Creative Staff:
Story: Jim Zub
Art: Steve Cummings
What They Say:
Rori Lane is trying to start a new life when she reunites with her mother in Japan, but ancient creatures lurking in the shadows of Tokyo sense something hidden deep within her, threatening everything she holds dear. Can Rori unlock the secrets of her power before it’s too late?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Whenever American comics get involved in portraying other cultures, I’ll admit that I get a bit wary with it. There’s been so many bad interpretations of awful stereotypes over the years that it’s a natural reaction. As the creators out there producing books have become more varied, especially in the independent world of comics and the non-superhero world, there’s been a lot more interesting works to come out. With Wayward, there’s a lot to ease some of those concerns right off the bat. Jim Zub is a strong storyteller to begin with and we see here that they want to do some interesting education along the way as well as we get pages in the back the delve into the culture of Japan as written by Zack Davisson. It also doesn’t hurt that the locations in the main book itself will be working from good source material as artist Steve Cummings is living in Yokohama while producing this work, so there’s a bit more of a natural feeling about it.
The series works in a straighforward fashion here as we’re introduced to Rori Lane, a teenage girl of mixed descent as her father is Irish and her mother is Japanese. Her parents split some time ago and she stayed with her father in Ireland, but that didn’t work out well in the end as the two just couldn’t get along. So she’s now on a plane to Japan to live with her mother and grow up there. She was pretty well exposed to both cultures we learn, so it’s not a huge fish out of water story, though we see elements of it because Tokyo is such a different kind of world in its structure and architecture that it’s hard to process at first. Rori’s arrival is fun to watch as she tries to figure things out and we get a city that does a lot of time feel like it’s pretty full of life. We also get a glimpse that she’s something more than a normal person as when she focuses a bit, she sees patterns and lines that get her to where she’s trying to go.
With a few days before school starts, Rori connects well enough with her mother and starts to explore life and shopping in the city, though I wish she avoided the whole costume that she has for part of it that’s just both accurate and awful. What changes everything though is that while making her way back, she gets chased by a huge clowder of cats, which is why she ends up in an alley and finds herself accosted by a group of guys. What saves the day is the arrival from the rooftops of a young woman named Ayane with some really kick ass skills. Very useful skills as we learn that the guys are actually kappa undjerneath masks and that there’s a territorial issue coming into play here, though that’s left for another time. What we largely get is an understanding of what some of this power that Rori has is like in that it shows her escape paths from situations. It’s an interesting ability which she combines with some actual combat skill that she’s unaware of having.
Suffice to say, there’s obviously potential for her and Ayane to become friends and Ayane does start to clue her in a bit on what the “real” world is like, though that’s left for the future. This opening issue was something that worked better than I had thought it would. The cover certainly gives you that whole manga/anime feeling in a good way and there are obvious influences throughout while still adhering to largely traditional American comics panel layouts and designs. It really feels like a very good blend of the styles combined with a good bit of exposition, revelations through showing rather than telling and some solid color design to give it a lot of pop and vibrancy. The book also really does a good job of establishing some of its foundations well, making Rori easily accessible as a character with her heritage and her coming to Japan. All in all, this is a really slick first issue that hits the kind of points that you want for a series introduction.
In Summary:
Jim Zub and Steve Cummings have what’s potentially one of those rare crossover titles that can appeal to both comic book fans and manga fans. While I’ve read a whole lot of manga over the years, comics is where I first started and seeing such a strong opening issue that plays to both is really encouraging to see. The cast is quickly accessible, the action well choreographed and there’s a whole world open with where it can go when it comes to Rori herself and what Ayane may introduce into the mix. Jim Zub does a great job here of making her human and interesting both in the internal dialogue and external while Steve Cummings gives us the kind of city look that comes from being there rather than just looking at a whole lot of photographs and extrapolating from that. Wayward has a lot of potential and it’s definitely on my must-read list now.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Image Comics
Release Date: August 27th, 2014
MSRP: $2.99
