Sense & Sensibility Marvel Adapation

Title: Sense & Sensibility
Author: Jane Austen (Adapted: Nancy Butler & Sonny Liew)
Illustrator: Sonny Liew
Publisher: Marvel
Copyright: 2010
Price: $19.99
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4829-7
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Summary and Quick Thoughts: After the death of their father, the Dashwood daughters and their mother relocate to a small college. This is mainly due to their half-brother’s manipulating wife, but that’s ok as they will live happily there and marriage prospects look good. This is the story of Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, their friendship and their romances. This is just an adaptation of the classic and collects the single issues published in fall 2010.
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Recommended Audience: Middle, high school, and adult
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Things to be aware of: None.
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Further Thoughts: Let me begin this by the fact that I was thoroughly expecting to snark my way through this book. Seriously. After the horrendous adaptation of Pride and Prejudice (click for my review), I expected to read this for the inconsistencies and the annoying, horrendous art.

Um. I was wrong. I was so crazy wrong. I’m so glad that this one is much, much better than the first which I still can’t believe actually made the New York Times Bestsellers (according to the back cover of this one).

Full disclosure: I have not read Sense & Sensibility, but have watched a few adaptations so I know the general story…sorta.

First, the art. I expected the art not to match the covers since that was obviously what happened with the first Austen adaptation. Nope. The art on the covers totally matched what was in the comic and I was thrilled. For me, half of the story is made up in the art from the nuances to the faces, the placing of characters, and how the scene is to be understood. One highlight of this work is that the characters are somewhat like caricatures, so when we slip into chibis (tiny bodies, large heads, in manga used to convey humor and cuteness) it was a natural shift and helped to add to the scene’s humor. I also never grew tired of the possibly screwed-up proportions. It just added to the story and the illustrator did a fantastic job conveying how the characters were feeling. My only complaint is how flushed everyone looked for most of the time. Occasionally I thought “who is going to be sick now?”

The text of the story is a bit wordy for a comic, but I’m not sure if there was any way to get around that. The narrated bits seemed out of place, but necessary. Having not read the text though, I cannot tell you where the liberties were taken for this story and what was original. I did feel that there were no essential parts left out this time like the major plot point missing in the Pride and Prejudice adaptation.

I’m impressed. I look forward to the next adaptation of Austen into comic style and hope that this success is only the beginning of more. Considering I’ve never read any other Austen (only got half-way through Emma), I’m hoping for an adaptation of Persuasion, as that movie adaptation only confused me. I’d also like to see how Mansfield Park could be improved upon as I tried to read that and couldn’t believe the stuff that character went to.

If you’re looking for more girl-centric stories and something that is mostly clean, this is a good selection. Well done Marvel. Not what I expected at all.

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Source: Library copy.