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Coda

Coda, Vol. 2

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A broken fantasy that’s equal parts Lord of the Rings and Mad Max, Coda is the next original series by Eisner-nominated creator Simon Spurrier (The Spire, Six-Gun Gorilla).

Magic was once plentiful and prosperous across the realm - but ever since the Quench brought the world to its knees, magic has become the rarest of resources. Bandits strive for it. Knights die for it. And one antisocial former bard named Hum will ride his mutant unicorn to the ends of the earth for just a drop of it...as magic is the one thing that will save the soul of his wife. Written by Eisner Award-nominated author Simon Spurrier (Sandman Universe, The Spire) and lavishly illustrated by artist Matías Bergara (Supergirl, Cannibal), Coda Volume Two continues the critically-acclaimed dystopian fantasy series that explores the relentless hangover of life in the aftermath of apocalypse.

112 pages, Paperback

First published July 2, 2019

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Simon Spurrier

765 books355 followers

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5 stars
281 (34%)
4 stars
353 (43%)
3 stars
157 (19%)
2 stars
21 (2%)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 88 reviews
Profile Image for Anne.
4,394 reviews70.2k followers
February 24, 2022
This volume is less whiny bard and more reality-based relationship stuff.

description

Hum (whiny bard) is determined to save his wife from her violent demon/berzerker moods by getting some sort of magical potion that will change her - without her permission.
Any married man will tell you how badly that will end.
On the flip side, his wife seems to think she's the only one with a quest and he can't possibly understand her need to fulfill her higher purpose. But as the reader who knows what he has gone through for her (whether or not it's his job to fix her aside) you can see that she is his quest. And her fanatical devotion to ending these Whateverthey'recalled bad guys has blinded her to how much she's hurting him.
Which, you know, sounds like marriage to me.

description

I can see from other friend's reviews that the art is either phenomenal or horrible. I fall into the latter category, as this actually hurt my eyes to read. And that's not hyperbole, I actually took breaks to rub my eyes and let them rest. Certain panels were so loud and squiggly that I felt as though I were trying to decipher the blood splatter pattern at a particularly violent crime scene.
Obviously, your mileage will vary but for me, it was too busy and bright. And without being able to break this down into small panels using a digital copy, I doubt I would have been able to finish this series.

I'm not sold on Simon Spurrier but I liked this volume a tad more than the last one.
Profile Image for Chad.
9,153 reviews1,001 followers
January 10, 2021
There's some interesting concepts in this fantasy world. I wish there was a better artist involved so I'd have an easier time following the story. I know a lot of other people like Bergara's art but I have a really difficult time deciphering it. His frenetic, overly busy style just hurts my eyes. The weak linework makes it extremely difficult to pick out characters from each panel and his coloring style of just spilling paints all over the page makes it worse.
Profile Image for Alexander Peterhans.
Author 2 books268 followers
November 14, 2019
Still great, although not as great as the first volume. I think it's because Hum's wife is a very one-dimensional character, which made it hard for me to see why he is married to her in the first place.

The art is still phenomenal.

(Read as four single issues)
Profile Image for Václav.
1,059 reviews42 followers
February 1, 2020
(4,3 of 5 for relationship struggle with the background of a postapocalyptic fantasy world)
I got a bit disappointed from the first volume of Coda. But it stepped out. This second volume is great. Better balanced, the story got more interesting and thrilling, the action well-dosed and the narration started finally to work for me. It's less of it and it adds an important underline to the story, enriches the characters and helps direct the feeling of the scene. The only thing which remains solid is art. I don't know if I got used to it, or if the composition is better to my taste and the atmosphere helps me to absorb its roughness. But I enjoy it much better now. And there are some great panels and pages too.
I really love how it turned into a more relationship level. The love and the struggle of our bard and berserker characters really bring up the story. It's suddenly good as I hoped it would be. Recently I have luck on stories with a weak, feeble start but then they kick-off. I actually like that better than authors with a great start but then fade to grey (or crap). It leaves better aftertaste and memory. And it looks that's Coda case too.
Profile Image for Benji Glaab.
704 reviews58 followers
July 15, 2019
High fantasy world built in a graphic novel with a sword and sorcery elements.

Volume 1 was amazing and seemed to have an overall stronger plot. The storyline was a little more cut and dry with less twists. The total package was still great, but volume 1 was unreal in comparison.

Basically Hum and his intense wife Serka need to break into a city that is propelled by a giant ( sort of a mortal engines idea with the mobile city). Serka has had a life long quest to fulfill by killing the pilot of said city. They may also be able to stop a war in the process. Hum is also still pursuing the spell that will save his wife from all her rage out powers, but maybe we shouldn't be aiming to change the ones we love.

This is one of the most gorgeous current titles out there. While I loved volume 1 more I am still excited to see where this one goes. Looks like Hum will have to pick himself back up again after a devastating ending.
Profile Image for Craig.
2,514 reviews28 followers
August 16, 2019
The artwork is the real star here, though it does sometimes get a bit obscure, to the point where I wasn't always sure what was going on. Spurrier is usually a great writer, but the story seems to be repeating itself at times and going around in circles in this volume. Marking time for the end of the trilogy? Did it need to be a trilogy?
Profile Image for Marina.
664 reviews128 followers
August 15, 2019
Coda me está gustando mucho. Un grimdark post apocalíptico con personajes muy molones y dibujo y color muy bonitos y adecuados.
Profile Image for Håvard.
42 reviews
May 15, 2021
I felt lukewarm about Coda. It did some cool worldbuildy things, and it was fine. The story is simple, universal, and could be seen coming from a just a few pages into the first book. But I'll be £$%&ed if it doesn't still feel amazing to see it through in this one. 10/10 you should read Coda.
Profile Image for Chris Lemmerman.
Author 7 books108 followers
October 13, 2019
[This review covers the entirety of Coda #1-12]

Coda is the latest creation from the insane mind of Simon Spurrier. In a world where magic is scarce and the only way to survive is to be extremely selfish, Hum the bard tries his best to save his wife...from herself. But like any story, it's not that straight forward. Because of course it's not.

I'm sure if you ran Si Spurrier through a wrangle, he'd bleed sarcasm. His wit is even more evident in this story than in almost any of his other work, and that's saying something, but it's all the more enjoyable as a result. Spurrier manages to build an entire fantasy world through the eyes of Hum without even trying, as the poor guy tries to do what he thinks is best while missing the biggest picture of them all right until it's too late. It's both an intensely personal story and a sweeping fantasy epic and the fact that it manages to be both in equal measure is pretty impressive, especially without losing the heart of the story, which is Hum and his wife Serka, who remains a presence in the story even when she's not actually around.

The art in all twelve issues is by Mattias Bergara, whose paintbrush works overtime as he swathes colours like they're going out of style. The proceedings are as varied as the palette, going from gross-out to beautiful and back again, sometimes all on the same page. It can get a little fast and loose at times, but there's never a sense that Bergara's lost control, just that he's having so much fun that it's translating to the page in a unique manner.

Coda's a clever little book. It's many things, all at once, and it does them all wonderfully well. Across these twelve issues, Hum's world changes more than once, and while a coda is meant to be an ending, it'll definitely be on your mind long after the series is over.
Profile Image for Shannon Appelcline.
Author 26 books150 followers
July 28, 2019
V1 of Coda had a real spark of originality to it that I didn't think was always successful, but which helped the book to stand out. This second volume is, unfortunately, less so in most ways.

Where the first volume was deeply subversive in its creation of its worlds, its characters, and their actions, the second volume is much more a standard fantasy quest. Oh, you could argue that the ending is subversive, but after a few issues of working to kill the fantasy big-bad, that's just not a major focus of the story.

Meanwhile, the dialogue and lettering are less unreadable (which is good) and the characters are less unusual (which is not); in fact, the characters are generally less characterized, until the very end.

Overall, I felt a big "meh" from the volume, and was prepared to set the series aside until I learned there was just one more volume (because so many of these writers are just writing for the movie nowadays, as opposed to genuine long-term serialized storytelling).
Profile Image for SuperSillySerra.
431 reviews
December 18, 2021
Better than the first.

The first volume of Coda definitely feels like just the start. It moves kind of slow, hints at a few things but nothing too big happens, its just the set up. This volume was different. It starts with a quick recap on what happened in volume one and what happened right after (a few parts we didn't get to see). From there we follow the loving couple into battle. The way everything ends up unraveling was done better then expected. I thought the series was gonna move slow but there were times I wished it'd slow down. THE ENDING WAS THE BEST. I didn't think that a story about a man being in love with a murdering giant would get THAT real but it did! It kind of upset me, so much that I had to make sure it wasn't the actual end. ITS NOT! Coda vol 3 out in Oct 2019. Until then, I'll just be crying for poor Hum.
Profile Image for Amy.
395 reviews53 followers
February 19, 2022
The art in this volume was again stunning and very busy, but I think a lot easier to follow story-wise than the first volume. Although, it might just be that I'd gotten used to it after 5 issues.

As far as the plot goes, this was a lot more straightforward and barebones compared to the first volume, to its detriment I think. It did however allow for more exploration of the focal relationship, which in turn led to the wallop that was the last few pages.

So far this has been a fantastic series, I'm excited to see how how it concludes.
Profile Image for Paula Rodríguez.
247 reviews
May 18, 2024
Centrado un poco más en la relación entre los personajes, pero mostrando detalles sobre cómo funciona el mundo.
Esta historia me sigue llamando la atención, por su dibujo y por cómo se desarrolla. Me parece un mundo de lo más interesante.
Profile Image for Valéria..
969 reviews34 followers
March 7, 2020
Ešte lep��ie ako prvé volume, akčnejšie, zábavnejšie, zaujímavejšie. Skvelé dialógy, skvelé zvraty v deji. A tá kresba sa mi páči viac a viac.
Profile Image for Geoffrey Payne.
149 reviews2 followers
September 19, 2020
I don’t really know what to say about this book, but it’s so good. Original, fun, action, adventure, great characters, what more could you want? 5 out of 5!
Profile Image for Corwyn Matthew.
Author 5 books8 followers
November 26, 2019
More witty and clever dialog. More creative, dystopian fantasy, more intricately tantalizing art, and continued story development that wasn't mindblowing, but definitely entertaining. Overall I love the world they've created, and I like the highly unique and original characters. Some of the coloring is just a little too similar in shade making it difficult to see what's going on in places. It looks great, but it's hard to pick out the story being told by them. Still, tho, very well written and worth the read. It's a little on the "soft" side for my tastes. I prefer most of my reading to be excruciatingly grimy. But even in spite of that I'm definitely looking forward to more.
Profile Image for Clint.
940 reviews11 followers
July 5, 2020
Coda’s middle section is just as strong as its impressive opening. With the world and characters established, Vol2 can focus on a high-stakes stealth mission for two partners with very different end goals. Relationship dynamics are an even greater focus for its plotting and drama and insight this time, which I love, but there’s still plenty of clever takes on fantasy tropes and world-building too. And Bergara’s art is even better; I spent way longer reading this than most 100 page trades simply because I took so much longer looking over each page after I finished reading it.

(And oh my, that Draggin’ Slayer anecdote early on is so good and so bad.)
Profile Image for Rodolfo Santullo.
535 reviews43 followers
October 19, 2019
Segundo tomo -números del 5 al 8- de la que sin duda alguna es una de las mejores series de historieta del año. Coda continúa narrando las aventuras de Hum, quien otrora fuera un bardo en un mundo mágico, que ahora es el antihéroe ideal de este curioso mundo postapocalíptico -me repito porque creo que sirve aún: Coda es como si Mad Max hubiera impactado en El Señor de los Anillos y hubiera hecho todo bosta- ya que roba, engaña y miente según le haga falta para seguir adelante. Hum dice hacer todo lo que hace por Serka, su esposa, una Urkken (orca o similar) quien odia los señores oscuros que la gestaron, volviéndola la máquina de matar perfecta. Serka -como todos los Urkken- tiene incontrolables arranques de furia, lo que lleva a Hum a buscar una solución mágica para "curarla". Pero claro, la magia escasea como nunca y conseguir tan sólo un poco es una odisea. En este segundo tomo, con el universo ya presentado junto a su protagonista, Spurrier se permite desarrollar mucho el elenco secundario, empezando por Serka -que escala a nivel coprotagonista- pero también a la Capitana Notch -de bufón a la mejor de los bandidos- como a un... compañero de Hum que viajará con él muy a pesar suyo. Los diálogos son excelentes y el balance que genera el guionista entre humor, fantasía heroíca, acción y drama es de un nivel notable, algo que muy pocos podrían llegar a lograr de tal manera. Porque además, a medida que uno lee, entiende que todo lo anterior le sirve a Spurrier como excusa para contar lo que verdaderamente quiere contar: una historia de pareja, la difícil relación entre Hum y Serka, que termina por ser el meollo todo de este asunto (triste meollo). Por su parte, hablar del nivel de Bergara en el dibujo es simplemente repetirse. El dibujante desborda en las páginas de batallas épicas pero encuentra momentos de inmensa ternura con escenas tranquilas, de la pareja conversando. Notable en todos los aspectos, creo que en este tomo donde más brilla es en las expresiones de estos personajes taimados, por momentos torturados, muchas veces furiosos, siempre tremendamente creíbles y cercanos. Impredecible, entretenidísima, emocionante y maravillosa, Coda es sin duda alguna una serie a no perderse.
Profile Image for Alex Sarll.
6,502 reviews326 followers
Read
January 17, 2021
"It's not about survival. Any old animal – any worthless scrap of life – wants that. What makes people people, I'd say, is that we complicate matters. We think about survival, we feel, we imagine, we gnaw...you get right down to it, 'people' are just animals with design flaws." Well, Si Spurrier protagonists certainly are. And one thing epic fantasy is very good for, even in this warped and lurid variant (and Bergara makes sure it does always look hideously beautiful, even if that sometimes comes at the expense of clarity), is provide a much better excuse for big speeches than some genres. Also, handy illustrations for what our typically untrustworthy protagonist goes on to say – that even the people who seem like exceptions are mostly just hiding the flaws such that they crack all the more spectacularly once things get bad enough. Which certainly seems like a good summary of my past nine months. But then, "You ask me, best you can hope – when it comes to breaks and people – is to find the one who holds you together, just by being there. And dead gods help you if you don't return the favor." Which is a lot better than any of the advice I've seen in theoretically more obvious places about how to make it through this shitstorm. There's more than that, of course, like pisstakes of the overblown spell names out of Vance by way of D&D, but with the limitations on magic always tied back to some wider point – like how hard and inadvisable it is even for a master of transmutation to try changing people. And ultimately it's a story about people trying to cling to normality and maybe some shred of hope in a world broken beyond any hope of either. Which I imagine was written with an eye on climate collapse, but has become thoroughly topical for adjacent reasons even sooner than expected.
Profile Image for Alex E.
1,489 reviews9 followers
January 6, 2021
Hmm, or more specifically his wife, gets to fulfill her "quest of a lifetime". But sometimes, the end result is disappointing for all parties involved.

I thought this was a stronger volume than the first. Perhaps because I am more familiar with the world and characters and how they work and interact with each other. The first volume throws you into an unfamiliar and wildly imaginative world where everything is strange and dangerous. The frenetic art further overload the senses to where you are trying to make sense of it all in the middle of following the story.

However this volume, our foundation is there, our characters are primed to carry out their objectives, and the stage is set. Simon Spurrier has a great way of giving every character their own individual voice, and is able to play of the interpersonal relationships that they have with each other. As mentioned, the quest does get accomplished, but the fallout is worse than Umm's thoughts on the quest itself.

The art by Matias Bergara is fantastic in this volume. It is dynamic and just a little wild, which gives the book the perfect tone for the story. I think Bergara is able to really cut loose in the big huge battle scenes, but even the ones where a character simply lays in bed, or is walking through smoke, or even simply speaking, have a confidence that carries the story. Great job on the art team overall.

If you liked the first volume, pick this one up because its even better.
34 reviews
July 25, 2024
A decent follow up to Vol 1. Less narration and more dialogue made for a better reading experience, although Hum becomes less of a silent brooding type because of this.

Although I liked the relationship theme (trying to change someone you love, not realising they are going through the same struggle), I did find it a little hard to understand why they love each other in the first place, but I guess that is how relationships can end up.

While utilising a unique post-apocalpytic fantasy setting, the story is really about the relationship between the main couple, and their separate ques... missions.

The art style was a bit more hit and miss for me this time around. Some panels look great and others I'm struggling to separate the characters from the scenery. I'm not knowledgeable enough to know if it's lack of depth of field, or colour choices, or just because the panels are too busy.
Profile Image for Macha.
1,012 reviews6 followers
July 13, 2019
lovely crazy stuff. it's a high fantasy world - but after the apocalypse. magic is scarce, and everything's falling apart. the knight wants to do good, but his quest gets in the way of that, his trusty unicorn is a demon, and in truth his wife is also a bit of a problem area. he's ignoring the world as it is, but that's not always the best strategy. Bergara's artwork is great, heavily influenced by Aragones, and the knight reminds me of Saga.
Profile Image for Adam Šilhan.
653 reviews8 followers
July 14, 2020
Ve skutečnosti banální příběh. Vyprávěný však zajímavým způsobem na netradičním pozadí. Jaký bude high fantasy svět poté, co zlo zvítězí a trvale se změní, jak magie funguje?

Zatím jsem od Spurriera četl jen Six-Gun Gorilla, na kterou ten popis sedí taky hezky. Určitě toho od něj začnu vyhledávat víc.
Profile Image for Sorcered.
425 reviews23 followers
February 11, 2021
Spoiler: NU, volumul 2 nu e mai bun decât primul. Grafica e mai lucrată și ceva mai ușor de deslușit, deși stilul haotic al lui Bergara e la fel de neprietenos cu logica. Dar povestea... ugh. Practic, toată cartea e despre Hum încercând să-și țină în frâu nevasta, dar ea e, hmm, berserker (ceea ce n-ar trebui să fie un spoiler, dacă ați citit primul volum) și, drept urmare. echilibrul din căsnicia asta e puțin fragil :) Oare ce se întămplă când lucrurile stau într-un echilibru fragil? Exact. Hai cu volumul trei, să termin și cu povestea asta (și nu sunt sigur că mai vreau să citesc Spurrier prea curând).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Csenge.
Author 17 books68 followers
August 19, 2022
This series is tearing my heart out and I love it anyway.
Profile Image for Joni.
769 reviews42 followers
March 18, 2022
La historia es interesante, los personajes bien planteados, escrito con maestría para mezclar fantasía, humor y aventuras.
El dibujo y el rotulado se me volvieron confusos por momentos. Tampoco ayuda la edición de Utopía que imprimió este segundo tomo en un tamaño inferior, errores de gramática y sintaxis.
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