King Tiger #1 Review: Worth the Effort

How do you create a world people are interested in reading? In today’s landscape of supernatural beings and mythical legends it’ challenging to create a niche in the realm of comic books where the expectations are big explosions or what’s seen on the big screen. You should have a small cast of characters, a storyline that doesn’t insult the intelligence of the reader, solid artwork and good writing. The kind of writing where you don’t realize the comic is over. This may well be the case in the reboot miniseries “King Tiger.”

Writer Randy Stradley sets up a story where readers of the first go-round of the series only think they know what’s going to happen next. As origin tales go it is a reworking of a character who has foibles and is only slightly apologetic for them. He won’t reveal his past, which is a good thing. Too often as a reader we are over saturated with information, where most of the comic is made up of the “womb to nearly tomb” script. How are we able to be invested in King Tiger’s journey if it’s told at a cliff-note pace? Luckily for the reader the journey of the titled character is laid bare to the reader like the opening of a lotus. There are layers and with each revelation we’re left with questions that as a reader makes you want to keep going.

The art of Doug Wheatley compliments Stradley’s narrative nicely. Pain, shock, surprise, the swirling movements of the characters all help progress the story. Nothing is stagnant even when no one is in motion. When Milo asks about Tiger’s past, you can see the avoidance in Tiger’s gaze. His body language reveals more than his silence and capturing that in ink is impressive.

What pulls this issue together is the echo of the lines first seen on page 1. Having the words repeat on the last page gives those exact lines deeper context. What could have been seen as lazy becomes instead a moment of epiphany for the reader. At the end of reading “King Tiger”, you’ll pick your head up with a new awareness of the world around you. And wonder just how long you’ve been going about your life in ignorance. No small feat for a writer and artist, but well worth the effort to examine.