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    Wayward #6

    Wayward » Wayward #6 - Chapter Six released by Image on March 2015.

    mrmazz's Wayward #6 - Chapter Six review

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    Disrupting the Norm

    "Chapter Six" Story by Jim Zub, Line Art Steve Cummings, Colors Tamra Bonvillain, Letters Marshall Dillon, Back Matter Zack Davisson

    So, tell me if you’ve heard this before. There is a girl, Ohara Emi. She is kind of ordinary. A bit shy, more interested in being a good daughter for her family than doing the things that she really loves. She has her routine and sticks to it. She gets up. She walks to the train. She goes to school. Goes home, dose her home work. Sleeps and repeat. If Wayword had suddenly become a rom com, here’s where the meet cute would happen and that routine would be thrown into all types of disarray. Since writer Jim Zub hasn’t jumped genre, it is those demon fox, Kitsune (see back of issue 3) that come and rupture Ohara Emi’s routine and normalcy.

    Since I have a hard time waiting for things and the price came out to be about the same, I bought Wayword #1-5 instead of waiting for the trade. I then proceeded to read it all in one go. It’s a fast read, and I do not mean that as a negative. It read fast because the plotting is powered by constant a disruption/discovery mostly centered on teenagers awakening some mystical powers. This inevitably leads to more questions and discovery, like a perpetual motion machine. In the case of Ohara, it appears she can melt stuff that comes in contact with her. Of course this awakening is all part of a larger conspiracy the cast finds themselves apart of. Only, they and by extension the reader don’t really have even the vaguest outline of a shadow what it all means. This is perfectly fine, and refreshing.

    As it stands, this is an age of franchised transmedia intellectual property, where everything is all connected in one big story universe. The concept isn’t new but it has been leverged in the last decade to a far higher commercial return than previously seen. A byproduct of this increased commercialization is an over fetishization of the ‘mythology’ related to these IPs. Basically, corporations have tapped into the key aspect of the canonical nerd, the need to know how everything works and figure out the mystery. This is opposed to the other pole on the nerd spectrum, the transformative nerd: taking the object and reshaping it to fit their interest. Look back at the fandom surrounding LOST and how the story about the series was trying to figure it all out. Not, the effects the events had on series characters. Personally, trying to figure it out isn’t really my thing. The mythology that exists in these objects is largely just macguffery. I only care about it in so much as how it informs the characters and helps to tell the emotional story.

    Now Wayward is a series built on Japanese folklore (seriously read the essays in the back) but, this is all just a touchstone for the object being created. Jim Zub and Steve Cummings cast of characters exist in a larger world where the Yokai mythology is being leveraged to tell what will likely be a coming of age story centered on a conspiracy of some sort. You don’t murder moms and have sinister looking adults for no reason. Now, what that conspiracy is and how it all relates to Rori Lane’s string vision is unknown, and as previously stated that is fantastic. Zub is insistent on an extreme interiority to his characters. It sets the point of view of the book squarely within their realm and sphere of knowledge. Even as we notice things, Ohara doesn’t; such as her melting just about anything she touches. We are left with as much understanding as they are. The mythological explanations are limited to what the characters know. Even when we do leave the characters, Zub doesn’t elucidate much except to setup more ominous adults.

    This limited POV helps to give Wayward its momentum. This is a book made up of bunch not stupid but unknowledgeable characters because they have been thrown into the deep end of the pool. They have a base understanding of what their powers do and even that’s just scratching the surface. What exactly are the rules of Nikaido’s powers? Doubt he knows. I sure don’t. Struggling to swim, the characters act and decision make on an emotional/base moral level (they see aggression from obviously bad looking Yokai and step in). This leads to a shoot first ask questions latter kind of dynamic.

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    Thankfully the shooting as represented by the art team: Steve Cummings (line), Tamra Bonvillain(colors), is often gorgeous to intake. Page 21, where Ayane takes out the Kitsune is filled with such dark humor mixed with glee. Ayane isn’t as sadistic as Sergeant Donny "The Bear Jew" Donowitz(Eli Roth) from Inglorious Bastards but that is certainly the comparison made. Of the 11 panels, 10 are taken up by the bludgeoning of a hypnotized demon fox and filled with such emotion and movement. Only one, the center shot of Ayane with a dark grin on her face is drawn by Cummings not blurred mid-motion. The other 9 panels are show at the midpoint between action and consequence, bodies and bats fly but have yet to be brought to rest. Page 21 reads really fast because of this midpoint imagery. I’d hazard to say it’s like cutting on motion in film, where the momentum in the frame (which has drawn our eye) carries through to the next cut making it harder to perceive.

    With how issue 5 ended, I was curious to see if we would begin to have answers to questions. But issue 6 reminds me; such answers right now would break the story with how it is being told. And I don’t really want them. I want the characters to have the answers.

    I am Michael Mazzacane and you can find on Twitter @MaZZM and at comicweek.com and weekntv.com

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