There’s a first time for everything, right? Well, this is my first time doing a detailed review of a comic. I’m not really an expert in art but I have my opinions on what I like to see in comics. I actually really enjoyed this one, so let me share my thoughts with you!  If you’re an author and want to get a review for your work as well, you can sign up here. 

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Title: OmegaHouse

Author: pTerra9

Platform: Tapas

Type: Comic

Genre: Romance

Summary: Kody comes from a world where Omega are treated as outcasts, a segregated part of society. When Kody attends a government assessment know as ‘Test Day’ he ends up being shoved head first into the underground world of illegal Omega auctions and brutal Master Alphas. A twisted dark love story for mature adults only.

First Impression

The banner is the first thing I noticed. The colours are really attention-grabbing to me and the contrast of the colours is good. Maybe using a slightly lighter shade of red would make it stand out even more on the dark background. In my opinion, the banner would be even better without the title on it because it’s not that easy to read. Additionally, on Tapas, it shows the title right under the banner, so it’s not really necessary to have it written on the banner.

The cover is the same picture as the banner. Sadly, it doesn’t have the same effect. The title is barely readable and I can’t really see the details. This cover is the one that potential readers will see when they look for new stories to read, so it should really catch their attention and get them interested. This cover doesn’t really tell me much about the story or, at least, show the art style. 

There’s not much to say about the thumbnails. They seem a bit random but they give the reader a first impression of the art in the comic. I’d suggest using the same thumbnail for each chapter to make it look a bit more organised.

The summary is well written. I’m just wondering if maybe the readers get a bit too much information from that already. This depends on where the story starts and how fast it moves forward. I’ll come back to this later when I talk about the plot to say if I got too much information here already. In general, the summary makes me interested in the comic. The reader already finds out who the main character is and gets a rough idea of the world that this story takes place in.

Going into detail

Let me go a bit more into detail on the first 22 episodes of this comic on Tapas.

Characters

There are many characters and, starting in chapter 2, it often switches between them. At some points, I felt like the main character didn’t get enough attention. While the author tries to give every other character some time in the spotlight, it takes more time to really get to know Kody. However, there aren’t too many characters. It’s more about balancing out who should get more attention.

What is really done well in this story is showing the characters’ personalities without needing much description. In general, the author rather shows the information than telling it. That’s always something I really like if it’s done well, which it is here. The characters also all have their own personality which makes them really interesting. I’d like to know a bit more about the main character, especially his goals and dreams because that’d help me understand him a bit better. Other than that, I’m totally happy with how the characters are shown.

Plot

I’ll start with going back to the summary. I mentioned that I was worried about already getting too much information in the summary. Well, I was wrong. However, I think there’re a few things that could be changed about the summary that I only noticed after reading.

The plot itself is fine. I’m sure there are many people who’ve already read similar stories but as long as an author adds something new to it, I don’t really mind that. 

The tension was really high in most scenes, which might make it a bit too serious for some people. However, there were some light-hearted moments. It’s important to remember the general idea of this story, which is pretty serious. Even some light-hearted moments will be set in a serious context that stays in the reader’s mind. That’s not a bad thing at all, it’s just not a story for someone who’s looking for a light-hearted romance.

At this point, I also have to say that sometimes I already expected something that really happened a few moments later. That’s partly because the foreshadowing in this story is done really well but also because some scenes are just very predictable. Maybe some surprising twists would help with that. 

Writing style

What I really liked about the writing style in this comic is that the dialogues felt realistic. Characters really react to each other and the conversations seem to flow naturally. The readers get to see the characters’ spoken words and their thoughts which really adds to the general experience. Additionally, information about the world and the characters is almost always hidden in the dialogue. That means the reader gets new information from the conversations of the characters which, in my opinion, is one of the best ways to give information!

Art

I’ll mention it here again that I don’t really know much about art so you should probably just have a look at the comic yourself to form your own opinion on the art. However, I can tell you my opinion here: I really like it. The characters all have their own look and I was really able to see the emotions in their faces. There are copyright-free images used as background in this comic which goes well with the art style. Honestly, at first, I didn’t even really look at the backgrounds much because the characters kept me focused on them.

Would I continue reading?

This time, it’s easy to answer this question: Yes! Why? Because the creator of this comic managed to make me care for the characters. I have lots of questions in my head that I want answers to and I really want to find out what happens next. There’s always a good level of tension in the chapters and almost every part ends with a cliffhanger or at least a new, mysterious aspect of the story being shown. 

My Final Suggestions

I don’t really have any suggestions for the story itself. The plot, the writing style and the art are good the way they are. However, I have a suggestion for improving the first impression. It might be a good idea to rethink the summary again. Maybe instead of saying where Kody will end up, it would grab the potential readers’ attention more if that information is made into a question. Additionally, I’d mention that the story also follows the lives of other characters because that takes up a part of the comic.

Concerning the interaction of the readers on the episodes published on Tapas, I noticed that the number of comments went down in the latest chapters. While that could just be a very normal phenomenon that happens to many creators, there are also ways to try and get more interaction. What I’d suggest is asking questions in the descriptions of each part to make the readers feel like the creator is interested in their opinion. I came up with that specific suggestion because I saw that the people who commented often reacted to what was written in the description of an episode and not to the story.

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Although this comic is really something that I enjoy, it might not be the same for everyone else who likes romance stories. Give it a try but note that it has some mature warnings, so only read it if you’re old enough and feel ready for it! I also did reviews of stories that don’t have warnings, you can find them here. If you decide to read this comic, let me know what you think and leave some comments for the creator!