/super-human trope by making it into a youth in revolt story, as the characters in this book seek justice for all the years they were repressed and singled out for being different.

I appreciated that the characters came from different ethnic and social backgrounds. I thought it not only made the story diverse, but the fact they come from all types of situation adds to the realistic show more factor. Everyone comes from a troubled backgrounds and they find solidarity in the fact that they have these special powers that no ordinary person would understand. They form a family like bond because they understand they are unique and how they were misunderstood by their peers and family growing up.

It is a violent comic at times (rated mature) but I never felt like it went too over the top. It’s also very fact paced story. From the moment Syd joins the house of super-humans, we get a small montage of her controlling her powers, and then start to uncover the mystery surrounding the group’s leader, The Voice, and his true intentions.

Overall, I think Vol. 1 provides a strong start to the series. The well-written plot interwoven with Simon Gane’s artwork is fantastic. Game gives a lot of attention to facial characteristics of all the characters and provides immense detail to landscape. Thorough the realistic drawings you can connect with the characters on an emotional level. show less