Athena Grey-Eyed Goddess

George O'Connor — 2010

Boom! Pow! Crash! Greek Gods as you’ve never seen them before! The strong, larger-than-life heroes of the Olympians can summon lightning, control the sea, turn invisible, or transform themselves into any animal they choose. Superheroes? No! Greek gods. The ancient pantheon comes to explosive life in this new series where myth meets comic books. Epic battles, daring quests, and terrible monsters await readers within the pages of these books. Volume 2, Athena: Grey-Eyed Goddess, is the tale of the goddess of wisdom and war, recounting her many adventures. Review in 3/15 Kirkus Following the series opener that chronicled Zeus’s origin story, O’Connor’s next relates the details of his daughter Athena’s birth and some of the stories about her. The three Fates narrate in stately language, briefly recapping the rise of the Olympians before turning to Zeus’s relationship with Metis, which ends when he eats her to avoid his prophesied overthrow by their child. Following Athena’s miraculous emergence from his head, fully grown, she struggles to find her place in the world and among the gods. The Fates go on to recount how she adopted the first name Pallas and acquired the components of her Aegis, which includes the story of Perseus and Andromeda, and Athena’s confrontation with Arachne. While less unified in narrative structure than the previous book, this nevertheless shares its strengths—a balance between heightened narration and colloquial dialogue, superb graphic storytelling with extended wordless action sequences, energetic backmatter and a palpable fondness for the subject matter. Up next? Hera. (author’s note, character profiles, “G[r]eek Notes,” discussion questions, bibliography) (Graphic mythology. 8-14) GEORGE O'CONNOR is the author of several picture books, including the New York Times bestseller Kapow!, Kersplash, and Sally and the Some-thing. His debut graphic novel, Journey into Mohawk Country, was published by First Second, as was Adam Rapp's Ball Peen Hammer, which O'Connor illustrated.

Reviews

Sarah Sammis@pussreboots

Apr 4, 2024

Athena: Grey-Eyed Goddess by George O'Connor is the follow up to Zeus: King of the Gods. It was short listed for a Cybils award in the young adult graphic novel category. The book tells of the life and times of Athena through a series of short episodes. It's a decent introduction to her myths in Greek mythology and might be fun for kids who have read the Rick Riordan books. There's no doubt that Greek mythology is hot stuff right now in tween and YA books. It's probably the Percy Jackson effect. There's an influx of graphic novels inspired by Greek mythology, including graphic novel retellings of the Percy Jackson books (post link to Lightning Thief gn review). While I'm normally a raving fan of pretty much anything published by First Second, Athena wasn't my cup of tea. Athena didn't stand out among the crowd of these Greek myth graphic novels. It's a perfectly adequate retelling but it wasn't an outstanding example.

Ken Yuen@kyuenrobo

May 10, 2022

Informative. Love the extra info pages in the back. It's great that it covers heroes, monsters, deities that appear in the stories. I've never seen Andromeda represented with dark skin before. As a princess of Ethiopia, that makes a lot of sense! I used to really like Athena for what she represented, but man does she curse a lot of people. It's weird to have a book devoted to Athena, and have a bunch of stories that paint her in such an unflattering light. But maybe that's just me bringing my adult sensibilities into it.

Grace O'Callaghan@graceinneverland

Jan 4, 2022

*2.5 ⭐️ I had the same issues with this one as the first one. I can see how it would be interesting to someone who knows nothing about the Olympians, but apart from that I don’t really see much point. Again, the art style is nothing you haven’t seen before. It’s overall a very classic comic feel. I did not like the colour palette at all in this one, some really odd colour combinations. I just find the gods to be juvenile in this series. At times it tries to be funny but doesn’t really work. I was just bored for the most part. Overall, nothing really special, if you’re looking for an introduction into Greek mythology, maybe. But then I’d suggest reading Percy Jackson if you’re looking for an accessible way to consume myths.

Danielle Raymond @idkmydude

Jun 20, 2022

Lauren Stewart@laurenmicheleonline

Feb 4, 2022

Ezgi Çilingiroğlu@ezgic

Nov 28, 2021

Kimberly@kmbrly925

Nov 17, 2021

Enfys J. Book@enfysbook

Sep 30, 2021