Creative Staff:
Story: Jim Zub
Art: Steve Cummings
What They Say:
More students with strange abilities, more creatures emerging from the shadows…Rori can see patterns pulling it all together, but can she discover the secret beneath before it’s too late?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Wayward’s third issue is one that definitely moves things forward at a brisk pace, which fits in with the way a lot of manga and anime series do as well. We got our introduction to the setting in the first with Rori and a tease with Ayane while the second issue gave us our more physical character with Shiari. The third issue brings both of those together along with a new addition that has the potential to shake things up a bit as well. But more importantly, even if it’s given only the scantest of time, we get a nod towards what’s potentially our villain for the series. Wayward certainly is hitting all the right marks and the story beats are strong, but it’s still a little formulaic – at least for those of us familiar with how Japanese storytelling often goes.
The villain side of it is certainly intriguing as we mostly get a look at a kindly older man who has an old school look to him, though he’s one that’s a bit more in tune with the modern world. His sensing of Rori out there, who calls her a rogue weaver, tells him that things are afoot once again and that her presence in the world means that she’ll do what weavers do in starting to call together others, something that he notes always happens. He also senses that there’s a lot of powerful magic at work with this presence, a new kind of magic, as the three kappa that were killed were done in a way that has set off some alarms for him. His conversation with a group of kitsune about it is interesting as they’re definitely old school in what they think should be done, and they’re also easily set off as things related to the modern world are essentially totems of the enemy. A lot of people think that about smartphones too.
When it comes to Rori, she’s still struggling to adapt to living in Japan and the weirdness of Tokyo itself, particularly compared to what it was like in Ireland. And that’s without taking into account the abilities she’s dealing with. What helps is that she’s definitely not alone now as we see her spending a good bit of time with Shiari trying to figure out what it is that’s going on. They’re amusing together with the bluntness and the cultural aspect of how the dialogue works, but there’s also a lot of information to convey that doesn’t quite make it out in time, which leads to some awkward moments between them as Ayane bursts onto the scene later when Rori and Shiari discover a spiritual creature that’s sucking dry a young man around their age. We get some good action with all of it,and Shiari gets to shine while Ayane’s crazy factor really ramps up, but it feels like a quick and hard push to bring everyone together. And to reveal that the other kid, Nikaido, is likely one of them as well as he has some sort of sonic power that he reveals.
In Summary:
Wayward is definitely moving along at a brisk pace to get a lot done and there’s a good bit of dialogue and exposition to help advance things between the two principle characters of the story here. Rori and Shiari definitely hit a quick bond that works and it’ll be interesting to see how the other two play off of everyone as the group dynamic starts to work. Amusingly enough, Rori’s kind of forced into a leadership position to try and deal with things as the group is still grappling with what it all means, but her hesitation is nicely done as everyone else just sees it as a kind of given with the way their personalities are. Wayward’s doing the right things and it’s looking good and building events and I like that the potential villain side is just now really making its way into things. It could probably use a little more decompression to take time dealing with the cast in more diverse ways, but it also wants to get to the fun that you can have with the group together.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Image Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: October 29th, 2014
MSRP: $2.99
