Creative Staff:
Story: Jim Zub
Art: Steve Cummings
What They Say:
Rori’s uncanny senses lead her to a classmate with a dark secret…one he’s willing to kill to keep hidden.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The debut issue of Wayward certainly tickled my fancy in the right way as it gave me a Western approach to Japan that largely worked even as it hit on a lot of familiar ideas. These are pretty regular things used within the anime and manga world, so there aren’t any real surprises with it, but it was well executed and handling the transplant point well coming a bit more from the Western perspective than we usually do with Japanese creations since the curious differences in cultures tend to be more overdone in manga and then dropped relatively quickly in order to get to the main story. With the second issue, things move along a bit more, providing some thought on what had happened, but also adding more complications to Rori’s life.
These complications are a mixed bag for her since it covers a few different areas. Her adjustment to being in Tokyo is certainly interesting to see, but it’s an area where she’s getting a lot more of a laid back feeling from her mother, which is unsettling, as it feels like there are things she’s not being told already. That’s a big flag right there since she can tell so quickly and after being separated from her for over a year. Even worse in a way is that Rori is really struggling with school, from the April start when she’s thinking summer vacation already, and just that it’s so hard to really get in tune with the very different style of high school here. It also doesn’t help that while she was proficient at Japanese in a kind of basic way, and certainly enough that it would impress back home in Ireland, we see here that in the real world of Japan, she’s struggling with the speed of it and the clique nature that has come in. And just some of the cultural differences, such as her natural hair color being a problem for faculty. Which makes sense depending on the school, but it feels like there should be an exception of some sort for a foreign transfer student like her.
The real problem here that comes up is that she sees another student in the school that seems to be just as isolated as she is. Shiari’s a young man with a mildly dark look about him with a little rough and tumble feeling about him. She senses something different about him from the start, especially with the wide berth others give him, and that gets her to follow him when school’s out. That leads to an expected confrontation as he has his own power set that he’s struggling with, one where he needs to feed on spirit energy. He tries to focus on the bad spirits, but it’s something that’s consuming him in his own way and her arrival and abilities make it seem like she’s there to punish him. The two do naturally come to a kind of understanding, the forming of a group begins if things follow the usual pattern, and Shiari certainly provides something a little different with his emotional state and the conflict of his powers.
In Summary:
Wayward hits its second issue well enough by expanding on some of the mysteries a little bit, getting Rori to adjust to the new school setting and its own cultural issues, and bringing in a new player for her to have someone else to connect with in a public setting where she can feel less alone. There’s definitely some good stuff in here and Steve Cummings really gives it a good feeling throughout, especially when combined with the color choices and vibrancy used here – particularly in the digital edition. Zub’s script continue to move well and has some solid dialogue about it, but the sudden introduction of her cutting aspect is surprising and I’m wondering how far that will go and if there really is a deeper meaning to it to be explored.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Image Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: September 24th, 2014
MSRP: $2.99
