Comic Review: Orphan and the Five Beasts TPB (Dark Horse Comics)

Dark Horse Comics brings you another mythical journey about a Ronin warrior who seeks out and kills the five former disciples who were corrupted in Orphan And The Five Beasts.

This comic gives you another fantasy adventure from a different time, but this time it’s about revenge. Apparently, the journey is about evaluating life and protecting everyone from getting attacked by some demons which are corrupted, and this is all about destiny too for the warrior. The comic is created by James Stokoe, he’s a Canadian comic book artist who is known for his work on such titles as Wonton Soup, Orc Stain, and Godzilla: The Half-Century War. From what I see is that he worked to create this comic by himself, but before he created this comic series, he collaborated with Corey Lewis, Brandon Graham, and Marley Zarcone as a part of a small studio for comic making which turns out that most of those comics are all indie, which actually makes James Stokoe an indie comic artist.

The front cover shows something that came out from a movie wallpaper like Star Wars, well I did mention that a lot because I’ve seen most cover artists design something that is inspired from a Star Wars wallpaper film. I believe one day, I will do that too with my comic series. So the cover shows a war going on that decides the fate of this planet. And as far as I can see the art style, almost look like an actual indie comic and the art style is much more similar to the artist who illustrated the “Nowhere Left To Fight” series on Dark Horse. What got me interested is that the concept shows a lot of detail between the characters and the backgrounds. The main character in the middle just extends the pose of her legs just to have her hold the spear as if he’s going to pierce someone, and he looked pissed already. And then there’s this strange moon design that almost looked like a tiger. What’s the point of that? Is there such a mystery behind that design? Let’s find out.

>The story starts in a faraway suburb in the middle of nowhere where a man is being chased by some demon or something, meanwhile, the main character is under training, right until he saw a person who is rolling on the ground, he was corrupted by some demon with the strange mark on his forehead. The MC’s master confirms that there’s corruption in the valley. Then he tells a story about a mark that was branded from that dying man and it turns out to be a cursed man who used to be a warrior. He shares his failures with his student about these five villagers, he was trying to keep them out of trouble, but it backfired, these five creatures had invaded the village because they were corrupted. So he entrusted his student to end the suffering. The first thing where she started her journey, she fought against some bandits who were harassing the monks, and at that moment she asked one of them about that mark. And suddenly the bandit kind is nothing more of a monster with his strong oversized legs. I thought Sagat from Street Fighter or Toguro from Yu Yu Hakusho was some weirder with his height and his muscle growth, but that guy is a freak, he crushed his own horse with his thighs. And apparently, he was one of the five warriors that the master mentioned, and he was branded. So the two fought, both of them are nearly matched, and then she slained him. Every time when she goes to another town she picks up some fights with some demons who apparently turn humans into food, turn into insects, and even perform a sacrifice which is something related. But she’ll never rest until all those five demons are annihilated and avenge her master.

The story is packed with so much action, and I kind of see this comic as a webcomic in a nutshell. But this is more than just a webcomic, it’s very bloody and it’s full of corruption behind this, and this comic is actually Image Comic material, because not in my life have I ever seen this comic that is too disturbing. The art is amazing, but not only that it’s very bloody, but it’s filled with full of action scenes whenever the main character battles against those corrupted warriors. I just can’t really get enough of these scenes ever since I watched the latest Rurouni Kenshin live-action movie. However, there are a lot of artists who struggled drawing a scene such as this even though I’m going through some developments. But this one shows such an example of how the fight goes out. If you ever wanted to read a comic about a warrior who fights against demons for revenge, then this is for you.