I completely forgot to read this when Netgalley gave it to me.
It has been a fun experience reading this, but I'm too old for this. I started watching Rubius when I was a teenager, and I'm 27 now. There's a lot of Easter Eggs in this, what makes it more enjoyable.

Virtual Hero is a self-insert litrpg graphic novel featuring the author, Rubius, who is a Spanish YouTuber.

It's poorly paced, poorly-written, and lacks many qualities many other graphic novels have. The art is fine, which is one of the few redeeming characteristics. Outdated and overplayed tropes are abundant, lots of fan service, all kinds of toilet humor, and there are more references to video games than substance about the book's unique game system.

The toilet humor and fan service are fine, and really, some people like Gary Stu self-inserts, and that's not a problem. It just doesn't work for me.

SIlly, sort of juvenile in its plot twists and humor, but had a likeable cast and used video game tropes effectively. Good for the reddit using early teen in your family.

'Virtual Hero' with story and art by Ruben 'Rubius' Doblas is a graphic novel about a gamer trying out a new virtual headset with unexpected consequences.

Rubius is one of 100 video game players invited to try a new virtual headset called the ORV. He's a pretty popular gamer and soon finds himself in the virtual worlds of his favorite games, but he finds that once he is in there, he can't get out unless someone in real life helps boot him off the system. He finds an even bigger threat inside the game worlds and some new friends to help fight back.

The humor is pretty juvenile and probably not great for younger kids. The gamer stuff was fun, but the depictions and treatment of the female characters was bad at times. It does improve over the story, perhaps due to character growth. The art was a fun manga style and I had a good time picking out all the various video games featured.

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

I couldn't open the file I got so I can't give this a proper review. Not sure how else I can make the notification for reviewing this go away, so I'm posting a mid-grade rating. Sorry.

My thanks to NetGalley and Diamond Book Distributors, Ablaze for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.

Yikes, I am NOT the right demographic for this book! The humor is incredibly juvenile, but the situations are more adult, so I guess it would be best for older teen/adult boys who haven't grown up past finding gigantic shaped phallic objects as funny.

Fan service as well, some weird poking fun at homosexuality that I found distasteful (I didn't get the joke, maybe I'm the dumb one, but it felt more offensive than funny to me), girl hatred due to fighting over the "man" (he was more of a boy in his actions, words and thoughts, hence the quotes, not sure what any of the women saw in him) and my favorite character being killed off for NO reason (the useless sacrifice trope, nice), all added up to me completely LOATHING this book.

Now, just because it isn't something that I appreciated or enjoyed doesn't mean that it won't work for anybody. I suspect it would work well for those who enjoy a fart joke and like seeing pretty pictures of young female bodies scantily clad. If that sounds like a perfect way to spend your time, then this is the book for you.

Also, the book just started in the middle of the action, so I had no idea who the hero was, his place in the world, who the enemies were, nothing. So maybe this isn't the first book? It was confusing, the plot made very little sense, though the stereotypes of the different types of games was chuckle inducing and the sempai and friends games made me smile.

However it wasn't enough to save the book from the fact that the MC H was an idiot and I didn't find him fun/ny at all. Again, I am not the target audience for this book I think. 1, if it works for you I am happy for you but it just wasn't in my wheelhouse, stars.

Erratic and all over the place. I had trouble understanding the storyline as the plot and action jumped all over the place. The sense of humor was odd and all females were drawn scantily clad or submissive. I don't know anything about the youtuber this comic based on and perhaps that would have helped to explain what was going on. I couldn't even finish reading it. I could have done without reading any of it in the first place.

Overall average rating: 3.7

Issue 1: 4 stars
This was a ton of fun! I loved seeing my favourite games come to life in a unique way in this graphic novel. The story was fantastically cliche and fast-paced. I absolutely love our main team and Slenderman is just the sweetest!
Perfect for fans of Sword Art Online, Fairy Tail, or any popular video games!

Issue 2: 4 stars
As always, love the cameos and references from popular games! This one had a sad ending and I hope we get the classic “revival” of sacrificed characters in the final issue.
Definite Ready Player One vibes in this one!
Reading a bind up of these issues, I didn’t realise they were separate stories until well into the second issue. I think clearer labelling would be very helpful in the bind up version!

Issue 3: 3 stars
A fun conclusion to the series! Not as much “wow” factor as I was hoping for, but I did appreciate the humour and references as always.
I don’t know wether I like the decision on who the “real” villain of the story was. I think it’s a very overused trope, and unfortunately sometimes this is the real view people have of some gamers.
Overall, not a unique concept, but done in a very fun and easy-to-follow way!

As a fan of Ready Player One, I have really loved the premise of this graphic novel. I have liked the art design, the characters, and alltogether it was a fun read. The beginnings and the explanation of the game could be more elaborate, because I needed time to understand how the world works in the novel.

This one of the cutest ya graphic novels I’ve read in a while. It was super cute and loveable and I really enjoyed the way this was set up. I had lots and lots of fun flicking through it and adored the dialogue between the characters too! 5 out of 5 stars of course!

I received an e-arc copy of Virtual Hero English edition through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I didn’t know anything about El Rubius before this graphic novel and it’s very logical because he’s more of an influencer to Spanish gamers. I am neither Spanish nor gamer…so makes loads of sense that I don’t know him…😂
However if the graphic novel is any indication to the person he is, then I think I would enjoy his Youtube channel. The story was really very funny (probably a bit inappropriate but who cares? 😂) and utterly in manga style, except for the colourful and vibrant art that I absolutely loved (mangas are usually black and white)!😍
Very much fun!😀

NB! Goodreads is missing an entry of the English copy of the whole trilogy (to be published in November), so I’ll review it on the Spanish volume 1 for now!

This entire book felt like a race. It could have used a slower pace from time to time to introduce new characters and new worlds. Although, it was fun trying to find all references and Easter Eggs page after page.

I am a big fan of Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. The premise of Virtual Hero is what hooked me in. While it was very similar in many ways, I found the plot lacking and the protagonist hard to connect with.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the author, the publishers and the NetGalley team for providing me with an Advanced copy. I cherished this opportunity to read it in exchange for an honest review.

The orb is a virtual reality set where your basically in the game. You can visit all game worlds. Okay so I liked this book. It was weird and odd and it was great. I especially cracked up over the megadong and dong sword. It was a very interesting read and I'd recommend it to friends.

Adult-proof, manga-inflected and very colourful, this comic features a "typical" youtube gamer/influencer, getting sucked into the virtual worlds he's known from playing games all his life, and needing to get himself and a scantily-clad lass out before the Big Bad admits even the movie of "Ready Player One" was better than this and moves on to something else, which is what I did. Two stars as I know the target audience will lap it up, and because it's not completely reprehensible.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Virtual Hero by Ruben "Rubius" Doblas is an action-packed graphic novel that would appeal to any middle school or high school boy. Although I haven't watched the creator's YouTube videos before, I am very impressed to know that he has millions of subscribers and that this book has also been turned into an anime series. The story revolves around a gamer who is selected to play a new virtual reality. He finds himself transported into a virtual universe of games where everything feels real. Will he be able to rescue the girl of his dreams and defeat the villain? Will he find his way out of this game and back into the real world?

Overall, Virtual Hero is a fun video-game adventure filled with references to popular tween and teen icons like Five Nights at Freddy's, Slenderman, Minecraft, zombies, and probably plenty more that I missed since I'm not a teen anymore. The story was exciting, and it did maintain my interest the whole way through. I did take off 1 star because one of the girls is drawn in a very male gaze-y way with exposed skin, and I wouldn't recommend this book to any girls. I took off another star, because I just didn't get the sense of humor in this book, such as the d*ck jokes, which were admittedly few. Maybe those things won't be problems for you though, since everyone has their own personal likes and dislikes. If you're intrigued by the synopsis, or if you're a fan of graphic novels in general, you can check out this book when it comes out in November!