Broken Frontier

With hordes of demons overrunning the city, the heroes prepare for one last attempt at stopping the demonic entity.

The penultimate issue of Megacity909 opens with Jerome and Jaeminae infiltrating the demonic entity’s headquarters in an effort to override the mainframe. Naturally, an easy resolution isn’t going to come in the first half-dozen pages of the comic, so it’s up to Baenshe to rescue her allies when the entity springs a trap. As the heroes regroup, Vasrio and the general debate launching a nuclear strike against the entity vs. the use of conventional forces. Ultimately, however, it comes down to Jerome, Jaeminae, Baenshe and Vasrio who take matters into their own hands while Taep confronts a traitor.

Reading this book, I tried to keep in perspective that Megacity909 #7 is the seventh of eight parts, as well as a story genre that doesn’t usually appeal to me (cyberpunk manga). Even considering that, this was a comic I had a great deal of difficulty following. Certainly, this is the penultimate chapter, but writer Andrew Dabb fails to provide an entry point for new readers. The general plot was simple enough to follow (good guys want to stop the big demon thing), but I found myself flipping back and forth through the book trying to glean basic information such as the names (I assume the general’s name is "The General" and I suspect the demon may be called Kusanagi). That being the case, I wasn’t able to relate to the characters or invest myself emotionally in the story. Another problem I had with the book was the scene in which Jaeminae tries to staunch the bleeding from Jerome’s wound – by tearing all of her clothes off, down to her underwear! I found this so ridiculous and exploitive, that it took me right out of what was an otherwise dark and intense scene. In terms of dialogue, much of the book felt like stock clichés from action movies. The terse exclamations and expositional speech left the characters with very little semblance of personality.

The art of Kang and Suh also was not a style I typically enjoy, but I was able to appreciate the quality and scope it had. Their women with gigantic breasts and incredibly long legs may be a manga convention that leaves me cold, but the cityscapes and demonic entities were impressive. The zombie demons were a terrifying lot, imbued with a sense of monstrosity. Kang and Suh’s art was truly the only element of the book that brought me into the story. Reading the cinematic pages of the demonic entity looming over the city, ranting and breathing fire down on it, gave me an appreciation for the enormity of the heroes’ task.

Megacity909 #7 is about as "new reader friendly" as a punch in the nose. Is the story better when read as a whole, as opposed to one chapter of an eight-part saga? Perhaps, but I’m a strong believer that each part should be able to stand as an entertaining read in its own right. Despite my dislike of the story, Kang and Suh turn in an impressive job – highly stylized but easy to appreciate.