"The Last Count of Monte Cristo" (2023) graphic novel

The Last Count of Monte Cristo. 2023 (160 pages). Script: Ayize Jama-Everett, Art: Tristan Roach. Pub: Abrams ComicArts

I have mixed feelings about this graphic novel. I like to encourage content creators to come up with new takes on the Monte Cristo story. 

This one sets the story 200 years into the future. The cast is dominated by POC characters from Africa, the Indian Subcontinent and East Asia. In this reality, Europe and the West are reduced to non-existent. The general premise is the same as the original. Only that the Earth is dying from climate change and pollution, and the humans send out ships to scrounge plastic and whatever things of value they can find. Bio-algae is of great value. The names may be complicated, so I will call them by their original 1844 names in brackets. 

Personally, I love traditional comic art. But sometime in the 90's it became fashionable to distort the human face and body, and this graphic novel has those trademarks, with wonky body proportions. Plus, computer coloring has been all the rage for a few decades, giving this an overly-busy look. It's hard to tell the foreground from the backgrounds.

Lite spoilers:

• Instead of Napoleon vs. the Royals, the main political conflict is incomprehensible. The African Union, ruled by the Landed African Gentry is *considering* aiding the Dalit Rebellion on an entirely different continent. Villefort's father [Noirtier] is a huge supporter of the Dalits. Villefort prefers that the LAG not get involved. Dantes is intercepted with a message for [Noirtier] (which, BTW is not technically treason against the LAG), so throwing Dantes in a hellhole prison seems a bit overkill (*footnote 1).
• Dantes is subjected to torture at [D'if]. He's hung upside down to a huge wheel, and green leeches torture him physically and mentally. 
• The characters use Arabic terms and refer to Allah a lot, so most are presumably Muslim. And, on a good note, they're very tolerant, and they co-exist peacefully with other religions, even the old African ones, as well as LGBT people. 
• The treasure of Monte Cristo is not an island or gold, or jewels. It's the remains of an advanced scientific ship with self-renewing, non-polluting solar and bio-electric energy, meant to save the world. 
• What's truly great about this book is the rapport that Dantes and [Faria] have. Dantes expresses genuine grief and devastation when his mentor dies. We can see how deeply he cared, and how much it hurts. This is so much better than Gankutsuou!!!
  
•  Because of pacing issues, the 2/3 point of the book is at the end of [Rome]. So the "revenge" part will be severely truncated.

Troubling problems with this story:

• Slavery, slavery and slavery. Since Europe, white people and colonialism no longer exist, they can't possibly be blamed for the fact that Africa, the Indian Subcontinent and East Asia has NOT eradicated slavery yet. Slavery is still a part of life. Including debt-slavery.
• The Count, even in this future age, is OK with slavery. Haydee, drawn in the usual graphic novel fetish-y way, wears skintight latex, poses in the boobs n' butt pose, sits on the sofa next to him and drapes herself over him. He casually boasts, "Haydee is my slave. She has the right to rebel and I have the right to break her. Our balance is one of mutual respect for the other's power." This is truly cringe-inducing and doesn't make any sense! (*footnote 2)
• 
  Too much T&A. Not just Haydee. Vampa (a woman) and Mrs. V are also unnecessarily sexualized, with booty shoved into the front of the panel, and boob windows in clothing while at formal dinners.
• Haydee is kind of bitchy. She has a MAJOR chip on her shoulder and on three occasions, she presses the Count to hurt the families of his enemies. Even after [Fernand] is dead, she barges in on the Count, looking angry, wagging her finger at him. He's ready to give up revenge as no longer worth it, but she's still gung-ho about revenge on innocents and sneers at him for going "soft". (*footnote 3).
• WAY too much violence, man. This adaptation has a lot of violence that substitutes for the original Count's subtle planning that originally caused his enemies to destroy themselves. In this graphic novel, the Count or his allies just kill the perps, either by stabbing them or blowing them up. (*footnote 4)
• The ending is weird. Characters make 180 degree turnarounds within ONE PANEL. It tries to end with a message of hope, but since the graphic novel already stated that humanity is doomed, and can no longer produce children, there's not really much to hope for. The best they can all do is live out their lives among allies and in comfort. Whoopee.
  

Footnotes:

1. 
   Just a few years later, the LAG sends troops to support the Dalit Rebellion after all. Both General Villefort and Captain [Fernand] do their duty and fight for the Dalit side which is what [Noirtier] advocated all along. So why was a young man imprisoned for 10 years, tortured and left to die over a Villefort "family disagreement" about the necessity of this foreign intervention? I suspect that this convoluted logic was caused by conflating two separate, distinct causes (in the original book: Napoleon vs. Royals; France supporting the Greek revolt against the Turks) into one (The Dalit rebellion against oppressive upper castes... in India).
2. There is a hint that "Haydee is my slave" is all a put-on. But we don't understand why the sham is even necessary. Slavery exists in their society. So they're not doing this for shock value or to sound "exotic" or "foreign".
   
3. It's unclear about their real relationship. Are they friends? Allies? Just companions thrown together by circumstance? There doesn't seem to be any affection, or even cordiality between them. Haydee's just unpleasant to be around, and the Count should give her some bio-algae and a vehicle and send her on her way!  
4. How close is the plot to the original? Well, the Andrea subplot is deleted, and Caldaruse is off the hook. And the Evil Trio dies violently and horribly but with too much direct physical involvement from the Count. Here's the standard Plots Point Table!
   

The Plot Points Table

✅	1-Morrel family saved from ruin
✅	2-Franz Max and Albert's Rome Adventure
❌	3-Villefort's secret baby
❌	4-Caderousse murders jeweler
✅	5-Maximilian and Valentine Albert love story
❌	6-Cavalcanti impostors
❌	7-Botched burglary
❌	8-Valentine poisoned by evil stepmom
✅	9-Danglars embezzles money and flees
❌	10-Andrea's trial
❌	11-Danglars' fate
✅	12-The Count sails away with Haydee