You know that feeling when you see something, however quickly, and you just KNOW that you are going to love it? Well, that is 100% how I felt about Wayward from the second I laid my eyes on it.
Now, I’m going to be honest with you here, I couldn’t stop at just Vol. 1 – in the last day, I have read every. single. issue. and I regret NOTHING.
But for the purpose of reviewing it, I’m going to be splitting it up by TP’s (I couldn’t wait but now I have power to make you wait – mwahaha).
It’s hard to know where I should start talking about Wayward, it’s all just too damn amazing and I feel like I could ramble on about it for ages.
So let’s start by talking about the people responsible for this beautiful work of art:
Jim Zub, the author, has worked with just about anyone you can think of, from Marvel, DC and Image to Dark Horse, IDW and Dynamite – as far as I’m concerned all of that was just a warm-up for Wayward which he describes as Buffy, set in Japan, with Monsters.
Jim is joined by Steve Cummings, the artist, Steven has worked on Elektra, New Excaliber, Flash, Deadshot and Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight.
If that’s not enough to tell you that this comic is going to blow your mind then… well… just continue reading I guess?!
Wayward Vol. 1 includes issues 1 – 5
I’m going to try my best to not give away any spoilers.
The story starts with us meeting Rori Lane, Rori comes from a Japanese mother and an Irish father with whom she’s been living in Ireland following her parent’s divorce. We start to follow her life just as she’s landed in Japan for the first time, on her way to her mother’s apartment to start a whole new life.
The moment she lands, things start to get complicated. Rori has always had an eye for patterns, now it seems like she LITERALLY has an eye for patterns, seeing mysterious red lines, visible only to her which lead her to mysterious places, and into mysterious people around the city.
The story has an exceptionally fun, manga type feel to it but it can get really serious and dark in the same breath.
We find out that Rori cuts to deal with the antianxiety and fear of being different, and she’s not the only one struggling to cope either. As the group of ‘special’ ones grows we find out that even when you’re special, you still have insecurities and fears – only now you have to battle those personal demons while battling real life demons too all while trying to figure out who you are.