Hero (Graphic Novel) by Stephen R. Lawhead

This re-telling of the story of Jesus was just okay

Stephen R. Lawhead

I picked this one up yesterday. I was excited to see it was a near-futuristic re-telling of the last days of Jesus re-told by Stephen R. Lawhead. I am a giant fan of his book Byzantium, so I knew he'd re-tell this is a respectful and interesting way.

It was resepectful and faithful to the Biblical version but very short. I read this one in about 20 minutes. It is a graphic novel version of a rock opera but this so you obviously can't include the songs. But, there was nothing else added either. No background on the disciples (except Maggie). You actually have to know the story from the Bible to read this and get what they are doing. There's no explanation about who Petrov (Peter) is and where he came from and why he follows Hero (Jesus). Jude Discariot gets the most treatment, which is not saying much.

So much more could have been done. At least no harm was done by straying from the original too much, but this one could have been easily 3 times longer without straying from the original.

I rate this graphic novel 3 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Hero.

Reviewed on July 25, 2008.