I read a fantastic story today, written and illustrated by Peach MoMoKo, which features some of your favorite X-Men characters! Join me on this beautiful and action-packed adventure…

Mutants Re-Imagined

Mutants in the Marvel Universe can be an allegory for many things; most typically, the X-Men are seen to represent the civil rights movement, but there’s also been a lot of parallels pointed out between our favorite mutants and the struggles of being queer. I bring that up to say, that this group of superheroes can be used in many different contexts, and have been! This book is a new spin on the X-Men from the perspective of Japanese lore, and I am all in baby!

MoMoKo is another creator that’s new to me, and I really like what I see so far. This story was originally written in Japanese, and adapted to English by Zack Davisson. As someone who has had a lot of experience with Japanese-to-English subtitles, as well as dubs, I feel like Zach did a fantastic job with this script. This story focuses on a small Japanese village, in the mountains, that is being raided by an Oni, a type of Japanese spirit. Enter a wandering swordswoman named Sai, and her dog, Logan. Now based on character design clues and name, I’m preeeeeeeety sure she’s Psylocke, and her dog is Wolverine (he does have a healing factor!).

There are other characters from the Marvel Universe that pop up, but I don’t want to spoil too much. Suffice it to say that Sai and her loyal pup help the village fight off a giant monster, and it’s a nice little well-encapsulated one-shot.

Lush Life

What really wowed me was the art in this book. Panel after panel, I was captivated by MoMoKo’s faces, backgrounds, action scenes, really a fantastic artist. The art points to pre-18th century Japanese style, but it doesn’t hit you over the head with it. In fact, it’s got a lot of modern feel to it, and it’s all delivered through these beautiful watercolor panels. I just loved it, there’s few books where I will stop and really just stare at each panel for a while, but I was doing that a lot with this book. The action scenes are really cool, too, and feature some really kinetic shots that I loved.

Overall, a great read, and a five-star recommendation for sure. As I said, this is technically a one-shot, but there is another book called Demon Days: Mariko, which will continue this story is one form or another. Keep an eye out for that one, and I’ll see you in the funny papers!