May
28
2015
0

Wayward #8 Review

Written by: Jim Zub

Art by: Steve Cummings

Publisher: Image

Rori. Is. Back! If you’ve been following these reviews and Wayward, you already know how happy that makes me. She’s such a fantastic character, and the abrupt change away from her in Issue 6 felt…well, like I wasn’t really reading Wayward.

Issue 8 starts off with Rori and Shirai stumbling out of some strange pattern-vortex into a religious temple of some sort. An old woman named Ayane is tending the place, surrounded by cats and solitude. I’m still not sure what happened to Rori or what the pattern-vortex that trapped her is, but answers or not, the vortex is deadly. It badly hurts Shirai, and Ayane—despite her familiar name—doesn’t know what’s going on and can only offer comfort.

The issue then jumps to Ohara, Ayane, and Nikaido, who have been battling an ever-increasing number of demons and are starting to show their fatigue.

Issue 8 of Wayward is a pure character piece, with no violent action to speak of. But as I’ve said from issue1, this is a comic of characters, so letting them breathe, interact, and be vulnerable is wonderful all on its own. Given the action-heavy elements of the last few issues, it’s also nice to see what these characters do in their down time and how going from students to demon-killers is affecting their psyches.

Not well, as one might expect.

The artwork is, as expected, good, though it really shines in the last handful of pages when Rori taps into a very big pattern. The panels are crazy, but dang, they look good. My only complaint with them is they offer a lot of backstory we already know, and I can’t help but wonder if that’s to help possible newcomers get associated with the many characters in the comic.

But it’s the last page of this sequence, when the pattern looks towards the future, that it all becomes worth it.

I love Wayward, and Issue 8 doesn’t change my opinion of that. Bring on issue 9.