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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