Emi’s powers come into focus.
Creative Staff:
Story: Jim Zub
Art: Steve Cummings
What They Say:
IMAGE’S SUPERNATURAL SENSATION CONTINUES! Ayane and Nokaido rail against the growing supernatural forces rising up in Tokyo, but are they on the right side of the conflict?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Wayward’s return after its break was definitely interesting getting back into since it introduced us to a new character with Emi and had us see things through her perspective. With her becoming aware of her abilities and having to deal with the kitsune that was following her, it definitely gave us a very good look at who she is and the base personality, as well as her socializing issues and more. So when she came across the others and the hunt they were on, and the kind of near glee that we got out of it in some ways, it definitely made an impact on her and you could see that it was pretty unnerving. As it should be. It’s certainly an interesting change to shift the perspective to her with this arc, at least for now, and continuing on with it here is surprisingly welcome.
With Emi as the focus here, particularly since Rori is gone, seeing her trying to adjust to her life in this way now is certainly interesting after her eyes have been opened. There’s curiosity from her parents when she returns home after that first encounter as she’s never been late before. Her cover of saying she joined a club is met with delight, since she wasn’t a joiner for so long. But her invisible side is reinforced as after the initial delight, she gets scant attention. Which is something that she’s convinced herself that she likes, it seems. There are interesting moments as it unfolds through her narration at home and school where she begins to realize that this life is dull and plain – more so than she thought it was before, and that makes it all the more appealing with what she’s doing with the group that she’s connected with.
Emi’s experiences with the group bring a lot out of her as time goes on, and a good bit of time does progress when you consider the events of the first arc and the loss that happened there. With those that were lost, those that remain have bonded tighter as they know something big is coming and they have to be ready for it. So that has Emi being drawn into it and she feels more and more alive with it as the weeks go on and she gains confidence in her monster hunting along with the rest of them. There’s a good thrill to this, and her exploration of powers as she comes to learn about how she can manipulate only man made materials, and seeing a kind of montage of her working with the others solidifies them as a team, even if we don’t connect with them hugely because it’s done in the abstract here. With so much given over to Emi though, she humanizes the experience for us and it works well overall.
In Summary:
The second arc of Wayward advances Emi well as our focal point and we really get to know her in a similar way to Rori in the first arc, just without the whole cultural adjustment shift. Here, she’s growing into her powers with others that are feeling a bit more comfortable with it and she has been welcomed well by them. There’s hints of what’s to come with Rori here, which is welcome to see, but we also get some solid stuff from the villains of the series so far as they try to regroup after the events of the first arc and maintain their unity in the face of what they think their challenges and roadblocks will be. There’s a great little bit with the spiders here that should delight fans of this particular aspect of Japanese supernatural culture, and I’m loving the way this group is handling things and just the dialogue in general. A very solid issue all around that again brings Japanese locales and cultural aspects in a great way to North American readers with a solid blend of Buffy style pieces too.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Image Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: April 29th, 2015
MSRP: $2.99
