Maximum Ride Volume 7 by James Patterson

9/10

Illustrated by Nanae Lee

Thanks to Fang's using the blog to send out the message to the world about the evil organisation, the world could be saved. It finally paid off, but there are the repercussions to face from getting the evil organisation shut down for experimenting on humans in order to turn them into something better, more advanced. Their experiments have used avian genes, splicing them with humans so they can develop wings and fly. Their abilities don't stop there though; they can also locate places easily and gain other powers.

Max, or Maximum Ride, and her "flock" are genetic experiments that were created in a lab called the "school" where they developed their abilities, mental and flight capabilities. They might have this, but they have no homes to go to and no family to return to either. When some break out of the school facility, they are hunted down by Erasers like Ari who were former experiments and friends. The flock were the ones who found out the truth about ITEX and their plans to reduce the population by half. When Ari helped the flock, he was about to be a part of the flock, but as Fang got angry about it and opposed his inclusion into the group; they all went their separate ways.

Max is the most hurt by circumstances beyond her control when her, Nudge and Angel are captured and Marian Janssen tells her she is her mother and Jeb Batchelder is her real father. This is enough to take in, until she believes it's like when someone else pretends to be her real birth mother. Maximum Ride Volume 7 is a manga with a whole bunch of characters: Iggy, Gasman, Angel, Fay, Max and Nudge to name a few. The main focus of this volume is seven year old Ari, an Eraser who has wings like the others in the flock, but as he was eraserfied, he had changed into a half human, half wolf hybrid that shocked his half-sister, Max. She thinks he is dead, though this is far from the truth. Ari is still very much alive and looking for her.

Scientist Jeb has a talk with the flock and encourages them to go to the government who want to see their progress, but Max is dubious at their interest. There are several novels in the Maximum Ride series; The Angel Experiment, School’s Out Forever, Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports, The Final Warning, Max, Fairy, Angel and Nevermore.

These graphic novels are all originally written by James Patterson and illustrated by Nanae Lee. There is a recap of the past six volumes events for those who haven’t read them, and a character list in colour. In fact there are several pages in colour both at the start and inside the middle pages. While Ari closely resembles Wolverine from the X-Men, Patterson goes onto parody the characters as having mutant-like traits from these comics. Max is a strong female role model while Ari tries desperately to change who he is and find Max.

This manga shows that anyone can change, even the bad guys.