Born to die.
Creative Staff:
Story: Randy Stradley
Art: Doug Wheatley
What They Say:
King Tiger has secrets: dark truths about himself he dare not reveal. But his past—and his destiny—have been exposed, breaking the heart of the woman who loves him and pitting the mystic warrior alone against the Dragon and its demonic progeny who seek the blood of the Tiger!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
King Tiger mostly kicking off its opening installment in a good way the last time around, opting to provide enough for new fans to be able to make sense of it while those that read the backup in the Blackout mini series felt like we weren’t getting a repeat of what we already read. There was enough of a mystery blended into it with what was going on in the desert to get you intrigued and that helped to expand the overall narrative of understanding what it is that Tiger does. It also gave both Milo and Rikki a chance to be a greater part of things and to establish the core team here and their traits while working alongside and in support of Tiger himself.
This issue throws everything to the wind in a sense while still reinforcing those bonds in its own way. The blood ritual in the desert certainly freaked out Milo and rightly so, even if he did see a lot of weird stuff in the brief time together prior to this miniseries. Learning that the man in white, Dragon, is actually Tiger’s father? That just makes this a very familiar oriented affair. Tiger’s reaction is certainly revealing as he wants to just get the hell out of there and grab Rikki and run. Discovering that he’s been hiding from his father for a decade just raises the stakes as well as the level of power that Dragon has and the kind of fear he can inspire. So when Dragon and his group show up at the house, it’s the start of all hell breaking loose.
The three characters all react in different ways and it helps to drive things forward. Milo’s fleeing may not feel like what a former soldier should do, but with his wounded past and problems it makes sense. That he gets an education along the way from Lookfar helps in a huge way in providing a bit more background and refocusing Milo for his mission. Rikki is a bit under served here until the very end as she mostly just ends up captured and has Tiger’s past revealed to her by Dragon in an effort to torment Tiger with how she must now view him with the truth. Revealing Tiger to be a human/demon hybrid of sorts isn’t out of left field and it certainly explains a lot, especially in how his father spent years trying to create him through a union with a demon in order to be able to use his specialized blood in order to bring something demonic into the world in full form. While there’s a sense of conquest and such in there with Dragon, it also feels like there’s some world ending because I feel like it mentality coming from him as well. Dragon’s motivations aren’t made clear yet beyond the act so that has me interested in what he’s really up to.
In Summary:
Though King Tiger is not hitting it out of the park it’s doing better than I expected it would. There’s a lot of options that it could go with and while I’m not sure working the father-villain angle from the start is the best it certainly raises the stakes and reveals a good bit about Tiger’s heritage, which can work forward with some good stuff in other miniseries going forward. Stradley’s script keeps things moving for the most part and while there’s a lot of dialogue and a lot of telling, it’s all necessary material to establish more of events in the past that are needed here. And it just fits Dragon’s whole angry dad motif. Wheatley’s artwork continues to be solid here and I think is even an improvement over the first issue in terms of layout and a lot of the facial expressions since he’s getting to cut loose a bit more with the demons and siblings that exist here. I’m definitely curious to see how this ride will play out but I also kind of wish there was something richer about the work as Tiger himself has so many possibilities.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: September 9th, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
