The charming story of a spider-girl (destroying fighter pilots on the back of a dragon) that you didn’t know you wanted.
Creative Staff:
Story: Okina Baba
Art: Tsukasa Kiryu
Translation: Jenny McKeon
What They Say:
Seriously! What genre is this?!
So get this…Me, the Demon Lord, the baby bloodsucker, Mera, and the puppet posse are on our way to the demon territory when Mera falls into a hole and gets attacked by giant ants. We wipe ’em out in no time, but the commotion (and totally not me sticking my nose where it doesn’t belong) just haaappens to wake up some ancient, hyper-advanced killing machines, and now the entire planet is gonna be destroyed! It’s such a big deal that Güli-güli, the pontiff, and even Potimas are teaming up with the Demon Lord. Wait, when did they all get so chummy? And I’m sorry, what? They want ME to take out the main weapon?! No waaay!
Content:
You can never accuse this series of doing the same thing over and over again, that’s for sure. After multiple volumes dealing with our plucky spider girl, White, developing her skills, this volume feels like something out of Star Wars, and it’s downright bizarre. I am not making this up; even White asks on the back of the book “what genre is this?!”
I wish I could say that this turn of events was just as compelling as the earlier volumes, but that really wasn’t the case for me. Now that White is practically maxed out– to the point where she can take out an entire army without breaking a sweat– the satisfaction of watching her learn new skills is gone. There is the greater political narrative, but I’ve never cared too much about that whole aspects of it. You know, there’s different countries; some of them are fighting; the Elves are at it again, etc. It’s well-thought out and makes sense, as far as I can tell. I just don’t find it particularly interesting.
On the plus side, the B-plot characters (you know, the ones in the future…or maybe the present…you know what, it’s complicated) are not in this volume at all.) So at least the action focuses on White, Ariel, baby Sophia and the vampire Merazorphis, characters we knew well by this point. There is some fun just watching this gang of misfits hang out, but towards the second half of the book, the action gets so crazy there’s no room for Sophia and Mera.
Yes, there is crazy action in this book. Fighter planes! UFO’s! Giant Bombs! It’s probably exciting for some readers, but for me it all just felt too far out of left field to mesh with what had gone before. I like the fact that this series takes risks, but not all of them can be good ones, right? The events at the end of this volume give me hope that we’re onto better things from now on (if not necessarily bigger ones), but I didn’t enjoy this installment of White’s adventure too much. At this point, I’m really reading it out of a sense of gratitude for how much I enjoyed the original five or so volumes, not on this volumes own merits.
In Summary:
Spider-series spidey-swings into a new direction, which will thrill some action fans and leave everyone else wondering just what the heck happened here. Probably not as out of character for this series as I’m making it sound, but still bizarre.
Grade: C
Age Rating: 13 and Up
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: December 3, 2019
MSRP: $14.00 US/$18.50 CAN