copy provided by Image Comics through Netgalley 
 I was so excited for this! 
 The main character is a highly successful woman of colour who is not in a heteronormative relationship! How awesome is that? 
 Those 2 stars are all for that, plus the absence of gratuitous sexualisation and the amazing art work. 
 The story was just too shallow for me - yes there are some heavy subjects approached like, alienation and empathy and what it means to be human, but Mara herself wasn't a particularly developed character. Nor was anyone else, come to think of it. 
 This just read like a stereotypical super hero origin story, with a distinct disconnection between characters - I suppose that's deliberate, to show how Mara was becoming more, but still... 
 It seemed like Watchman ultra-light, with Mara as a young adult female Dr. Manhattan. But with none of the grittiness of the position. 
 Even when we get flashbacks to her parents saying goodbye to her before she was turned over for training, it all seemed so... superficial and sanitized. 
 Also, 
 I get that they're trying to make the reader's focus shift to the philosophical implications of her new state, but really... this needed a why. 
 So, to summarise, awesome artwork, kudos for a character representing several minorities (not that any of these minorities' issues are ever approached...)... and not so great on the character development and cohesive narrative side of things. 
 It felt more like an exploration of philosophy 101. And I, personally, am not here for that.