<p>Can I just write <i>sideboob</i> and leave it at that.</p>

<img src="https://www.reluctantm.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/side-boob-212x300.png" alt="" width="212" height="300" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-6790" />

<p>Perhaps in an apocalyptic-everything-going-to-shit scenario woman just don't have time to put on bras? And also have to be drawn at such an angle that we can all see the lack of bra?</p>

<p>Luckily there is still time to get all your clothing perfectly tailored and your hair done.</p>

<img src="https://www.reluctantm.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/side-boob-2-198x300.png" alt="" width="198" height="300" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-6789" />

<p>And either all women in this universe have gotten exact-same-shaped boobs through state-sponsored surgery or there's a factory somewhere pumping out one-off form fitting tactical gear for each person.</p>

<img src="https://www.reluctantm.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/side-boob-3-273x300.png" alt="" width="273" height="300" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-6788" />

<p>Plus your boobs look amazing, and somehow they also grow bigger, if you look down at them from above.</p>

<img src="https://www.reluctantm.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/side-boob-4-222x300.png" alt="" width="222" height="300" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-6787" />

<p>Sigh.</p>

<p>If you can hold your gag reflex back to get past the extraordinarily sexist drawing of the characters, the story isn't bad -- an ultra-violence, nano-technology, X-men-esque shoot-em-up. But really, if I hadn't had to review this, I would have tossed this aside around no-bra-levitation-tits on page 18 and called it a day.</p>

<img src="https://www.reluctantm.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/side-boob-5-300x234.png" alt="" width="300" height="234" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-6792" />

<p><A href="https://www.librarything.com/work/22230802/book/159750412">Failsafe</a> by F. J. DeSanto went on sale June 26, 2018.</p>

<p><small>I received a copy free from <a href="https://www.netgalley.com/">Netgalley</a> in exchange for an honest review.</small></p>

DNF at 25%

Failsafe: You could safely say this was a fail.

Be advised that this review contains controversial opinions and a very irritated Jen. I read this so you don't have to. Please, you really mustn't. There are better comics to spend your precious life on.

You know what they say - don't judge a book by it's cover. It might just be infinitely better than it looks. Well, in this case the cover drew me in but the content was utter shit. So the saying goes both ways.

Image result for failsafe comic cover

"Cleverly broaches very real and troubling questions."

Uhuh. Sure. A nineties' movie rip-off comic sure does broach some real and troubling questions.

First off, the text in this comic was way too small to read. There was a lot of unused space where the author could enlarge the text to make it easier for the reader.

This isn't a dick-swinging contest. It's a threat to our government.

1)I've never heard of "dick-swinging contests" being a saying. How would you test that? The dick with the greatest swinging distance wins? How do they test it - put smart watches™ on on their dicks and see who can travel the greatest distance in dicks/m?
2)This is so fucking stupid.

The artwork is relatively mediocre and so is the dialogue. Mediocrity in a comic makes it so uninteresting to focus on the story and sequencing of events. I had to continuously backtrack to understand what was going on in the comic and I still don't understand what was going on in this comic. And don't get me started on the stupid facial expressions. This artist has no clue has to how normal people move their facial muscles.

These aren't war poses. They're dancing queens:

It seems there are insurgent soldiers in the government who are screwing up all of their plans. And then spoiler alert: that doesn't really matter the president is assassinated. Whoop? Wow, this trope has never been done before.

And then cyborg/robots appear out of nowhere with no explanation as to their component in the world building. And then suddenly there's a random robbery. Blah blah blah.

Saving our country always feels great.

Not sure if this is patriotism or sarcasm. The writing is too poor to differentiate.

None of the characters are introduced in a way that is easy to understand and nothing is really explained about them later on at all. This |makes keeping up with a seemingly straightforward comic very complex.

What is this disjointed mess? It seems like a badly stitched up versions of scenes from the "I Robot" movie and every American movie featuring a president/rogue CIA agent you've seen. And let's face it - once you've seen one you've seen them all.

The main character seems to be a woman named Eve who has some unnatural powers that one of the X-men probably has. Whoop. So original. But it's okay - there are bobs and vegana to compensate
I really wanted to like this comic - I did. But it is so....gah. Bland. Blaise. Boring. Stagnant. Stilted. Call it what you will.

There also seems to be this Hannibal Lecter/Bane rip off who gave Eve her powers. It's really not explained.

I don't mind nudity or skimpily clad women - I'm too straight to care. But they really need to have something other than a hot bod and 3% clothing coverage - I don't know, maybe give her a brain or a personality. Just a suggestion, Failsafe.

Verdict: Guilty of underdeveloped characters, world, dialogue, character interactions, plot and basically anything else that forms the framework of a book. Do not read this crap. In fact, go read the information on a box of cereal - you'll get more enjoyment and plot out of that than this.

Wow. I'm not sure I can explain my disappointment enough for this series. It had an interesting plot and amazing coloring. Then things went wrong. During the first major battle between the two "side," one team went from being in business outfits to matching uniforms. I was obviously confused. It was also somewhat difficult to tell which side was which during the battle, unless you simply assumed the people with bright hair were "bad." The politics were actually really fascinating and compelling, but slightly overlooked to focus on conspiracy. Then came the ending. Instead of creating a cohesive conclusion, DeSanto decided to hope for sequels. The choices made didn't flow. I will say this, while this book sounds like the perfect graphic novel, I believe it might actually make a better novel. More depth, more politics, less flash.

Failsafe is a fairly classic example of science fiction meets worst case scenarios of government control. It’s set in the not-so-distant future, and takes liberties with both the technology available and the actions of people.
This is a fun and quick read, on the whole. I think it only took me about an hour to get through it, probably less. So if you’re looking for a quick bit of entertainment, especially if you’re a science fiction buff, then this may be the perfect thing.
Failsafe, in essence, is one man (with some allies) against the big, bad government. He’s not a great man, by any stretch of the imagination, but he’s good. He’s good at what he does, and he’s taken effort to make up for the wrongs in his past. Unfortunately for him, that made him the perfect person for this job.
Before I dig into the analysis of this graphic novel, I just want to say that the creators did one thing flawlessly, and I think they should get credit for that. They did a wonderful job of making most of their characters feel human. The ‘good guys’ had legitimate reasons for their actions, and the ‘bad guys’ were designed to make us indignant and happy to loathe them.
Failsafe is the tale of the government taking technology too far, to put it simply. Here we have people that have been randomly infected with nanobots, and those very nanobots can override the person’s desires, plans, and training. Basically it turns them into trained killers without the need for ever having to train them.
I think I would have been happier about this whole thing (okay, happy sounds pretty weird considering what happens here) had it been set into a farther present. Having it set a mere ten years away seriously cuts into the believability of the whole thing.
For one thing, it’s hard to believe that nanobots will have been designed so effectively that they were mass produced and introduced to the public in that short time span (we’ll ignore the bit about nobody noticing). Then there’s the presumably obvious political commentary on the government. Having it be only ten years in the future obviously implies that it’s the current government that did it. Some people would probably love that, while it’ll easily alienate others. Regardless of the personal feelings on the matter, having it set father into the future would raise more questions, open room for discourse, and give us time to believe more of it.
I wouldn’t mind seeing more from this world, truth be told. I wouldn’t say no to them jumping a bit forward in time though…but that’s just my bias showing through I suppose. Still, I can’t ignore the fact that they did a wonderful job of establishing the characters and giving us reason to care.

I have never had an opportunity to dive into a comic book from Vault. Their titles have always looked intriguing, well-executed and with some top-notch creators, but with so many comics published every week, it is hard to keep up with every publisher. With Failsafe, I checked out a whole arc from the publisher, and I was very impressed.

Spoilers ahead.

Failsafe follows John Ravane, who ends a nanotech super soldier program by following orders and executing the last survivor, and this happens very early in the book. But was it the end of the haywire Insurgence Program? Not a chance. Ten years later, the President is assassinated by a nanotech super soldier as sleeper cells start popping up out of nowhere. Literally, sleeper agents are activating in unknowing men, women, and children, which is when the government brings Ravane back into the loop. But he doesn’t come willingly, as the steal his adopted daughter as an incentive to bring the war horse back. But who’s behind these new super soldiers? What part does the government play? And why is Ravane’s adopted daughter important to all of this?

In a book that has a sci-fi/Terminator vibe to it, Failsafe feels like a modern-day version of the aforementioned Terminator, but with a better premise. Created by F.J. DeSanto, Federico Dallocchio, and Todd Farmer, DeSanto and Farmer pull writing duties while Dallocchio pulls triple duty as penciler, inker, and colorist, with letters by Travis Lanham. The art here is dark and gritty, with a hint of Jae Lee’s style to it, which is a great thing, especially with the subject matter of the book. The story flows nicely, some parts got a little slow, but when it picks up, it picks up big time.

It was already announced that Failsafe has been picked up by Netflix for a motion picture starring Michael B. Jordan, so now is the perfect time to get in on the ground floor of Failsafe. Thrilling, shocking, with some major twists that can give readers whiplash, Failsafe hits its mark and then some. I highly recommend picking up this collection.

Full of lots of action and political double-dealing but not much common sense. The premise is that 10 years from now the government will have secretly used nanobots to turn thousands of citizens into sleeper agents that can react to terrorists threats. Yep, it's straight out of Sentinals with Operation:Zero Tolerance or OMACs depending on whether you follow Marvel or DC. When they all get activated, all these citizens just decide to come take over Manhattan the next day. It makes NO sense. It's almost like they took some finished art and then tried to shoehorn a plot in afterwards.

This has a decent high concept – thousands of innocent Americans injected with the nanotech that was supposed to make anti-terrorist soldiers out of the routine forces but was used illicitly, giving any civilian in hospital super-powers – and a great intelligent look on things. But it also has some of the worst, hardest-to-read action scenes out there. And in a book that makes for a key fight scene at least once each and every issue, that's quite a problem. The action never flows, characters never get fixed in your mind before they're duffing each other up, and the whole thing is summarised by some dialogue that goes something like "You blew the whole floor out? You could have told me!" Yup, me too – you could have shown me that was what was happening. I wanted to like the rich world, the classy take on powered people taking vengeance on the people who empowered them – but the artwork needed a whole rethink. A great shame, as this had the balls to be really quite good.

This was a powerful book. The story was tight and made some interesting points. There was not a lot of character development, and the end was way too fast. If this was a one shot, it needed to be longer. If it was the beginning of a series, the end could have been volume 2. Over all I enjoyed the story and the artwork as well. I'd be interested in reading more.

It was different than i normally read. But i quite enjoyed it. At first it started really slow. In the end i was curious what is gonna happen next. I will definitely read the next volume.

No, I'm sorry, this was not for me. Firstly, the illustrations did nothing to get me interested in the story - they felt emotionless, really. Secondly, the dialogue felt stilted and weird. Thirdly, well... I just didn't like it. The story isn't terrible, though lacking in interesting characters. I like science fiction-themed graphic novels since I tend to lean away from the regular novels, so it was a bit of a disappointment. I can't say anything more, since I struggled and didn't finish it.

Thank you, Netgalley for the opportunity to read this!

/ Denise

*thank you to Netgalley and Diamond Book Distributors for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

2.5 stars.

This was OK. The artwork was alright but I wasn't so much of a fan but that's just a personal opinion as I've noticed that others quite like it. I did like the sci-fi themed story but it wasnt anything amazing. Still, it was entertaining enough so that I read it all. One issue I did have with it was some illustrations were a bit gruesome for my liking and the story didnt flow so well. If the storyline sounds like something that you would enjoy, it's worth giving a go.

A cool sci-fi adventure graphic novel. Cool art and story. I'll be recommending this one to patrons at my library.

An interesting sci-fi thriller that is let down by several factors. The characters are rather boring and cliche and the plot line is predictable. On the upside, the art work is good and it shows potential.

A doomsday apocalyptic scenario, where terrorism and insurgency destroyed civilisations within the world order is the plot of this graphic novel.
The USA volunteer soldiers to be the ultimate killing machines with the aid of Nano technology. Although a secret programme which the public never know about; when things unravelled and the facts known to the people. Politicians distanced themselves from this operation and made the scapegoat the president himself; tidying things up neatly by assassinating him and announcing an end of this research.
The plot takes this established position and journeys a decade later where a new rouge insurgency seems to be arising. Designed as sleepers to offset future terrorism the 2nd stage of the programme had continued in further secrecy. For the new president if he cannot contain these first few out of control units then the public outcry will be at his expense. They call for the best of the best to head up their counter terrorist force confident they can stop them in their tracks and eliminate the threat by destroying their number.
Full of duplicity, political manoeuvring, high octane action, betrayal and selfless acts this is a timely story questioning out reliance on elected office to guide and preserve our peace and prosperity. With keen intelligence preventing atrocities and terrorist attacks to keep us safe.
In a complex account of truth and fake news, the world looks on as the USA grapples with a home born terrorism that has been spawned by the governments own deceit and crimes against its people.
Some may feel nothing new is brought out in this story but I feel the motives shared about caring for loved ones, seeing humanity within others we feel are our enemies and trust in government are well made.

An action packed, fast paced read, that's a little let down by characters we've seen before and a plot line that felt a bit tired. Wasn't overly keen on seeing another woman used as motivation - can't we do better?

There's some great visual set ups, but the characters aren't that well defined. The men in particular blended together, and it was hard to keep track of who was who sometimes.

'Failsafe' by F.J. DeSanto, Todd Farmer, and Federico Dallocchio is about a scary future not far from now where the government has gone overboard to protect it's citizens. And speaking of overboard....

Fearing terrorist attacks, the government has secretly created sleeper agents. When they are triggered, they become super strong, have fast healing, seem to be immune to radiation, but not immune to EMP devices. And there are thousands of them!

I read a lot of things that stretch my willingness to believe, but this premise was so ludicrous that I kept reading just to find out more about this bonkers story. A lone U.S. agent is able to match wits and overpower these super soldiers. The citizens are completely unaware of this having happened to them, and their leader looks like someone out of a Mad Max movie. There are hostages, gun battles, karate kicks, and silly plot devices. The premise of this is just ridiculous.

The art felt weird too. Characters felt lifeless and flat on the page, and didn't seem to even be on the same plane with each other at times. The digital art was just lacking.

This might fall in to a "so bad it's good" category, but I'm not recommending it.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Vault Comics, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.