It's an angle I could easily see pissing off both the doctrinaire, and those who were already personally invested in the usual Wuthering Heights-esque interpretation, but its popularity isn't ever so surprising when it has Sejic's reliably winning art to convince the doubters. From the most relatable human microexpressions to the grand mythic panoplies and shows of force, she makes it all look both beautiful and real – which also enables her to blur the boundaries between those categories yet keep any hint of bathos entirely deliberate, as when the Styx gives a watery thumbs-up and it's funny, yes, but still impressive with it. Really, my only complaint is that like too many Image books it's littered with homophones, duplicate words and typos, and could really have done with an editor to buff these entirely unnecessary imperfections out of a generally lovely read. Demeter and Persephone are having an argument about attending Artemis's ascension as a goddess, with Persephone wanting to attend her party. Demeter at multiple points in the argument refers to it as "pointless frivolities", promoting such unspoken sarcasms from her daughter as, "Well, when she puts it like that...", And, "'Pointless frivolity'." Not So Similar: When Oedipus asks why humans are socially and divinely penalized for incest when the Gods do it all the time, Charon rather angrily points out that humans are nothing more than meager flesh-creatures while the gods are "pure energy given form" that are "beyond [his] narrow-minded comprehension." Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.*

Mythology Gag: Vlad and Elly of Linda's other work, Blood Stain, get a cameo appearance as one of the many souls in the underworld in this panel . This is worth it for the gorgeous art alone, but it also has cute characters, fun interactions, and a great start to a sweet Hades and Persephone romance that I’m loving so far and looking forward to more of! The pacing was quite slow, but the lovely art made up for it as well as the sweet characters. This was possibly the softest and tamest Hades I've seen depicted before and it made for a nice change. Zeus was also much more tolerable than other depictions of him usually are which also helped make this an enjoyable read. Hades is wandering around invisible, trying to find a trap he knows Zeus left for Persephone as part of his ill-advised but "well-meaning " attempt to play wingman to his brother. He finds Persephone looking over a chariot with a Pegasus harnessed to it. He wants to warn Persephone, but doesn't want her to know he's there, so he keeps mentally responding to her assessments of the chariot with such unspoken retorts as, "Because it's obviously a trap!" Related Differently in the Adaptation: Many of the Greek gods in sexual relationships are no longer relatives, Hades and Demeter are never referred to as siblings or Persephone as his niece for instance. Though it seems the mortals in the comic believe the same myths as in the real world since Oedipus' shade asks Charon why incest is a crime for mortals when the gods supposedly do it so often.

This webcomic provides examples of the following tropes:

So I might just post these fun brainfarts in the " punderworld" folder in my gallery. Think of it as Elly's fanfictions, or i dunno derpy romance novels she reads occasionally XD I love how in detail this author is going with the story, really focusing on the characters. It made things slow-paced and meant we only got the start of a romance forming, but I enjoyed that. This is really the author’s own take on the characters and their relationship, giving them their own unique personalities and feelings. The bit of awkwardness mentioned in the description is fun without being overdone. I also enjoyed getting to see their relationships with other characters, like when Hades and Zeus were chatting. Bait-and-Switch: When Persephone notes that Hades doesn’t have a beard (unlike his brothers and statues of himself), she cheekily asks if anywhere else on him is shaved. He then offers to show her… his armpits. Daddy's Girl: When Artemis is officially inducted into the pantheon with her first temple, the party Zeus throws was done with the idea that she would be treated like a queen for a day.

If you've seen those cute comics of Hades and Persephone that sometimes do the rounds online – this is the first collection of those. Yes, the title is terrible, and not even that applicable, because while there is humour here, it's derived far more from character, reaction faces and the odd pratfall than puns. What I hadn't expected, though, was the serious bits. Given the ongoing vogue for retelling classical legends to point up the raw deal women tend to get in the originals, it's fascinating that Linda Sejic has gone the other way, taking one of the stories where the default reading was that the woman was getting a raw deal, and retelling it as a sweet romance. Thus, Persephone here becomes the overworked, shut-away daughter of a controlling mother, never allowed out to other gods' festivals; Hades, meanwhile, is a shy guy admiring her from afar for centuries, never daring to make a move until well-meaning but brash Zeus appoints himself wingman and lends a hand. And yes, all his initial suggestions do run along familiar lines ("So first, you turn into a bee").Sacred Hospitality: Zeus invokes the Rules of Xenia - the idea that a host will offer food and care to a guest if the guest does not act like a burden - to get Hades to stop bothering him with work in the middle of the party. Accidental Misnaming: One of Persephone's gripes about how she and her mother are worshipped is that her name is virtually unknown in contrast to Demeter's; she brings up that mortals consistently refer to her as "Lady Kore" and complains it's equivalent to being called "Lady Girl".