Saturday, May 25, 2024

Scott's Take: Spirit World by Alyssa Wong and Jeremy Holt


Spirit World by Alyssa Wong and Jeremy Holt is one of the books that is part of the We Are Legends series which was a print run that put new Asian heroes in the DC Universe. It seems they have killed all three of the separate series with each one having six issues only. This means the imprint did not last long. 

 

In this volume, Xanthe, a non-binary Chinese hero able to travel between the land of living and the spirit world (the Chinese afterlife) has an accidental team up with John Constantine and Batgirl (Cassandra Cain) fought evil spirits in the land of the living (our real world). Somehow, during the battle, Batgirl ends up banished to the spirit world. Xanthe and John Constantine have to figure out how to get her back. They quickly realize that, somehow, they are blocked from going to the spirit world themselves. Of course, things soon get way more complicated.

 

Full of Chinese mythology and incredible art this is a fun little series. It does have one flaw. John Constantine is depicted here as a lot nicer than he is usually. As one of the few popular magic characters, it’s clear that he is present to act as a sidekick to get people interested, but to do that he has to be a lighter in tone. He is also powerful enough to be useful, but not over shadow the main character. While I get why they chose him, there should have been some explanation for why he trusts Xanthe so quickly and befriends them.

 

Xanthe is an interesting character. The ending clearly was a setup t showcase way more being done with the character. Their power set is pretty unique being based on paper magic. This collected volume also includes a prelude story and a pride story from their Pride anthology that is supposed to highlight LGBTQ characters. I enjoyed Spirit World by Alyssa Wong.  Hopefully, someone will use Xanthe in the future.

 


Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3wqWFmP

 

 

My reading copy came from the branch we visit, Lochwood Library.

 

Scott A. Tipple ©2024

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