Snowpiercer: Prequel Vol. 2: Apocalypse (Graphic Novel) (Snowpiercerthe Prequel) by Matz

Snowpiercer: Prequel Vol. 2: Apocalypse (Graphic Novel) (Snowpiercerthe Prequel) Reviews

• 
  Dakota Morgan

  Apocalypse is a modest improvement on the
  Prequel Part 1: Extinction, though the horribly stilted, expository dialogue remains and all the characters blend together under Rochette's thick, bland art.
  
  You know how the story goes: the train is filling up with passengers, but temperatures are dropping around the world and people are getting more and more desperate to be a passenger. We follow three narratives: the train, a trio of potential passengers in the American Southwest, and the Amazonian apocalyptists. The train is easily the most interesting story as conditions worsen. The Amazonian situation descends humorously into madness. I skimmed the tale of the potential passengers - cold, poor folks get colder, poorer.
  
  The ending nicely tees up the original series, though I guess there's one more prequel to go. I suppose I'll have to read that someday because completionism.
• 
  Estibaliz79

  2.5
  
  This was much better than the first volume of the prequel, but still nothing revolutionary and the art is a bit too muddy at times.
  
  Volume 2 takes place right after the "event", and it follows a father and son trying to make it to Snowpiercer, Snowpiercer itself (still making stops to get more passengers, though things are obviously getting increasingly difficult), and the ecoterrorist group on the Amazonia that actually are the reason why all of this is happening. And yes, everything is pretty predictable on its development, but at least it is mildly entertaining.
  
  By the way, just found out that there will be a part three of the prequel. Oh well...
• 
  Sassenach

  La Terre va mal et l’humain n’aide pas à sauver notre planète. Les animaux sont en voie d’extinction, soit par pollution et réduction de leur milieu naturel, soit à cause de la chasse. Les ressources s’amenuisent et la ré-volte gronde. Une organisation écologique, les Warthers, organise des manifestations, brûle des immeubles de sociétés polluantes, provoquant des milliers de victimes dans les incendies. Le chaos s’étend à tous les conti-nents et un inventeur multimilliardaire chinois, Mr Zheng, n’a pas d’espoir sur un éventuel changement. Il est convaincu qu’une catastrophe majeure va venir mettre les pendules à l’heure en diminuant drastiquement la population et pour permettre la survie de l’humain, il a créé un train spécial, où un certain nombre de per-sonnes pourront embarquer en fonction de leurs qualifications et leurs dons, des gens qui seront utiles à la communauté restante. La sélection démarre alors qu’un groupe d’Indiens d’Amazonie, sous la houlette de leur chef et de Jerry, le dirigeant des Warthers, ont d’autres plans beaucoup plus sombres ...
  Ces deux tomes sont le prologue à la série du Transperceneige (mais il devrait au moins y avoir 3 volumes) et n’ont pas tardé à paraître après Terminus (il n’a fallu attendre que quatre ans avec seulement un an entre l’acte I et l’acte II). Là encore, pas de coupure graphique avec les opus précédents ; trait simple et un peu brouillon, décors plutôt épurés, couleurs froides et souvent sombres, qui créent une ambiance lourde et angoissante. On sent, à travers le dessin, tout le chaos qui bouillonne, prêt à exploser, la Terre et la nature qui partent à vau-l’eau du fait des actions humaines et la peur des gens devant ces bouleversements, tant naturels que provo-qués par une poignée de personnes. C’est intéressant de voir les choix effectués par les auteurs, que je trouve originaux et bien menés et on n’a pas de mal à s’imaginer qu’une telle chose pourrait très bien avoir lieu un jour (sauf du côté de la technologie d’un train qui ne s’arrête jamais et qui permettrait une vie en totale auto-nomie car on en est loin pour l’instant). Forcément, compte tenu qu’on se retrouve avant les évènements de la trilogie Transperceneige, tous les personnages sont nouveaux et du coup, on peut très bien lire ces deux tomes avant toute chose (même si la fin de ce prologue n’est pas encore parue). De nouveaux thèmes surgissent avec l’écologie et ses dérives quasi-religieuses, l’extinction de masse et le changement définitif du monde tel que nous le connaissons. Si l’ensemble de cette série est assez sombre, il m’a semblé que ces deux tomes l’étaient encore plus et étaient plus effrayants, peut-être tout simplement parce que cette histoire paraît si proche de notre présent et que les sauveurs potentiels ne semblent pas légion ni toujours très recommandables. Une fois lancée dans cette apocalypse climatique (mais pas que !), j’ai eu du mal à m’arrêter dans ma lecture et je lan-guis de découvrir la fin de ce récit des origines du Transperceneige, même si on sait que le train roulera encore plusieurs dizaines d’années après ça ! 
• 
  Tyler Jenkins

  These two prequels are actually really good and I’m very excited for part three whenever it comes out. My issue is, this series is such an unsalable mess, but what else can you expect when over the course of 5 volumes you’ve gone through 4 different authors. Everyone wants to take a fresh look at the series rather than connect what was. There has still been no explanation as to how no one on Earth knew there were not only 2 Snowpiercer’s but as we learned in volume 3, there are TEN Snowpiercer’s. And I’m failing to see the importance of the secondary story line in these prequels about the terrorists living in the Amazon. So far these two prequels have been the most cohesive story told and that’s thanks to great writing by a single author, and the art remains as strong though every volume thanks to having the same artist all these years. The color work these last few volumes has been amazing. There’s also a very confusing timeline at the end that makes it seem like the comics, the movie, and the show all exist together despite the fact that all of them have different starts to the apocalypse and different reasons for the trains existence. Anyway, I’m looking forward to this series coming to an end with the third prequel and hopefully it can salvage something from this series.
• 
  Meg McGregor

  I wanted to like this graphic novel much more than I did!
  
  I love the TV series, Snowpiercer! It's adept writing, beautiful photography, great acting, and larger than life characters, has me at the edge of my seat!
  
  This Prequel? Not so much! The writing is good, which is the ONLY reason I gave it two stars!
  
  But... the illustrations, are definitely not what I was hoping for! They are hard to see, the font is too small, and they are drawn in a very childish way!
  
  That is all I am going to say! I will continue to read the remaining graphic novels. But......
  
  How I wish the Snowpiercer saga was written in real books ..... not graphic novels!
• 
  Marie

  Un deuxième tome relativement prévisible.
  Comme avec le premier tome, je n'ai pas été convaincue par cette suite. Les événements sont plutôt prévisibles : il n'y a pas assez de place dans le train, ceux qui n'ont pas de ticket veulent y monter. Avec une absence de système judiciaire, la situation de ce train est loin d'être idéale. Quant à la situation hors du train, le groupe de terroristes se trouvant en Amazonie a lui aussi une histoire prévisible. En revanche, ce second tome nous montre bien que les Hommes ne sont pas les seuls à avoir été impactés. L'objectif des terroristes n'a pas vraiment été atteint, puisqu'ils ont également nui à la biodiversité.
• 
  Gary Varga

  This continues to be excellent. The artwork allows the horrors to be depicted without being more gruesome that one's own mind imagines. Oh and the horrors pile on each other as Snowpiercer trundles along after the extinction event.
  
  Jean-Marc Rochette's artwork both allows room for the reader's own imagination yet also illustrates his. Whilst both his and Matz's writing honours Jacques Lob's creation.
• 
  Jake Jeffries

  An improvement over the prequel book 1. I enjoyed the art and story. It serves as a nice cautionary tale of what would happen if overpopulation continues and climate change continues to be ignored. One of the main areas that is questionable is that people actually want on the train instead of disbelieving the science behind it and choosing to instead take their chances without following any safety protocols.
• 
  Sarospice

  3.5 The art got better and the story more intense as everyone wants on the train, if it would even stop for them. Mr. Zheng is an optimist and an idealist, and he's learning that just because you want to save everyone doesn't mean everyone will agree with you. Faced with murder and over crowding, and lowered temps, will Snowpiercer find a way to keep going? Duh. This is a prequel!
• 
  Luci

  La situazione sulla Terra si fa sempre più disperata, con il treno che comincia il suo peregrinare come una moderna Arca di Noè. L'angoscia per vicende che non sono tanto lontano dal reale è presente.
• 
  Gretchen

  Different groups of people deal with Earth's pending doom in different ways. People try desperately to get onto Snowpiercer. Once there, they are unhappy with the conditions. The train operators try to come up with ways to make everything fair and make people happy. Revolution looms in the future.
• 
  Pinky

  The world falls into chaos as the temperatures drop to freezing around the world.
• 
  Terry Mcginnis

  Another solid volume, continuing the trend from volume 1.
• 
  Samu

  The story interests me but the drawing style isn't really my thing
• 
  Eddie Arafat

  Some very bleak stuff!
• 
  Kelsey Williams

  Intriguing! Can’t wait to read the next one!
• 
  Matt Kovar

  I enjoyed this (and volume 1), but it wasn't anything groundbreaking. As a lot of others have mentioned, I thought the artwork just kind of blended together most of the time.
• 
  Amina D'Anima

  idem que pour le tome 1. ça m'intrigue quand même de lire la suite.
• 
  The_Mad_Swede

  This continues the story Matz and Jean-Marc Rochette began in
  Snowpiercer - The Prequel: Part 1: Extinction and unfolds the events leading into the disastrous future of the Snowpiercer series. As with the preceding volume, the focus is not really on the characters (even though there are a few that we follow) but rather on the events and circumstances, as we see a history of the world to come as it were. Given the disasters of the preceding volume, this volume opens in a rather bleak place, and hardly surprising, given what we know of what is to come, the trajectory is a constant downward spiral.
  
  On the whole, I look forward to the third and concluding volume (which is somewhat overdue as it was originally schedule for release in the summer of 2021) to see how Matz and Rochette tie their narrative strands together and project them into the earlier instalments of the overall series.
• 
  jedioffsidetrap

  I thought to re-read the series during a wicked frigid period— I got nostalgic for the icy apocalypse. This prequel is slightly better than the first in that it offers more detail of the end, though it is still a bit sketchy. Again giving me the impression that the author just never thought this thing through.
  
  So we see the world coming undone & the idealism of the train colliding with the messy reality. Like the author, Zheng doesn’t seem to have thought it through so people aren’t able to get on the train even with tix & riots ensue at station stops. No mention of governments or other coordinated efforts outside of the Super Train. Really, no one?
  
  The Apocalypster cult turns out to be stupid too. They crawl into a hole in the Amazon & don’t seem to have bothered with bringing in any plants or animals. Huh. Not very eco-friendly eco-terrorists. Then the leader murders everyone except the shaman. Would definitely want to keep some females around at least and SOME guys to clean the toilets or, you know, FARM, but ok. So that storyline flatlines. Parallels between the two ego-maniacs—one Good (?) and one Eeeevil— but it’s all so thin. Why bother with backstory if it doesn’t add any depth or richness? I don’t know…
• 
  Benjamin

  
  
  
  
  After the somewhat disappointing Part 1 prequel to Snowpiercer, Part 2 was only slightly better. While the previous book in this prequel series was fairly generic with its apocalyptic scenarios, the Apocalypse portion of this trilogy gave personality to the story. Now that there are characters the reader is following, it's easier to relate to the plight of humanity. This still doesn't negate the fact that I know how things will eventually end up since I've already seen the Snowpiercer (2013) movie.
  
  What makes this volume more interesting than its predecessor is that we get to see how humanity would really act in an Apocalypse situation. Once the end of the world finally comes, all bets are off. For the "doomsday cult," their plan hinges on unhinged individuals. For the Snowpiercer project, it's not so easy to control tickets when everyone wants to board. And for humanity, we see exactly what lengths people will go to for survival—even if they might not be considered the best our species has to offer. So, you know, business as usual for an Apocalypse.
  
  While I'm getting more used to the art style for this series, the one thing still nagging me in the back of my head is the Snowpiercer project. Even knowing that the world is ending via a climate catastrophe, the fact that the train was just ready to go precisely when everything went wrong seems unbelievable. Sure, I get the parallels to the Biblical story of Noah's Ark. However, the convenience of being prepared at the exact right time instead of well before or (more likely) shortly after the Apocalypse starts seems highly suspect.
  
  A slight improvement on Part 1 with some still unanswered questions, I give Snowpiercer - The Prequel Part 2: Apocalypse 3.5 stars out of 5.
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