Hinds’s approach to word-and-image storytelling actively deploys the space of the page, making use of irregular, diagonal panels and full-page bleeds, mixing up the composition — it’s dynamic, unlike many plodding adaptations. Along with a helpful “Cast of Characters,” the book also offers an impressive notes section, beautifully laid out, and populated with tiny images from the pages we have just read. An expert at condensing the story without losing its gravitas, Hinds is also talented at distilling sophisticated literary and historical traditions into clear and readable prose. For example, he explains that while “Homer” is “more the title of a tradition” — a long oral tradition — “than a single person’s name,” for simplicity’s sake he will refer to Homer as an individual and “any time Homer is mentioned, you can mentally add ‘or the bards of the Homeric tradition.’” Hinds cites five translations (from the Homeric Greek) on which he drew while working on the book; adapting the “Iliad” makes a particular kind of sense, as Hinds was unhindered by one original text, capturing a malleable story that was itself initially sung and chanted.

Hinds has made a career of producing high-quality comics takes on great literature; his previous adaptations include works by Shakespeare and Edgar Allan Poe, as well as “Beowulf” and the “Odyssey.” A self-described “nerdy kid” who drew all the time, and did “well in school, read a lot, and was fascinated by martial arts,” Hinds created successful video games before becoming a full-time cartoonist. You can tell all these things from his “Iliad” — especially in the battle scenes: Not only is this edition scholarly, but there’s good pacing, a lot of blood and, as previous reviewers have noted, a lot of beefcakes. The “Iliad” is about brutality; Hinds holds nothing back, even as a young adult audience is his likely market. In a back-matter section addressing the poem’s relevance, he glosses its plot: “Angry arguments driven by pride turn into personal tragedies to which I think we can all relate.”