Anthem #[nn]

Ayn Rand's provocative novella about individual will clashing with a collectivist society gets the graphic novel treatment in this adaptation by Charles Santino and artist Joe Staton. The cover captures the tension beautifully: a green-clad man and a blonde woman share an intimate moment in the foreground while disapproving, robed figures look on with suspicion, while the lower panel shows the same pair in a moment of defiant triumph — the man raising a glowing light — as a crowd of drab onlookers shrinks away in the shadows. Santino and Staton bring genuine visual energy to Rand's stark world, making this 2011 edition a compelling way to experience a story built on the conflict between one person's freedom and the weight of society's control.