The Least we can do vol 1 by iolanda zanfardino

Illustrated by Elisa Romboli
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In a United Kingdom that has already been ravaged by war, soldiers have magical Medium Stones that augment their deadly fighting skills. Uriel is dissatisfied with the powerful Eden Army, which uses their Medium to oppress and exploit others. She steals a Justice Light, a powerful type of medium, and absconds to join the Eclipse Rebels in the fight to bring Eden down. Uriel also has a mind for inventions and hopes her inside knowledge and creativity can bring more solutions to the Eclipse as they face a foe much larger and much more powerful than they. Along the way, Uriel has to prove herself to the rebels by not only providing them with valuable information but attuning with a stone that already has a master.

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The first chapter of this book really grabbed me and sucked me into this steampunk, adventure world. After that, there was a lot of time spent on training Uriel, particularly in fighting, where she was constantly being destroyed by folks who were supposedly her teammates. There were some little romances along the way, which was kind of a nice distraction from the fighting. The ending was horrendously rushed and had quite the narrative jump going into the final chapter, so I wish that part of the story had more room to breathe. The fight isn't over, but everyone is at a decent stopping point at the end of this volume, so given the lukewarm reception to this book, I'm not entirely sure it will continue even though there is more to explore. 

My favorite thing about this comic is the art style, so it actually disappoints me that they didn't use any of the covers from Romboli. Her style is more cinematic and reminiscent of the classic Disney films like Treasure Planet. Every page has lots of color and is full of movement. As the story sort of meandered in the fourth chapter, I continued reading for Romboli's beautiful art.

There is some mild cussing and lots of pages where characters bleed on the page. There is also quite a bit of violence and battling where folks are most likely dying in the background. 

Sara's Rating: 7/10
Suitability Level: Grades 9-12

Publisher: Image Comics
Publication Date: May 9, 2023
ISBN: 9781534399921 (Paperback)

​Tags: Rating: 7/10, Suitability: High School, Comicbooks, Action Adventure, Steampunk, Fantasy, Dystopian, LGBTQ+ ​, Image Comics