Altered Carbon: Download Blues

Thank you to Netgalley and Dynamite Entertainment for providing me with a copy of this in exchange for my open and honest review.

I have been a fan of the Takeshi Kovacs universe since Morgan wrote the original Altered Carbon in 2002. Not only that, I find the “Land Fit For Heroes' world to be some of the best fantasy written in the last twenty years. All that being said, I found this to be a mediocre adaptation of the source material. The fundamental problem is that the artwork did not flow well with the dialog, that in turn led to stunted panels. I don't think this is either Morgan or Hoskin's fault. Hoskin is an excellent artist. Check out his work in The Red Rising adaptation. I thought the art was very well done there. But for some reason, Altered Carbon and his style did not mesh well. Hoskin's artwork is too angular and stocky to fit Kovacs predator personality. it came off as more He-Man then I would have liked. I will continue to read this universe because Morgan's writing is always top-notch. But I won't seek it out like I usually would have.

Edit - I have since been contacted by Ferran Sellares who informed me that Hoskin and Morgan wrote the script while Sellares and Vinicius Andrade are the ones who did the artwork. I apologize I misunderstood. Considering most of my original review is talking about the artwork I am going to rewrite a bit of it here. Basically, Sellares artwork is quite good. I don't think it fits with the writing and Kovacs personality. But, that is really my personal preference and how I view the character.