Thanks to barnesandnoble.com for the image.

Rated “OT” for “Older Teen-Age 16+”

TOKYOPOP’s recent OEL (original English language) manga, Hellgate London is a comic book prequel series to the video game, Hellgate: London, an action/dark fantasy role-playing game from Flagship Studios.

Set in the year 2020, Hellgate London, Vol. 1 opens just as an invasion of London by demons begins.  It begins slowly at first, so that most Londoners don’t notice the influx of murderous hellions stalking their city.  That includes college rugby player, John Fowler, a student-athlete at Temple University, and he’s busy pulling pranks with his teammates.

One of their pranks nearly gets John expelled from school, but, more importantly, that practical joke opens the door to the legacy of the Fowler family.  The Fowler’s history includes the Knights Templar and the cursed “grandfather of many greats,” Isaac Fowler.  John and his sassy sister, Lindsey, are about to find out how that ties into an apocalypse.

[This volume includes a 7-page excerpt of the Hellgate: London prose novel, Goetia, by Mel Odom.]

THE LOWDOWN:  Adapted by Arvid Nelson (the co-creator of the comic book series, Rex Mundi, published by Dark Horse Comics), this Hellgate London manga is a rather straightforward story.  Nelson quickly introduces his players, managing to define personalities in just a few panels for each character.  He eases the reader into the back story, dropping clues, hints, and signs every other page or so.  It’s just enough to keep the reader intrigued and interested in following Nelson’s trail of breadcrumbs into the meat of this story – the confrontation between nasty evil and flawed heroes.  It works because I found myself wishing for more when this volume ended.

The art is stylish, but its effectiveness rests in artist J.M.’s (Jeong Mo Yang) storytelling abilities.  In this visual medium, what the artists put on the page – how they visualize the script – is the primary element that identifies the plot, defines the characters, and establishes the mood or atmosphere.  J.M. does that in a way that takes the story where Nelson seems to want it to go and makes it visually appealing.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Hellgate London is basically a supernatural or fantasy war comic – humans pitting their guns, steel, and magic against the forces of Hell.  If you like that sort of thing…

B+