In Medea by Blandine Le Callet, Nancy Peña (Illustrator), Montana Kane (Translator) the question you must first ask yourself is can you trust this narrator or not? Then, are you seeing the true story or not? Has she been villainized to take blame away from the real culprits? Or is she the monster history says? Those questions and more, will come alive in this adaptation of Medea’s story. The afterwards show how the historical, myth and magic all came together, along with the creators adaptations, to make this graphic novel. The book is not for the young, sensitive or even as your first graphic novel reader. One does not need to know the mythology behind the character, but it could help with comparisons. Violence, sexual activities, death, and other mature themes included. The illustrations are also at times graphic with these subjects.
The story is narrated by Medea herself. We see how she was a pampered child, but also a prisoner. We see how her father’s fears and prejudices of outsiders made him do the things he did. And then, when Medea is out in the world, the reverse prejudices are placed on her, a “barbarian,” an “non Greek,” and most importantly perhaps, a woman who is learned and opinionated. We start actually at the end of Medea’s life, then watch as she with science and common sense does things to shape her destiny, and not always for the better. It then turns back to the end of things and we leave on a “The End” moment, but there does feel to be almost a “next chapter” waiting in the wings.
Overall, this is not a horrible book, but there are a few things I could have done without. Such as the female nudity (I’m not a prude, but you can only look at Medea’s breasts so many times before it loses any “power” to move the story) and the violence. We know this is a Greek Myth, but all the blood (death, mutilation of bodies, menstruation and birthing) is not really needed and it could have been shown without the graphics. I do like the realism of the story (after all, who really believes Jason’s mentor was really a centaur?) but sometimes the anti-patriarchy was a little heavy handed, but certainly is important to the development of our main character.