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WAY OF THE RAT #1
Recommended (8/10)
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CrossGeneration Comics
Writer: Chuck Dixon
Pencils: Jeff Johnson
Inks: Tom Ryder
Colors: Chris Garcia
Letters: Dave Lanphear
Price: $2.95 US/$4.75 CAN |
I wasn't going to order this book. Though I enjoy a couple of CrossGen titles on a regular basis (Scion, Meridian), this title didn't really appeal to me on the surface. I'm not into the whole martial-arts, Iron Monkey-esque genre thing. And given the setting and ancient nature of the characters and setting, I figured there wouldn't be anything for me to relate to.
But then I got to thinking... I've enjoyed a lot of Chuck Dixon's work in recent years, and Jeff Johnson's smooth style doesn't often disappoint. I figured, "What the hell, at the very least, TheFourthRail.com readers will get a review of a new CrossGen title." Still, if I had any expectations, they were on the lower end of the scale. What I found, though, was a fun adventure with a lot of personality.
Young thief Boon Sai Hong is sent by a gangster to retrieve a valuable item from a scholar, whom he finds dead in his library. The only items of apparent worth are a gold-encrusted scroll and the dead man's ring, and both turn out to be much more than they appear to be. The theft sets just about every faction of power in the walled city after Boon, and his only ally turns out to be a talking monkey who knows a lot more about what's going on that Boon does.
The last time I followed Johnson's artwork on a regular basis was as part of the disjointed, oddly Zen "Jacobian" backup series in DC's Detective Comics. That was not the artist's best work; the inking didn't seem to mesh well with his style, and the artwork often boasted a rushed look. Thankfully, that's not the case here. This stands out as some of Johnson's best work. His sleek style is well suited to the agile nature of the action, and he and Ryder instill a great deal of detail into the setting, making for a convincing ancient Asian cityscape.
In a number of ways, Way of the Rat follows the standard CrossGen formula: young person is thrust into the role of hero after suddenly finding himself in possession of a power of unknown origin. Boon even gets himself a cute, diminutive sidekick (shades of Scion and Mystic). But Dixon has managed to grab my attention and to bring a smile to my face with a thoroughly personable lead character. Boon brings this book down to earth. He's actually kind of goofy at heart, not to mention irresponsible and a bit of a whiner. I found him surprisingly easy to believe, despite the unbelievable, practically alien circumstances in which the character finds himself.
One of the things I've enjoyed about CrossGen is that they occasionally let the reader in on what's going on behind the curtain, in the wings. We're given a glimpse into the process of creating a comic book in the back of this issue, intermingled with some silly introductions to the creators themselves as well.
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