Marvel Mangaverse: Web of Blood #1
Writer: Joe Kelly and Jack Kelly
Artist: Kenny Ruiz
Colorist: Noiry
Cover Artist: Yuji Kaku
Publisher: Marvel Comics
If you’ve read a lot of manga, you’ll feel right at home with Marvel Mangaverse: Web of Blood. If you haven’t, you’re probably going to be scratching your head and wondering what the hell you just read.
If you’re the former, strap in and let’s talk. If you’re the latter, there are tons of other great books getting reviewed this week; maybe go check one of those out instead.
Culture Shock
The plot here is dense. In true manga fashion, I’m not even sure I understand and can explain all of it, but let’s give it a shot.
Humanity mucked about with forces they couldn’t understand (shocking, I know), and the world was invaded by demons called yokai. Doctor Strange unleashed a massive display of power to force back the yokai, sacrificing his life in the process.
The massive amounts of energy changed the world. Thousands of people saw incomplete visions of the future, showing a terrifying figure called the Vision that would make the sky burn. Technology failed as magic returned to the world. Soon the world was powered by mana, not machinery. A science-based form of magic, technomancy, was discovered.
Now, there are individuals who fight to prevent the Vision from appearing, and others who wish to see it unfold…
One such individual—Laura Kinney, a technomancer known as Weapon X-Tremis, battles against Spymaster Supreme Nick Fury and his Ultimate Avengers. She is trying to reach the imprisoned Phoenix Force, whose power Fury is using for his own ends. Standing against Laura is her old friend Illyana Rasputin, called Legion, a magic-user who has made forbidden bonds with Yokai. Trapped between them is Miles Morales, Spinja, who is the chosen one of the Spider-Clan.
Before the night is over, these three friends-turned-enemies will reveal many secrets—and one will betray everything they were all taught, bringing the Vision into the world…
Make Mine Manga
When I was in college, I worked in a couple of different bookstores. Why am I telling you this, you might ask? To give you my background with manga. When I worked at these stores, manga was already blowing up. I was young and stubborn, so I utterly refused to even look at a manga just to be contrary. When the original Marvel Mangaverse was released, I turned up my nose at it.
Now, all these years later, I finally succumbed and tried a couple of manga. Then a couple more. And some more after that. So needless to say, I approached this new Marvel Mangaverse a bit differently than I did the old one.
And hoo boy, was this a lot of fun.
They went full manga with this one. Chaotic, almost too-busy artwork. Speed lines and power effects galore. Character and power names popping up on the page as though shouted by an unseen announcer. It’s all here.
And in true manga fashion, there are several points where I quite frankly have no idea what the hell is going on. Not as bad as the manga Trigun Maximum—that one can be downright incomprehensible—but still pretty hard to follow at times.
We’re introduced to a ton of familiar faces, but the real meat of the issue is built around three former friends. Laura, Illyana, and Miles all think they’re doing the right thing for the right reasons. It’s pretty obvious that they’re all wrong. We’re given enough flashbacks to better, happier times that we really get to feel the friendship between them. Which makes their being at odds hurt more—and don’t even get me started on the massive betrayal that closes this issue. The rest of this event is going to be even crazier.
I do hope that later issues will throw a little bit less at us at one time. There was honestly far too much crammed into twenty-five pages here. They had to explain the history of this world, the rules of magic and technomancy, and establish the looming threat of the Vision. Then they still had to introduce our leads, their histories, and their missions. And they had to fit in some crazy action—this is still a superhero comic, after all. It’s like they took the first tankōbon volume or two of a Shonen manga and crammed it into a single American comic book.
Because everything here is so unabashedly manga, I can’t see how someone who isn’t at least mildly well-versed in the tropes of manga would be able to get into this. But for someone who’s read a bunch of it, I’m guessing they’d be able to put together a whole book’s worth of annotations on all the influences and homages found here.
Aibō
The father-son duo of Joe and Jack Kelly handle the writing duties for this issue. Joe, of course, is currently writing Amazing Spider-Man, so he’s certainly well-versed in Spider-people. Plus he created Ben 10 with Man of Action, and that’s very manga-inspired too. Either way, the two Kellys absolutely nail the manga feel, for good and for bad. The issue is packed full of more text than a Chris Claremont comic, so you certainly get your money's worth in terms of page count. There's just too much going on, I think.
Kenny Ruiz handles the art chores here, and his work just screams "manga." Which is fitting, since the other book I've read from him is the American Star Wars manga Path of the Lightsaber (which was great). His character designs are wild and varied, and sometimes a little too busy—when Laura is really going nuts with her technomancy, it can be tough to tell exactly what she's doing. Illyana has the most "traditional" magic powers of the three leads, and they look plenty cool here. As for Miles, he's a Spider, so his movements are fluid and Spider-y like you'd expect. Ruiz packs panels full of power effects, speed lines, characters in motion—again, it's like one of the craziest manga you've ever seen, except it's in color.
Speaking of the colors, they are the work of Noiry in this issue. Everything is bright and loud; nothing is done on a small scale. Magic and other power effects, which are plentiful, all stand out in different ways. Character designs have all sorts of small details on them, like Laura's technomancer markings, that the colors add a glowing effect to in order to give her a unique look. When the betrayal hits at the end of the issue, blood enters the book for the first time, and the colors and use of shadows make it incredibly impactful.
(Shonen) Jump to Conclusions
Marvel Mangaverse: Web of Blood #1 is a wild ride that is packed utterly full of content—probably too much. If the Kellys were paid by the word, neither one would have to work for a while. If you're a fan of manga, you'll find something to like here, but you may have to work through some confusing parts to get to it. If you aren't, you'll be left scratching your head as to what's going on and what the fuss is all about. For those who can get into it, you'll find a fun story that imitates and pays homage to the manga style to great effect.