Four misfit teens are reluctant recruits to save the
mystical isle of Avalon. Magically empowered and directed by a talking dog,
they must stop the rise of King Arthur. As they struggle to become a team,
they’re faced with the discovery that they may not be the good guys.
I never thought I’d run into a book that was described as “Magical-girl
manga with an Arthurian twist!”* But then
again, with so many creative ways of putting a spin on the classic tale, it
shouldn’t really have surprised me.
Either way, Misfits of Avalon is definitely one of the most unique
twists that I’ve seen. Odds are it will
probably remain quite different from all the others for quite some time too.
So, how exactly does this book pull that off you might wonder? The premise is altogether pretty
straightforward, at least as much as a story like this can possibly be. One by one, four very diverse girls have all
been gathered together by a mysterious shapeshifting figure to recover
Excalibur and return it for Avalon. As
you’d imagine, they run into plenty of challenges trying to work together to
accomplish this goal. By the end of this
first volume, they come to realize that not only are they apparently up against
King Arthur, but the one who called upon them and their task may not be all
they believed.
Once again, the role of writer and artist has been
heroically taken on by the same individual.
Even being completely black and white save for the cover, it still
manages to come off with plenty of life to it.
The linework is very strong and the grayscale colors are placed just
right. One thing in particular that I really
appreciated is that our four super girls weren’t drawn in typical comic girl
manner, so kudos for that.
While the magical girl genre may not really be up everyone’s
alley, even my own to be honest, the story is pretty fun. There were a couple things I didn’t care for,
like the constant gag of one team member’s age, but all in all it was a good
read. I’m not sure if I’m completely
hooked, but there’s enough draw for me to say it’s worth checking out to see
where it goes.
Misfits of Avalon Vol 1: The Queen of Air and Deliquency TPB will be available 10/8
For more on Misfits of Avalon or other Dark Horse books,
check out Dark Horse Comics.
Geek-o-Rama received a copy of this book for the purpose of this review. All thoughts, comments and opinions are those of the individual reviewer.
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