Deus Ex Universe Volume 1: Children's Crusade

Book looks great and it was a great prologue to the game. The thing that surprised me was that it was a graphic novel. Loved it.

If you are a fan of deus ex, especially of human revolution and are curious about some of Jensen's time with TF32, get it. The artwork is lovely and enjoyed reading it.

A must have for any fan of the franchise and cyberpunk in general.

Deus Ex Children’s Crusade is a prequel tie-in to Deus Ex Mankind Divided. This volume contains all five issues of the series. Following the events post the tie in novel Deus Ex Black Light. We follow Adam Jensen the protagonist of Human Revolution and Mankind Divided in his early days with Task Force 29 an Interpol Anti Terrorism unit.Children’s Crusade was an enjoyable read. As a fan of the games this does capture the Cyberpunk aesthetics of Deus Ex. Capturing the social and political climate of Mankind divided with the mechanical apartheid world left at the end of Deus Ex Human Revolution. The story was another strong aspect following augmented children being used as terrorist in Dresden with tension between augmented and non-augmented reaching a high and Jensen being in the middle. The biggest problem I had was with the volume was the mediocre art and drawings of the comic. It's not the worst art, however it leaves a lot to be desired. The art is very cartoonish looking, with many of the characters looking like their drawn for a flash cartoon rather than a comic. It is not a complete disaster I give the artist credit with the the panels that drew the gameplay sequences from the games such as hacking and shooting it was nice homage to the original source material.Deus Ex Children’s Crusade was a pleasing read. Although it's not necessary for the games or any other tie-ins it’s still nice read. It does help with some of the shortcoming of Mankind Divided plot helping bridge the gap between Human Revolution and Mankind Divided. It also serves as a sequel to the tie-in novel Black Light. As a fan of Deus Ex or a fan of cyberpunk Children’s Crusade is worth a read.

This trade paperback compiles all five issues (February – July 2016 ) of the ‘Deus Ex: Children’s Crusade’ comic book series that was one of a number of media tie-ins to the ‘Deus Ex: Mankind Divided’ video game released in August of that year. This compilation also features cover, character, and promotional galleries in its back pages.Needless to say, as a prequel to ‘Mankind Divided’, this comic book series is not going to be very comprehensible to anyone not familiar with the video game franchise. Having played ‘Mankind Divided’, I found ‘Children’s Crusade’ to be moderately interesting.The storyline is set at the very beginning of Adam Jenson’s sojourn with Task Force 29, Interpol’s special police unit headed by Jim Miller. There is running drama over whether the team will accept an Aug like Jenson; consequently, he will have to prove himself. This he has abundant chances to do, as the main plot focuses on a rogue Aug, who has brainwashed a cohort of children into becoming literal human bombs. The Aug’s goal for this warped bit of excess is simple: carry out a terror campaign to force Western Europe to relent in its persecution of the Augmented.I won’t disclose any spoilers, but I will say that there are secrets and conspiracies to be uncovered – a tried and true Deus Ex trope, of course.‘Children’s Crusade’ does a reasonably good job of conveying the cyberpunk stylings of the video game franchise, and of working aspects of the gameplay (such as Infolink conversations, hacking door locks, applying Cloak, etc.) into the comic book. However, I found writer Alex Irvine’s script to be too complicated for its own good. Irvine attempts to keep too many narrative threads running at the same time, and the result is a continuous melange of conversational and monologue text boxes. Indeed, in some panels there are as many as three separate narration boxes, all with different color codes…..trying to track who is saying what quickly becomes exasperating.John Aggs’s artwork is ‘cartoony’ in style; his depiction of faces, like those of the child characters such as Emilia, has a Manga inspiration that, in my opinion, really doesn’t mesh well with the Deus Ex ‘aesthetic’.The overall attitude of the book is strident, belaboring the Non-Augmented Vs Augmented conflict more than is necessary. It’s past time to revive the atmosphere and mood of the original PC game (2000), which mixed Warren Spector’s unique sense of satiric humor in with its multi-layered conspiracy theories.Summing up, this comic is intended for Deus Ex fans, less so, for fans of cyberpunk as a whole. It does a competent job in framing the main storyline of the game, but doesn’t go for much beyond that.

When Deus Ex: Mankind Divided opens we find Adam Jenson in Prague working with Task Force 29. TF29 is a division of Interpol, and is dedicated to anti-terrorism activities and Jenson is the newest member.Children's Crusade is a prologue to the game and it chronicles Jenson's first mission with TF29. The book does a good job of establishing Jenson's relationship with the team, introducing characters, and setting the general tone of the world. As an added bonus there are character bios for many of the important characters you'll find in the game.While not essential, it does a good job of getting you into the world and the game.

To quote Alan Partridge.This graphic novel (collected edition comic book) details the bridging story between Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Mankind Divided with Adam Jensen assigned to an InterPol task force in Prague with the aim of finding a mole in the organization that will lead him to the Illuminati string-pullers. In doing so he uncovers a scheme by repressed "Augs" mobilized as terrorists to make a spectacle on the world stage.The parallels between the crumbling, paranoid, and fractured Europe of this universe and the Europe destroyed by mass third-world immigration in the real world are interesting, if obvious. I've not played Mankind Divided yet but the outcome of Human Revolution left a wide-open set-up for all sorts of storytelling possibilities until we come to the events of 2052 with JC Denton. It seems a little odd having Jensen work as part of a team though, as we are all used to assuming his role as a lone wolf agent.Worth reading to have a better understanding of the gap between the video games and putting the story into better context, but not essential reading by any means.

Great story that adds to the political and social climate of Mankind Divided.

Para los fans de Deus Ex, este comic es puro delicatessen: vemos la primera mision de Jensen en la TF29, una maquinacion de los illuminati, las investigaciones secretas de Jensen y Vega, un padre e hijo llenos de odio que encarnan el dolor y furia causados por el Incidente Aumen... magnificas fichas de personajes al final. Que pena que no haya más.For fans of Deus Ex universe, this comic is pure delicatessen: we can see the first mission of Jensen in TF29, his investigations with vega, a Illuminati conspiration, a father and son leading opposite sides, fulls of hate, encarnating all the pain and hate caused by the Aug Incident... Wonderful cards of game ersonnages at the end. Is sad there aren't more comics like this of the serie.

Book was received and was as expected

Good art and a nice introductory story if you enjoy (or plan to play) Mankind Divided, gives a little more depth to some of the characters from the game.

J'ai trouvé cette bd très intéressante.On voit adam Jensen faire ses pas dans sa section d'interpol, avec toute la ségrégation du monde dans lequel il évolue. Même à l'intérieur de son équipe. Très intéressant à voir la suite comment ca va se démener.

all good