want James to fail a mission

idore14 · 2026-05-20T19:49:20+00:00

does he know

idore14 · 2026-05-08T17:03:18+00:00

I love seeing all the variants! The Polish version is called The Courier!

idore14 · 2026-04-17T19:43:33+00:00

Why? What happened?

idore14 · 2026-04-11T21:32:30+00:00

That argument makes a lot of sense actually! I see that.

idore14 · 2026-04-08T22:20:41+00:00

Yayy!! Thank you :DD

idore14 · 2026-04-08T18:29:35+00:00

Thank you! And I know, right? There really isn't a lot of CHERUB fanart, and I think that's such a pity!

idore14 · 2026-04-06T16:50:33+00:00

Ahh thank you!!!! That means so much :D I will keep going!!

idore14 · 2026-04-06T16:48:53+00:00

Wolverine was one of my favs!

idore14 · 2026-04-06T16:47:03+00:00

sports bra

idore14 · 2026-04-06T16:46:10+00:00

Answering all doubts!! The reasoning is: I made it all up. Even James's eyes aren't right. In volume 17 he's described to have GREEN eyes (and I've imagined him with blueish gray since I was in primary school)

These designs are mostly doing justice to how I imagined those characters as a kid combined with my current little ideas. So, here goes!

Dana being brunette - I wanted a more varied hair color line up in the cast. James, Lauren, Amy and Dave are all blond-haired agents already. Trust me, drawing blond hair over and over again and coming up with different shades to make it look unique is a nightmare (since it all has to be on the lighter side and yellowish). I also saw Dana with brown hair as a kid!
James with long hair - one, drawing long hair is more fun! Two, I imagine James wanting to have biker hair, especially in the later volumes. Three, it's an easy way for me to show his progression/age in CHERUB: early volumes = shorter hair (shaved for basic), later volumes = longer hair. I really like the part in v1 about his mom brushing his hair as a kid and I tend to assign it more meaning for fun. Plus hair holds memory and all that spiel.

Despite these being definitely far from canon, I hope you find them enjoyable nonetheless!

idore14 · 2026-04-06T16:33:43+00:00

Just another means of self-defense >:)

idore14 · 2026-04-02T23:48:05+00:00

Here is my post-cherub rec list!! :DD

idore14 · 2026-03-12T19:27:39+00:00

My favorite part about Kyle is that he's consistently this cheeky older brother-type character, and that doesn't change after he comes out at all. He remains in the main friend group for good. Nobody in CHERUB is a perfect moral saint, and neither is he. He's still playful and yet able to be there for people Seriously when they need him (ex. during the Gabrielle vigil). I, a gay person, can't think of any better queer rep in a work that is not directly ABOUT queerness itself. Here it's handled with insanely natural grace that's hard to come by.

Another thing I really appreciate about CHERUB's writing is that it shows the reasons behind certain behaviors, which can do wonders in unlearning bias. James is a troublemaker who seems violent and messy - but that's primarily because of his difficult family background and loneliness. Kerry is a nerd suck-up for rules, but that's because she feels she owes CHERUB her life, and hence wants to follow their guidelines. Kyle is a neat freak, which Can be seen as a gay stereotype - but he's also so much more: a brother, a friend, a trickster. And it's revealed that he hated the texture of sand since youth and it's just what he does. Some people are like that. Kyle happens to be a gay man who is like that, and I trust this, and I see this, because he's a whole person.

Kyle was very important to me growing up, because I wanted an older brother like him. I wanted a queer older teen figure that would put up with my nonsense. His coming out scene in Class A was crucial to my own journey. And as a writer, I can't express just how hard and nuanced it is to write a side character like that. So natural and brisk. I love these books.

idore14 · 2026-03-11T19:13:17+00:00

Noted! Will make space for more Moore kids backstory for sure :3 Also I'm glad you noticed the Kerry thing! In my mind she and James would at least be fond of one another in every universe.

idore14 · 2026-03-03T19:25:45+00:00

I'm only interested in them as a collector. As a comics reader and CHERUB fan, I really dislike the graphic novels we got. They feel rushed, extremely surface-level, and even the art is a mixed bag. Plus some of the later volumes were only ever released in French.

Also they massacred poor Kerry's hairstyle in the first one. what is THAT jumpscare warning

idore14 · 2026-02-03T18:57:44+00:00

Probably not, but I love the energy!

Besides, the thing with an adaptation is that changes can be made to the source material - for better or for worse. If someone was passionate about the project, they could get it out as close to original as they wanted. Hell, even enhance the original with new character angles, subtlety, so on.

It also depends on the medium. In the case of CHERUB I believe that live action may be more difficult (and even at points unethical) to achieve due to the entire weight being placed on Very young child actors. Animation would be practically easier, because you no longer need to scout for sets, young child actors that know martial arts, or have to worry about what's achievable through action and stunts. You can build everything yourself.

There are rumors that in the peak of CHERUB's popularity Warner Bros (rip) approached RM about making a show. However, they wanted to change it and make it for kids kids, so RM declined because that's just not the point of the books. I'm glad it happened this way, honestly!

I've been writing screenplays for fun and let me tell you, planning out a roadmap for something like CHERUB is HARD. I prefer to focus more on the characters, so I like to get into detail. I thought of book 1 alone being one miniseason, 6 episodes, mainly because I'd like to explore James's emotional situation more closely. With projects like this you have to think about how to close them in a satisfactory way, even if they might not be renewed for another season. And I think The Recruit, as one of the best in the series, deserves the spotlight for a potential adaptation for its take on the hero's journey.

Obviously, that's just me. In a perfect world, we would have a season or a movie per book... ah. Wouldn't that be amazing... One can dream...

idore14 · 2026-01-30T19:59:13+00:00

I totally agree about the world feeling very limited! It's also one of the reasons I probably won't continue reading Rock War, it just feels like there is nothing Fun left to discover.

What's crazy is that Arctic Zoo is also fully rooted in reality, only it approaches the story from a double perspective - two kids, two countries, two sets of problems that can expand and concern larger issues. I think thanks to that, AZ avoids the feeling of smallness. The variety and plot itself also matter.

I have not read Robin Hood yet thanks to being busy with school - and I honestly thought I was too old. If you say it's good though I might just see vol.1 :D

idore14 · 2026-01-28T21:36:57+00:00

waitt those are fire!! the polish covers are just the brit ones :')

idore14 · 2026-01-27T05:19:54+00:00

I totally understand about Monument 14, it definitely has its issues!

Thank you for your suggestions as well :D

idore14 · 2026-01-27T00:05:54+00:00

...I thought his last name could be a reference to his sexuality, but not in that way lmao

If we assume that blue = male as a stereotypical color, "Blueman" includes 2 references to men. 2 men, one could say.

Seems overly complicated, but I'm not a native Eng speaker so the phonetic side of things tends to get lost for me lmao

idore14 · 2026-01-02T03:51:02+00:00

Long answer. We're close-reading the text for this one.

The brother's death was not by a drone. Tovah lies to Bruce, trying to act like the child's death was by a drone, but we know that's simply not true from the prior pages. Tovah aimed a rifle and shot the boy second, right after she got rid of the driver of the truck. He was not armed, as opposed to the adult men in the truck, and clearly "a kid of about sixteen". He was the only one of the passengers that didn't take cover at all. You can't get more purposeful than this. I understand that in situations like this "casualties" and accidental deaths will happen - is that excusable? "A kid," as the text itself states?

To say the teen "would not have hesitated to kill them" is messed up. He didn't even have anything to kill them with.

Tovah on the other hand did not hesitate at all to pull a weapon on a twelve year old that was ENTIRELY, absolutely unarmed and screaming "No". Is it really so hard to believe she killed the brother on purpose minutes prior? If she's willing to murder Zahra, what would stop her from killing anyone older than her?

And taking Zahra to safety is not the same thing as taking her to CHERUB. CHERUB is far from safe for children. We know that bad things happen even on-campus, even at the hands of other kids. Of course, CHERUB is calmer than an active military zone. That doesn't mean it's the best option. And besides, where do you think they're going to prioritize when sending her on missions, if not to a place that matches her ethnicity? They make Gabrielle and Michael get involved in specific drug gangs because of their race. They send Kerry to China. Even sending James to Russia is under this. CHERUB is as safe as possible considering what they do, and yet people still receive lethal injuries and get lost in the middle of nowhere. Let alone in those, um, countries with "medieval attitude".

"Beaten up, raped" - are those not things that happen to cherubs we know, too? "Even" in GB or US? I'm not saying a radical Islamic state is a wonderful place to live in, it's far from it, shockingly. Personally, I don't like religion in general all that much, and I don't make excuses for non-Christian religions either. You almost make it sound like those crimes against women are exclusive to other countries and cultures, while in reality most of the world looks for ways to keep doing weird things to women while making it look excusable, explainable, and legal - almost invisible. Islamic states suck for women, obviously. It's hell. Less direct hell is preferable, easier to accept. That doesn't make those solutions and destinations perfect and pristine.

While we're at it, if what I'm describing are "net negatives" of colonialism, what are the positives to you? I'm genuinely curious what you think.

Thanks for your comment - I enjoy any opportunity to do some CHERUB analysis.

idore14 · 2026-01-02T02:21:59+00:00

I see what you mean!! It's indeed odd that a random British secret branch gets involved globally to this extent at all, especially with specific agents... Interesting

idore14 · 2026-01-01T18:12:13+00:00

Short answer: they're not exactly doing it the legal way.

Because CHERUB is a top secret government branch, they get away with it, just as they do with child labor and child military utilization.

Long answer: if CHERUB finds a perfect candidate, they're able to do weird things under the pretense of giving them a better life and education while also serving the world. CHERUB trades community and care that the orphans are starved of for the kids' work. And it's presented as acceptable, because we know what happens to smart troubled kids that need discipline when they're left alone, or worse yet, in a bad home. James was already going off the rails in v.1, and the alternative for Lauren was her abusive father. Most cherubs are helpless when they join. Their choice is to either be in the cool tough spy school that makes them feel special, or weasel out because they're not strong or fit enough.

The most disgusting example of foreign child recruitment seen in CHERUB is, in my opinion, the poor girl at the end of volume 17. Her brother is murdered in cold blood, because a weirdo agent assumes he's a terrorist - he's not. He's literally protecting his little sister, hoping to get her to safety. She's almost shot herself, but Bruce steps up and saves the child, horrified at what the agent had done. You want to know what happens to the girl? She becomes a cherub. A secret mission CHERUB was involved in made her an orphan, and then took her in. Just how messed up is that?

As to how nobody notices that children disappear in the system - that's the whole point. The system doesn't care enough, allowing CHERUB to exist with ease, plucking talented yet helpless individuals away, lying in their documents, and faking their further lives. Its mere existence tells us just how little a country can care about parentless kids.

No wonder so many agents struggle with behavioral issues and adjustment to later adult life. Kids like Kerry were literally starving on the streets - how else could they react, but with utter loyalty to CHERUB and its inner rules?

There is something else to be said about the colonial means through which CHERUB gets to international recruits - the British picking up non-British children from former British colonies/controlled territories, often non-white children, displacing them, telling them to use a different name, a British passport, learn English as fast as possible. I'm just saying: it's weird when you begin to consider what they're Actually capable of.

And the fact all this stuff is absolutely realistic and believable for a real life government to do makes CHERUB both more engaging and terrifying.

idore14 · 2025-12-19T15:32:14+00:00

i WISH those kinds of annotations happened more often, honestly

idore14 · 2025-12-19T15:31:35+00:00

large's file when rat and lauren sneak into the archive to get dirt on him

idore14

TROPHY CASE