Networked: Carabella On the Runby Patti MartinsonReviews may contain information that could be considered 'spoilers'. Readers should proceed at their own risk. Publisher
Credits Grade: 5 Carbella is a blue-skinned woman from an alternate earth who fled her home and is living the college life. Passing off her clueless-ness of some aspects of everyday modern things, as a result of living in a commune, she manages to keep a low profile, despite her skin color.Her existence upended when her picture winds up on facebook and catches the eye of more people, including people from the same alternate earth she came from, with the desire to replicate their totalitarian existence to this earth. Produced as a means to illustrate the dangers of losing your privacy in the online social networking world, it does a fairly good job of telling people how public information about you can manipulate you or be used against you. There were a couple things that bothered me about this almost public service graphic novel. I felt the privacy issues were very well addressed initially, when Carabella had to deal with a jerk who managed to get her private info and it got into the hands of a small cult group. It worked less well when she gets involved with a man, who inadvertently gives alien technology to some shadowy business, who then plot to use it against the society, with the help of other people form Carabella's home. It went from something that was pretty relevant to something that was pretty out there. There were also times that Carabella seemed too naive, at other times she expounds at great length some of the dangers of the loss of privacy. It sounded like her dialogue came straight from a brochure, rather than being given more piecemeal or organically. The artwork was so-so, but I found uneven. Carabella looks pretty normal most of the time, but then they give her an unnaturally cartoonish appearance, it was distracting. Also, Carabella doesn't appear to be that physical, but several times they had her flip guys pretty easily, which jarred. I also felt that the excuse of living in a commune as a way of explaining her odd behavior was good at first, but got more annoying with each repetition of the excuse. Still, I do like the effort in educating people about the dangers of the loss of privacy, and it was pretty interesting and exciting towards the end. Written: August 29, 2010
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