I remember when I first read about N.D Stevenson's "Nimona" being adapted for TV and thinking "Wow, what a great idea! There's a real chance to bring one of my favourite graphic novels to a wider audience". Nimona was a bit of a sleeper hit when we first reviewed it way way back in the days when we were kid book bloggers. It had all the elements that we loved in a comic. A great set of characters, a bit of sauciness (but not too much), and a real rollicking sense of humour with plenty of action in between those awesome lines of dialogue.
If you took "Nimona" the comic and completely detached it from your mind, wiped your mind with mind rubbers and watched the Netflix show you'd probably come away more satisfied as a result. In fact as I write this review, I can imagine that someone out there is penning a piece that's the exact mirror of this one, expressing their distaste at how the graphic novel doesn't match the greatness of the show. But which came first and which should you really pin your colours to? That, dear reader, is entirely up to you.
Nimona tells the story of a black-hearted knight who wasn't always that way, but ended up forced into an underground existence as a 'villain'. In both the show and the comic, this is tackled subtly differently. In the show he was about to be the first knight of 'common' birth but was framed for the execution of his monarch by nefarious characters. In the comic it's not quite so cut and dried (though poor Blackheart loses an arm either way).
Step forward Nimona, a girl who has the magical ability to assume any shape. A shark with boobs? Sure why not. A gorilla? A cat? A sweet innocent little girl? Her chameleonic ability gives Blackheart an idea on how to clear his name in both the show and the book.
Where the show differs is that it veers off into a sort of cyberpunky futuristic chase story losing all of the atmosphere of the original comic to trade off against trying to keep the underpinning queer romance story front and centre. The show sets up its stall early with Ambrosius and Ballister (bold)(Black) heart as lovers in a different space and time, but seems to do so with all the subtlety and romance of a house brick in the face. That's not the reason for not liking the show by the way, the real reason is that it just felt so dull, dull and duller still while it was trying to get to a point it never seemed to make. Did Netflix pin their hopes on franchising it or setting up for a sequel? The comic didn't need to, it got to the point in a far better way and though some may argue that we don't need subtle queer romance, we need big bold shouty "LOOK THE FUCK AT MEEEEEEE" queer romance, there's room in this world for both and I think the comic did it better.
The only thing I really liked about the show is that Nimona's character actually stayed fairly close and faithful to the comic's version of her. Chloe Grace Moretz was a great choice of casting, and the design and look of Nimona in screen form was pretty cool and complimented the comic version really well. Ballister (Bold / Black) heart however, just seemed like a complete moany old emo and Ambrosius never seemed to make up his mind which side he was on.
Overall I would've been all over a more faithful adaptation but we're long past that now, and it's at least good to hear Nimona being talked about, discussed and also reviewing favourably. I'm now kinda paranoid that one day this will happen to Lumberjanes, and I'll hate the very bones of it but that remains to be seen.
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