The closest I'd ever come to comics was reading the ones in the paper. I'd never read a comic book and I had certainly never read a graphic novel. In all honesty, I didn't expect to like reading a graphic novel, but Zorro surprised me. I don't think I'll ever want to read graphic novels over actual novels, but as a reader it was a nice exposure to something new. With that said I did get a little lost in the format of the pictures sometimes, but after I read the words I eventually was able to decipher the order of the tiles. My favorite pages for the artwork were the ones without lines, like the cave, it made it really pretty, and I also loved the one of how his parents met and fell in love. It was very creative to format it like a scrapbook.
Without showing this background page you wouldn't have known that Zorro was mestizo and the fact that he is mestizo is one of my favorite aspect of Zorro as a character. I could really relate to that, because I'm part the United Kingdom, German and Native American. This mixing of these ethnicities makes him very relatable for a lot of people out there. Also, I think It made his life make so much more sense, not that I knew much about Zorro before I read this book, but it made sense as to why he would want justice for the people. The other thing I really liked about this book is the way that Wagner parallels the times in the book. It keeps you suspecting that Diego is going to be Zorro, but it doesn't officially tell you until the very end. I thought it also added some anticipation about what was happening in the different times.\
What also made this novel so good was that the suffering and injustice in this book was believable, because it was close to things that I had learned about in history class. I think that helped to make it real for me. Especially with Zorro's likeness to Robin Hood, it really made him easy to connect with. However, my favorite character has to be Bernardo. Without him Zorro wouldn't be who he is because Bernardo was Zorro's connection to the people that he was seeking justice for. Their friendships withstands judgment from outsiders and allows both of them to understand things about each others places in society.
The idea that justice can be accomplished outside of the law is an interesting concept explored by not only Zorro, but Batman, Robin Hood and others. This message is almost a dangerous one because it almost encourages justice to be sought out outside of the law. In places like Romania, where there are blood feuds going on instead of letting the government handle it is only causing chaos. Which brings into question the line between vengeance and justice, because they most certainly aren't the same thing even though they can overlap. Such is the case in the character The Punisher, he wants justice and vengeance for the deaths of his family. Comparing heroes of old to heroes now, makes our definition of justice kind of questionable. Think about the show Dexter, is he really a hero? He kills people that have done awful things but does that make it right? I can't say, but we should look closely at those that we consider to be heroes today as opposed to those that we used to because I think the differences are surprising.
