Dark Horse Comics and Webtoon continue our favorite sci-fi journey of Space Boy Volume 15. So I have a theory, there are so many webcomics that are turning into printed books later on, years later, however unlike Japanese manga, indie comic artists tend to take an opportunity to publish their comics physically, independently, or just publish like normal Dark Horse here. But yeah, I started reviewing some other Webtoon Originals in January, because nowadays it just became the current platform trend that everyone and their mothers who go and read comics on their phone, scrolling down like an idiot scrolling on social media. After all, I did review this one and Ms. Miriam’s Hooky who published their graphic novels. But there’s more to that. Well anyway, Stephen’s comic Space Boy will return this March and I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next on Amy’s journey to escape from the facility and stuff.
The front cover shows Schafer who actually is about to slip on an iceless sidewalk while being jumped by a dog. And apparently, he’s actually standing outside of Tammie’s house. Perhaps it’s a repeat of Volume 6 where Zeph was in front of Amy’s house and just slept with her. But no look at this, he illustrates a dog which is more relatable to Scooby-Doo while someone is giving Scooby snacks while Schafer is holding a dog. That poor kid is about to trip on an iceless sidewalk as if he’s saying “Oh god, calm down boy! I’m going to fall.” But here’s the deal, I love animals, especially dogs, and cats, how can I not? And THAT, THAT VOLUME 13 WHERE STEPHEN ILLUSTRATED A SEAGULL, it was so rare to see the bird taking a huge teardrop dump. How does Amy have a passion for baby chicks? It’s so simple that you need something to ease something in your heart when you have a bad day. Not to mention, YOU GOTTA HAVE A DOG TO LIFT YOUR SPIRITS UP. So there’s this quote on the back of the book that somehow gets a good positivity about it because this webtoon is my personal spiritual therapy, however, the School Library Journal mentions “It’s impossible not to care for them.” And I do care about Amy and the others because for me it’s too impossible not to care about Amy and Oliver because I’m actually more interested in reading comics/manga with strong protagonists, especially strong female protagonists like Amy here.
The story starts when every member of the facility has to work out of the gym in the morning, but Amy seems to be very tired. Perhaps she couldn’t get enough sleep right after that ‘dream’ that she had about that skinny cyclops and the female version of the third squad captain of the Shinsegumi, also known as Saito. Geez, imagine if Kenshin Himura had so much trouble sleeping by remembering the past and that was actually the start of the chapter of Rurouni Kenshin by Watsuki Nobuhiro where he introduced the fictional version of Saito Hajime because he was inspired by the tales of the Shinsegumi in real life. Amy should think of something positive like getting her head clear from exercising, and she did after she thought of herself that her muscles felt good. But the thought still bothers her and somehow she tends to realize how long she’s going to be there at the facility surrounded by soldiers.
The next scene shows the news about the case being closed because the authorities caught the kidnappers and rescued Tammie, but all of that was a set-up to have her memories erased. That mediocre national security guy from Volume 14, yeah I’m not calling his name until I know who he truly is, packing up his things to move somewhere far away from the police station, but then the chief of the police finds out that set the whole thing up to make the scene to rescue Tammie, not only that, there are other subordinates who got sent away and killed. When the chief is about to arrest him, he uses the power of the cyclops to wipe his mind away just to silence him and continue his job as usual.
Meanwhile, Amy is mopping the floors at the facility because she asked Riggs to have something to do for her like a chore, and then he throws her in a janitor’s job to clean the floors. When she got into the janitor’s room, Qiana is there researching something just to get her privacy, however, what she was researching is some strange taboo between the murders of an archaeologist old man and Saito. And Amy admits that there’s something strange within the facility like someone who hides the darkest secret that prevents everyone to find out. So this scene is another one of the Jojo Stone Ocean references where everyone is helping Jolyne to get her father’s memory disk from the Priest. I used to imagine that Amy and Oliver went on a ton of cool adventures but I guess all I know about after reading the first few parts of this webtoon was some crazy after-school adventure, and now when Amy got into the FCP building, that whole arc was all about that crazy adventure at the Green Dolphin Street Prison in Florida. Truth to know that all these anime references are more than just a coincidence because we’re both men who love Shonen manga and anime. And then there are a few scenes where Cassie and Schafer went into Tammie’s house to give some therapy and remember what happened, but I’m not interested in that, I’m more interested in Amy’s Bizarre Adventure.
However, there’s one thing that concerns me is that every other scientist leaves their old fairy tale stories which are something related to Ancient Egypt or Babylogyptian on what the scientist created. And it was some kids’ story called “The Prince and the Crocodile.” Fortunately, the director has a copy from the day when Amy got herself in for the first time. So Amy suggests that she should borrow the book from him while she’s going to improvise, meaning act like some dork while ripping one of the pages from that book, almost like Star Wars.
There’s not much to say in that scene because all she did was take out that book and scan every page until the director comes back to his office. But instead ‘that’ dork came by his office and noticed that Amy was there, and then when Qiana tells her to improvise, she started to act like a clown while doing that funny face. Sorry, I’m not trying to be funny, but whenever I get to see Amy’s faces, I actually stopped counting on how much she makes some of those funny faces. I don’t know but the last time she made such a face like that is when she got scarred by a deer and thought that it would tackle her with the horns like a bull, or acting like Joseph Joestar saying “Oh My God” when asked such a silly question about toilet paper and how would Oliver wipe his ass without it. OR seeing the bunny Amy from a video game where she’s so hyped up that she’s going to transform into an elf babe, NO REALLY, THAT SCENE CRACKS ME UP.
And when Amy picked up the book, he mentions the “Fermi Paradox” which has something to do with “The Nothing” that Oliver never shut up about. But in the end, that guy is being paranoid and asks Amy for some book for no reason, he’s like another joke character like that Cabbage guy from Avatar. However, when Amy stepped out of the door, that man’s flavor is filled with Basil leaf, balsamic, vinegar, and black pepper. Seems to be like a normal person but he didn’t show any negativity coming from him, because Amy doesn’t know who this guy truly is. The funny thing other than Amy making that stupid face was that the Director got a package and it was some wig with a catchphrase saying “get your youth back”, making a fool out of him because he’s bald.
Imagine if Director Langley wore that wig out in public and somehow he’ll look like some crazy dude where he just goes around making short videos on Tik Tok or something, I don’t know, maybe people right now are becoming much silly when they’re going to do something like that. And was either one of them weird enough that they’re wearing some women’s wigs to act like them? What is up with that?? I have never seen it before or after that.
Ok I’m going to wrap this up with the review where Amy brought back the pages of some children’s book to read with Qiana, and somehow Amy tore off half of the pages of the book, but Qiana seemed to be frustrated because Amy was being reckless, that was really horrible coming from Qiana because this was her first time doing the whole stealth mission and improvising the whole time. I mean she did her best, and in the end, they read the story of the Crocodile and the Prince.
And let me tell you, that story is much more like reading a character’s backstory from a fighting game which is the story of a Tibetan warrior monk and the Tiger Spirit (Guess which game am I referring to?) But that story takes place in the desert lands of Asairi, and it’s about some prince who is destined to be killed by a crocodile. So the king ordered every other warrior of the palace to hunt and kill the crocodiles until there was nothing left, for his son’s safety. However, the prince grew up locked away in the castle until when he got older, he met a girl who became his wife and asked him to go out to the castle and see the ocean. When they got to the ocean, the prince saw the crocodile trying to haunt him, and that panel where the crocodile is showing on the clouds on a storm and poses like the Blue-Eyes White Dragon card from Yu-Gi-Oh! So all this time the Prince is being haunted by the crocodile thinking that his fate is sealed to his death, but then he couldn’t take it and he slayed the crocodile through the heart, just by conquering his fears. And that source of all that is the love between the two which makes their love stronger than fate.
And at the end of the volume shows another spoof of Lil’ Amy mini-comic, where she asked her father a question about how babies are made, which is something more cringy for parents to ask how he and his wife made up. But then her mom has to make something for the kid to understand how babies are made. I don’t know what the hell is wrong with Lil’ Amy but this is actually too silly for me, for example, Amy and Jemmah took their pants from their parent’s closets and started to make a baby. But in the end, they make such a silly joke about how humans are becoming so weird, to begin with. Well, that’s the only explanation that I can think of because this is a children’s webcomic series.
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