Review by Frank Plowright

By Cataclysm the formula for Miraculous has been well established. Scanning the city, Hawk Moth latches in on someone experiencing intensely negative emotions and exploits that by transforming them into a super-villain. The ultimate aim is to capture the devices allowing Marinette to become Ladybug and Adrien to become Cat Noir. Hawk Moth always acts through catspaws, and the high school classmates are unaware of the other’s secret identity. It’s like having younger versions of Catwoman and Spider-Man in the same stories, but with their genders reversed.

Instead of producing original stories, the series arranges screen grabs from the animated episodes to construct a story in comics form with Nicole D’Andria providing a script based on the episodes. It’s a more effective method than you may image, with workable images of Ladybug and Cat Noir leaping into action.

The super villains this time are Simon Says, with the dangerous power to make anyone do as he says, the Pixelator, who captures people within the images of his camera, and Guitar Villain, who uses his electric guitar to create soundwaves. While there are recurring characters beyond Marinette and Adrien’s classmates, Cataclysm is the first of the graphic novels to feature what’s in effect a continued story. In the first part entitled rock guitarist Jagged Stones turns up with his crocodile at the hotel run by Chloe’s father, only to be plagued by a persistent fan, and in the second Jagged himself is transformed. However, in a rather sweet connecting plot, it’s not just as Ladybug that Marinette interacts with him.

Every collection to date features the same charming mixture of high school problems and superhero action, and Cataclysm is no different. The kids and their parents come across as real people, the action is well choreographed, and the eventual solutions not always obvious. Fans of the animation should enjoy their favourite episodes in a new form.