Creative Staff
Story: Sherrilyn Kenyon
Art/Adaptation:: JiYoung Ahn
What They Say
Fourteen-year-old Nick Gautier doesn’t have it easy. With a single mom struggling to make ends meet, his secondhand clothes aren’t exactly making him popular with the “in” crowd at school. No, Nick fits in much better on the streets of New Orleans—at least until his so-called friends turn on him! Rescued by the mysterious Kyrian of Thrace, Nick suddenly finds himself indoctrinated into a bizarre supernatural world, that of the Dark-Hunters, where he discovers that life isn’t nearly so “normal” as it once seemed. Zombified classmates and flesh-hungry demons are bad enough, but it’s the dark hints about Nick’s own future that are the most troubling things of all…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Yen Press has a good thing going with their comic adaptations of young adult novels, despite what manga fans may think. There have been some solid adaptations spawned from this venture, but a story is only as strong as it’s source. This has lead to a wide range of titles playing up to the top sellers list, which right now is overly biased toward supernatural tales featuring vampires and zombies. Which leads to the latest novel series to get a comic treatment, The Dark-Hunters.
I’m not familiar with the original series that’s spawned The Dark-Hunters: Infinity. A quick bit of research points to a long running, many volumed intellectual property that has branched into sub-stories and side-stories. This particular story is an adaptation of the first of a multivolume series inside that tangled web. All of this means that the reader is being thrown into an established world with established characters. Fans of the novels are going to know these characters and the rules of the world they live in, but for the rest of us we’re jumping in blind.
Thankfully, the story they’re telling takes some of that into account. The background characters might understand exactly what’s going on, but the lead, Nick, doesn’t. When the story begins he’s just an average teenager with a single mother and a convict for a father, slipping dangerously close to falling through the cracks. It’s not long before things start to go supernatural, and a property war for Nick’s soul begins, lead by a version of himself from the future.
There’s a lot going on around the periphery in the story, with two or possibly more sides battling against each other. That’s not the major problem that Nick is facing though, because a full scale zombie attack breaks out in his school. Cue the insane prepper neighbors immediately going into DEFCON 1. Somehow, despite the absurdity of everything going on, there’s a certain level of honesty to it all. Nick’s friends and neighbors are a colorful bunch that makes you want to root for them, from Bubba the gun store owner and his cohorts to the random demon denizens of Kenyon’s version of New Orleans. They charge into the action spouting ridiculous one liners and perfectly accepting of all of the tinfoil hat behavior around them.
The pacing of the story is near supersonic. So much is going on and so many characters are introduced that it’s a bit hard to determine time and place as the story rushes forward. I have a feeling the author was shoving all sorts of existing characters into the story with a wink and a nod to the long time fans, but to someone just coming in these characters are cyphers. Nick has no reason to believe or trust anyone except his mother, but eventually he gives up fighting the absurdity and just does what the story asks of him.
Without knowing where the lines are drawn in the overall war, I felt a bit lost. There’s a great deal of discussion of the sides but almost no exposition to explain the battle taking place. Nick’s father is evil and for some reason wants his son to follow in his footsteps. I’m always weary of stories where the ‘evil’ characters proclaim themselves as such, because in reality the bad guys don’t self identify as that. There’s a time travel element as a version of Nick from the future appears to be telling the story, attempting to save himself from straying toward the dark side. There are ancient gods, vampires, werewolves, and who knows that else lurking around monster mash style. It’s all a lot to take in.
The climax of the story falls apart as Nick rushes in to save a schoolmate from the person controlling the zombies. The big bad is a nebulous unknown, and apparently not important as they are taken down ridiculously fast. The storming of the location where family members were being held goes completely wrong but, magically, everything turned out all right? The whole ending battle is a confusing mess, and I have a feeling it’s not the illustrators fault so much as it’s an unclear narrative. Which is a shame since up until the final part of the story and the rushed ending this volume was an amusing romp.
JiYoung Ahn’s art is solid and a good choice for illustrator for this story. I do have some minor complaints about it though. There’s a bit of unevenness in the characters, with some of the older characters suffering from being off model every other panel. The story may take place in New Orleans, but outside of character names and a few brief location mentions you’d never be able to tell from the scenery. Nick’s teenager design is fairly bland, he looks like any other shonen protagonist. Despite that, the action scenes are well done and all of my confusion stemmed from the writing rather than the art. Yen’s presentation of the book matches their other adaptations, with a larger trim size and color opening pages.
In Summary
Dark-Hunter: Infinity delivers on the same promise as most of it’s contemporaries, providing all things supernatural and drama filled. The manic story promises huge things but settles for preventing a zombie apocalypse this time around. Fans of the novel series are going to get more out of this than new readers just coming in, as a cast of thousands pop up to give witty shout outs for returning fans. A sloppy ending prevents the story from really resonating, and there’s not much time to explain what’s going on. Hopefully future volumes clarify Nick’s struggle for us readers who aren’t in the know.
Content Grade:B –
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: B +
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: March 26th, 2013
MSRP: $12.99
