Mar
25
2015
0

Wayward #6 Review

Written by: Jim Zub

Art by: Steve Cummings

Publisher: Image

Wayward. Is. Back! I am excited. Happy too. I’ve been wanting to continue Rori Lane’s story for quite some time now, especially after the Japanese demon mobsters showed up in Issue 5 (which I gave a perfect score). There’s simply too much to like about Rori and the Tokyo she’s currently struggling to survive in. Imagine my surprise, then, when Issue 6 opened up with a character that very much isn’t Rori Lane.

There are two ways to look at a big character shift when it comes to any narrative. The positive is, “The world is now getting bigger, and this character seems interesting. Let’s see what happens!” The negative is, “But you left the last issue off on a cliffhanger, what are you doing making me wait for what I really want?”

My time spent with Issue 6’s 30-ish pages was a solid back-and-forth between those two thought processes. There is a new character—Ohara Emi—and she is interesting. In fact, she’s practically the antithesis of Rori, yet the word “wayward” still applies to her. Whereas Rori was going into a new place with anxiety, Ohara is stuck in the only place she’s ever known, following the same path day in and day out. She can’t seem to figure out if she’s happy about this or simply bored and tired of it all.

Like Rori, Ohara is complicated, and the complexities of her are executed very well and in very little page space. This mostly comes from parallel storytelling, where Ohara is narrating a day in her life exactly like Rori did in Issue 1. It’s amazing how different yet similar they are, and I look forward to the point when they finally meet up.

However, Wayward built itself up with Rori, Ayane, Nikaido, and Shirari. They’re strong characters, and they’re why I’ve kept coming back to this series. That, and Issue 5 ended on a massive cliffhanger with a very brutal death, and I’ve been wanting to see where that goes. To divert feels almost mean spirited, even if it’s probably a necessity for the overall story.

That being said, I trust Jim and Steve to make this all work. Ohara is already looking to be a great addition to Wayward’s universe, and some of the normal cast do show up at the end for a very fun—yet very quick—fight scene. The brutality of Wayward hasn’t left.

The art too, is still fantastic. The battle at the end looks great, and some of the strange paranormal events that Ohara experiences are all great looking. In terms of quality, nothing has changed here.

I encourage everyone to check this series out. The trade paperback with the first five issues should be out March 25th, and it’ll only be ten bucks. Grab that and then grab this. You won’t be disappointed.