Writer: Justin Aclin
Art: Vasilis Lolos
Cover: Shu Yan
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Anytime one see’s American McGee branded upon a product, it’s best to approach with trepidation. One time, about a decade ago, the name was synonymous with originality and artistic vision within the video-game world. So after more abysmal than excellent games and blowing all his clout, American McGee, and his developing company Spicy Horse, decided to take to Kickstarter to fund his new game Akaniero: Demon Hunters, a loose re-telling of Little Red Riding Hood, where it currently sits with a meta-critic score of 56%.
Unfortunately for Dark Horse Comics, American McGee decided to throw in a comic book series to help promote the game which was released way back in February. This puts Dark Horse Comics in a poor position, since they now have to promote a comic series based on a wildly unpopular game. The question is; does Akaniero‘s transition allow it to rise above the faults of the source material?
Akaniero #1 takes place in ancient Japan, where young Kani, the daughter of a ronin, must embark on a treacherous journey to help form an alliance between two warring factions. Kani’s journey is a standard boilerplate fable, where the dialogue feels as wooden as any Resident Evil game and the action is underwhelming.
To make matters worse is the clunky inclusion of the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale elements. One can almost envision writer Justin Aclin running back to his script and throwing in some references to a big bad wolf and adding notes for the artist, reminding him to make Kani’s hood red. It makes you wonder why they even bothered with the fairy tale aspect at all.
On top of the poor, re-hash of a story is the shockingly poor art. In fact, it will probably be the first thing you notice after being falsely mislead by Shu Yan’s spectacular cover. The characters resemble an eight-year-old’s attempt at recreating their favourite Pokémon scenes in crayon. Artist Vasilis Lolos attempt at channeling ancient Japanese wood blocking fails on all accounts which is a shame, because his work on Conan the Barbarian with Brian Wood was phenomenal. It’s hard to believe this is the same artist.
Akaniero #1 is a bad comic book that is based off of a bad game. It feels like an after-thought of a product, one that wouldn’t have even benefited from being released prior to the game. Unfortunately for us, and for Dark Horse, American McGee and his team continue to beat their dead horse. So why not pick up Lobster Johnson: Satan Smells a Rat by Mike Mignola instead and help Dark Horse move past this debacle.
-Sean