Jan Philipzig's Reviews > FreakAngels, Volume 4

After a slow-burning third volume, this fourth volume delivers all kinds of twists and action. I love how the story jumps around from one plot thread to another, and how each new piece of information makes everything else appear in a different light. We even get to sneak a peek at what happened when “the world ended” six years ago, one that turns the whole story into a crude, horrifically flawed yet undeniably potent case of youth rebellion.

Come to think of it, FreakAngels now reads like an updated, shrewdly reshuffled version of John Wyndham’s 1957 science fiction novel The Midwich Cuckoos (made into two movies, both titled Village of the Damned, in 1960 and 1995). In both the novel and the comic book, a group of children with supernatural abilities is born in England at exactly the same time, and in both cases they represent a growing threat to the establishment as they grow older.

Unlike the authorities of The Midwich Cuckoos, however, those of FreakAngels find themselves unable to remove the threat by taking out those powerful kids. As a result, the kids of FreakAngels actually manage to overthrow the status quo. Coming of age amidst its ruins, they try to build and govern a new world, and the story ultimately revolves around their all too human efforts to do so.