Respect the Legend. Idolize the Prodigy. Celebrate the Champion. But never underestimate the Rebel in this electrifying graphic novel adaptation of the Legend series’s grand finale.

Eden Wing is a brilliant student. He’s about to graduate a year early from Ross University of the Sciences. But most people don’t introduce Eden this way. Instead, they say, “This is Eden, Daniel Wing’s younger brother.”

Ten years ago, Daniel was known as Day, the boy who led a revolution that saved the Republic of America. Day has since spent the past decade piecing together his memory of his time in the Republic, quietly hiding from the world―even if it’s meant giving up June, the love of his life.

When June suddenly steps back into Day’s life, rekindling the flames of their romance, the pair team up to rescue Eden who’s been drawn into Ross City’s dark side. But like the rest of the world, they may have underestimated Eden―what he’s capable of, where his loyalties lie, and how hard he’s willing to fight for what he believes.

Return to the world of Legend in this epic graphic novel adaptation of the pulse-pounding finale to the series, which brings to life the bestselling Rebel with full-color illustrations.

If there’s any regret I have about reading this graphic novel, is that I have never touched the series upon which it is based–Legend and its related novels by Marie Lu. I didn’t pay close enough attention to the description to realize that I probably should have read those books before diving into the comic, but…oh well!

I will be judging this as someone completely going in blind. There’s a rich world here–a Republic of America, a skyscraper-filled Antarctica (!!), and a decadent Undercity where drone races run rampant along with crime.

The story starts after a rebellion by Daniel, and all seems to be well and good, except Daniel’s brother Eden is struggling to forge his own identity detached from his famous brother.

One of the most curious things about this story is the Level System, where people are assigned numbers that designate their status in life. You can earn points and gain points at any time, although I don’t know how much change the points can do to the Level System if the points are on the lower side. But we see it in action when Eden gets into a fight with bullies at school who like to mess with him about his brother. He loses ten points for “accosting” his bully.

Anyway, the Level System is the whole driver of conflict in this graphic novel. It’s supposed to make life more convenient and easy, but actually, people are in a way enslaved to this system. If your Level number is too low, for example, you can’t get the medication you need to treat your serious illness. It’s class division stratified.

Eden does drone racing to test out his new engine he’s been designing for years, and wins the race, which catches the eye of Mr. Hann, who wants the core of the engine to be added to his giant machine built under the undercity. The machine is designed to destroy the Level System, which appears to be implanted in every human, and Eden’s invention does the trick as the kill switch.

However, we learn that Mr. Hann is manipulative and can’t be trusted, despite his sad backstory as a creature of the underworld and an honest desire to break the system for good. Or so Eden thinks…until the idea occurs to him that maybe Mr. Hann wants to reshape the System in his own image and control everyone.

I think that’s a really interesting story! Eden’s brother Daniel appears often in the tale, along with his not-so-ex-girlfriend (can’t remember her name), as well as Eden’s best friend and soon-to-be-girlfriend (whose name I also can’t remember). The girls are kind of side characters to me and I didn’t find them memorable enough–just as objects of affection. Daniel comes and goes as Eden’s annoying protective older brother (that’s Eden’s POV) and we get bits and pieces of the larger plot that was created in the Legend series and its aftermath. Because I never read those books, these little moments didn’t mean anything to me, but might mean something extra special (especially in terms of closure) for fans of the series.

I really like the art in this comic. I am always on the hunt for expressive faces, and I think the depictions of grief work really well, as well as images of trauma being re-experienced. I really love the coloring in the comic, though. Bright and brilliant or blue and gray and moody in other places. Just a great variety of shades to make it interesting.

So, having no idea what any of this was about, did I have a good time reading it? Yes, I did. But I kept feeling the emptiness of not knowing the overarching story from the books. The main plot was exciting but the side scenes with the characters–the former leads of the books–didn’t mean that much emotionally to me. Again, I do believe they will resonate with fans already familiar with the book.

I think a fair score for me would be four stars just because the main Level System and uprising related to that was so interesting.

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Rebel: The Graphic Novel will be available in digital and print September 1, 2026. You can purchase it from a variety of booksellers online and in person, or directly from the publisher.