Raiders 7

JinJun Park – Yen Press – 2011 – 9 volumes

Here’s another series I’m picking up close to the end. This one’s the Korean equivalent of seinen-flavored, almost. Maybe it falls somewhere between the boys’ and men’s genres. Either way, it’s sort of rare for us to see a male-oriented manhwa in English, so this is a pleasant treat.

It actually struck me as similar to Black Lagoon, or Dogs. This volume, at least, was very action-oriented, and there was also a fair amount of politics backing the characters up. It seemed like there was something for the reader to sink their teeth into, as the characters seemed varied and interesting enough. The politics and world logic were almost reality, but with enough variations to make it an action-oriented fantasy (again, like Black Lagoon).

Unfortunately, this is not a good series to pick up in the middle. I had literally no idea what was going on. There are supernatural elements, but these weren’t clear to me until about halfway through. Unusually, it seemed like a fairly straight-faced take on zombies, which is something you don’t see very often. The characters seemed to struggle with partial zombie infections, and it seemed like something that could potentially be cured.

By the blood of Christ. Which, if I’m reading this correctly, is kept in Roswell. If you don’t cure zombies, apparently some of them turn into werewolves. This is exactly why I love reading comics.

The characters are infiltrating some sort of government facility in Roswell, but to be fair, it might just be some sort of overthrow, they might not be after the blood of Christ. It is necessary later in the book, though. Earlier, it’s implied that those that have partaken of the Host are turned into special sorts of monsters that can only be killed with relics like the Spear of Longinus.

Having said that, the Judeo-Christian themes are fairly downplayed, at least here. There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of random symbolism flying everywhere. Just a few simple things.

It strikes me as a relatively cool, mature action series with supernatural elements, which is a bit of a rare combination since mature action series with supernatural stuff are usually fairly over-the-top in terms of gore and humor. But this one is also Korean, which is unusual indeed. This type of series isn’t usually my thing, but this one strikes me as a fairly good read. Again, it’s not something you want to jump in after volume one, because I was genuinely lost, but it’s worth giving it a try from the beginning.

This was a review copy provided by Yen Press.