How do you beat evil? You don’t – that would be like trying to outwit Ragnorak. Still there is something to be said about a town where evil drives through and interjects itself into your family’s life every generation or so. That’s a minor inconvenience for Sun Green as she’s grappling with dreams involving her aunt Sea and twin sister Luna who died in infancy.

Yes, Sun, Moon, Sea – the names of the Green women are the least of their quirks. These women who have a powerful relationship with nature seem to pay dearly for it. For Sun everything in her presence shines a little brighter. But when she turns 18 like a solar eclipse evil passes in. Disturbing enough, but the rest of her life is coming unglued as well. Her father is drinking Jack Daniels as if its water, her grandfather is deteriorating from Alzheimer’s and her drug-running cousin is falling deeper into despair.

Reading Greendale harm to the environment runs prevalent as an overall theme. However, its closeness to the Green women alongside the forthcoming pilgrimage to Alaska causes confusion as to what the reader is supposed to get from this trade. Sun does temporarily defeat the evil that comes to town that only she can see and in “a war against the overwhelming lack of imagination that has led us to total systemic corruption” she reigns supreme. Still there’s something off about this narrative.

For one thing, the relationships though told in-depth make no real connection to the audience. How is the bond between the elements and the Green women supposed to put Sun on the path of political and environmental responsibility? No one likes being preached at and although Neil Young’s incarnations of the Greendale story have been successful, in graphic novel form it doesn’t have the bite of a Vertigo comic.

The question is does Neil Young’s Greendale have what it takes for you to be interested in the lives of these people? Though Joshua Dysart’s writing is palpable it is hardly the “American fable” the back of the book portrays it to be. What it is – is a story about a girl, who goes through a lot of crap in a short span of time and finds her purpose. If you’re looking for a little inspiration then try it, but it won’t change your life.

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