Take Your Passions on a Ride to High Adventure- Yi Soon Shin: Hunter and Destroyer #1

One thing about reading Yi: your sense of revulsion at the depravations of his enemies will probably enlist your investment in the Admiral overcoming his larger-than-life hardships. His foes, even those with some redeeming quality, repulse decency. They ravage with a very hyper-masculine, testosterone-ridden sort of aggression, but channeled with a lust for devastation, and a desire to break people. It is a time and place in the world with no refuge for those who are not warriors. Their fate is never marked by some romantic exception; when the brave fall, the weak, die. This story drives that point home, as Yi Soon Shin, avenging the destroyed Navy and Korean dead, becomes Hunter and Destroyer. There is no negotiating, only an increasingly-desperate need to out-smart the barbaric invasion, as well as work within the ever-sabotaged coalition of brave Korean forces. Now, Yi maintains his command, his body wrecked by Songo's tortures and fierce combat, while allied with Ming Dynasty forces who've yet to learn to respect him. We are far beyond glory, nor even thoughts of an optimistic future. Slavery and decimation, or a war of vengeance- there was never to be another way.

I picked up Hunter and Destroyer, wondering where would the war go, with its very personal vendettas yet remaining to resolve, after the whirlpool battle of Myungyung- 'the Screaming Straits.' With its decimated cast, now the remaining players circle in their death dance. I think you would find this first of four parts intriguing, and a sound deal at $2.99. You'll get your money's worth and more than you bargained for. This #1, to mark the last arc in the Trilogy, makes a good indicator: Will you be enthralled with the gruesome to soaring tone of this visceral, moral struggle of a story? If you like the level of graphic violence and profanity used to great effect by Garth Ennis, you will find a similar level of courage under fire- standing for what's right, in the face of losing all. Regardless, this is a fresh read you can enjoy many times, thoughtfully produced, never short of suspense. Aside from a few anxious moments of friendship or (sometimes humorous) carnal pleasures), things throughout Admiral Yi's series are grim and sinister by turns. Perhaps the most interesting subplot of the Fallen Avenger limb of the trilogy concerns the reckoning of Jin. This vicious Matahari was revealed to be a child butchered from her mother's womb, failed in every way parenting can fail. Now, she is the one with a son to save. Along with her arc, Fallen Avenger spotlighted the failure of leadership in every way leadership can fail, as embodied by King Sonjo and his appointment of Admiral Won Kyun. We deal with the innocent lives remaining in the fallout. The art succeeds at epic battle tableaus, while on the personal scale, no opportunity to fit the exact right emotion to a face, goes to waste. I want to tip the hat to Joel Saavedra, also, for keeping order with his lettering, including the spot-on visual design and delivery that completes the impact often begun by Kraft's layouts, always carried forward by Anakleus' detailed pencils, served by De Los Santos' careful ink line, and splashed with blood and flame and nightmare shades by colorist Adriana De Los Santos . It's not merely History: it's comics art, immediate, in-your-face, meant to take your passions on a ride to high adventure.