Shinku #1 – Review

By Ron Marz (story), Lee Moder (art), Matthew Waite (inks), Michael Atiyeh (colors), Troy Peteri (letters)

The Story: A badass female samurai? In modern Tokyo? Who hunts vampires for a living? By doing a drive-by katana beheading? Yes, please!

What’s Good: If you’ll indulge me with a personal reaction right off the bat: this was the most fun I’ve had reading a comic in quite some time. I’m a sucker for origin stories, especially the origin story of a new and interesting character, and this issue felt in the exact center of that sweet spot. Ron Marz–best known for his Witchblade and other Top Cow Universe work–has created a new character that I’m really looking forward to following. While none of the elements of the story are especially new and original, Marz is able to re-purpose many of these familiar tropes and blend them in a way that ends up feeling like more than the sum of its parts.

Lee Moder handles art duty, and does a fine job. The visuals taking place in the modern day are extremely serviceable, and I quite enjoyed the anime-like touches he included (especially in the look and feel of Shinku herself.) Where both Moder and colorist Michael Atiyeh really shine, however, is in the flashbacks to feudal Japan. The level of detail in those scenes is extremely impressive, and the slightly hazy, water-color effect of the coloring gives the whole sequence a fantastic dream-like quality in addition to making the pages just plain beautiful to look at. Put this art team on a book set during this time period and let them lose like this, and I will HAPPILY pay Image a full $3.99 cover price.