Titan Comics 2017
Written by Cavan Scott
Illustrated by Andie Tong
Coloured by Marcio Menyz
Lettered by Comicraft’s Jimmy Betancourt
Sacrificing himself in order to defeat the beast, Jin hoped to rid himself of the Devil Gene that taints his bloodline... but following Azazel’s demise, he discovered the curse still remains within him.Now, with Jin’s current whereabouts unknown and ownership of the Zaibatsu reverting back to the diabolical Heihachi, the fate of the world remains unclear.
Alright i’ve said in the past i’m not a gamer, video gamer that is, I haven’t played any since the 80’s when Arcades were popular. So after looking up Tekken, which I learned is Japanese for Iron Fist, and realising it’s a video game along the lines of Street Fighter I thought okay it all makes sense now. So now i’m more interested than I thought i’d be, and I was already really interested, to see what Cavan has in mind for this. How’s he going to take this from a straight up fighter vs fighter scenario and turn into a gripping story that still allows for more than it’s fair share of fight scenes?
If i’m completely honest it’s books like this that make me want to give playing a game a try. From what we see here i’m interested in seeing what i’ve missed and i’m sorry but there’s a Panda (my absolute favourite animal of all time)! So Cavan does what he does best here and sets this story up beautifully. We’re left guessing as it opens but one things for sure there’s one person being targeted and the action begins in earnest. We see plenty of action, have some wonderful intrigue and end with a cliffhanger it’s really structured perfectly.
I was a little worried this was going to be computer generated to look like the game but my fears were sated when the story started. Andie’s work is quite nice and his attention to detail is superb. His eye for storytelling using page layouts with their angles, perspective and yes those backgrounds are fantastic. His way of showing movement and choreographing the fights is a joy to see. Then there’s the intangibles like Anna’s dress or Panda herself all have that unique quality about them that is eye catching and showcases the creativity and imagination he has.
The characterisation here is fantastic! I immediately understood characters by their speech and their personalities shined through. The eclectic mix of people that we are introduced to here isn’t overwhelming and each has that time we need to get that feel for them. The story itself is laid out nicely so we know that this follows the game storyline but is also off on it’s own as a sequel to game 7 possibly. For someone like myself who hasn’t played it is completely new reader friendly which is phenomenal. I like that I can jump in and understand what’s going on so well and not feel like this was meant for a specific audience.
Once again Titan Comics takes a franchise and expands it into a new medium and does it with style, panache and skill!