Review: Utopia’s Avenger, Vol. 1
originally written for and posted on Comicsnob.com [Dec ’06 – May ’08]
Utopia’s Avenger, Vol. 1
Published by: Tokyopop
Writer & Artist: Oh Se-Kwon
200 (188) pages.
Original Language: Korean
Orientation: Left to right
Vintage: 2004. US edition December 2006.
Translation: Woo Sok Park
English Adaptation: Jai Nitz
Copy Editor: Stephanie Duchin
Production Artist, Retouch & Lettering: Mike Estacio
Cover Design: Fawn Lau & Kyle Plummer
Editor: Bryce P. Coleman
Publisher’s Rating: Teen, ages 13+
Rating: 2 out of 5
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Premise: Gildong and his sidekick, Danu, are campaigning through Joseon in an attempt to rebuild the renown utopian kingdom of Yuldo. What they lack is money. (And maybe tact.) As our story opens, they’ve resorted to being bounty hunters for a little fast cash.
Synopsis:
We begin the book with an ambush and kidnapping: Ju Sanghui, daughter of a wealthy merchant, is beset upon and captured by a gang known as the Bright White Killers. After all her guards are killed, it would seem she is at the mercy of the bloodthirsty thugs, until an unexpected but timely duo show up to her rescue.
Hong Gildong and his sidekick Danu happen upon the sarcastically re-christened Bright White Morons, and while they take exception to the slur, it doesn’t stop Gildong & Co. from handing them their asses. in pieces.
Now the martial arts master and his trusty sidekick find themselves escorting the young Ms. Sanghui back to her father– for the reward, of course. But things don’t go as planned. They haven’t even traveled a day when Sanghui turns up missing after mere minutes of some routine re-con, so we know the game is afoot…
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Review:
This comic is hard to place, genre-wise; sure, it reads like high fantasy and everyone is wielding swords and using voice-activated martial arts moves, but there are also Gildong and Danu’s speeder bikes, white-tablecloth restaurants, and references to things like local broadcasting stations. And instead of horses, a few guys are riding raptors (the dinosaurs, not the birds). It’s kind of a mish-mash, and with action sequences taking up a goodly chunk of this first volume, there isn’t much time to step back and figure out the setting.
Character is a different matter. We’ve got an almost instant read on the hero, his side kick, and Ju Sanghui (who seems to be a strong female character; not just a plot-device-damsel but a potential romantic interest) and while each seems to be clicking into their archetypal fantasy roles, there are enough good details and quirks for each that you almost forget that you’ve seen a dozen dozen characters like these before in other stories. The dynamic between characters and the slowly unfolding mystery of what really happened to the fallen kingdom of Yuldo will keep us coming back for a while, even with the flaws.
It may just be that this is volume one, and I certainly applaud the decision of Se-Kwon to skip a lot of expo and get on with the fight sequences, but a little explanation might have been nice– say, a one page sidebar with some notes so we can orient ourselves to the background. It works either way, and the in medias res approach may in fact work better for a longer series (with the inevitable flashbacks and unexpected revelations about each character–and even the villains–in turn) but I’ll reserve judgment until after I’ve read another 3 volumes of this.
Looked at from another angle, the piling on of several incongruous elements (martial arts, swords, raptors, bikes, modern-style dialogue and sarcasm) may have been a conscious decision on the part of Se-Kwon to throw the reader off balance and set-up a premise where anything could happen next. Again, I reserve judgment … but I fear it’s just sloppy story telling.
I’m showing my bias as a writer again, going on and on about story while the art gets just a footnote– well, a paragraph. One of the best things in the book, art-wise, is the monster in chapter 3; it’s beautiful in a way that only a grotesque slavering chitinous slime-dripping flesh-eating beastie can be– quite lovely, really; it, and the resulting fight sequence(s) are the highlight of the book. Whole pages roll by without dialogue, just speed lines and sound effects. It’s very effective.
At the end of the book, I just find myself wanting more: More about each character, more from each character, more special martial arts moves, and a little more explanation of the story that led us to this point. So, yeah, job well done. I’m still only giving Se-Kwon two marks (like I said, give me more: not just the next book, but some real content) but we should all keep an eye on this one.
