The Reformed

Titles that aren’t strictly straight from Japan always interest me. I like the idea of “manga” not being restricted to a single ethnicity – sharing styles across the world is a great way to pay homage to one another. After all, they say copying is the highest form of flattery. However, let me be straightforward with this: I do not, by any means, suggest having The Reformed lead any sort of bridging movement between American writing and Asian art. If there was one blunt way to put it, this title falls and has no idea how to get back up again.

Giancarlo is a gorgeous, wealthy, sophisticated man with a dark secret. For years, he has been preying on the weak, and while he is a successful businessman by day, he’s a terrible blood-sucking monster by night. Jenny is a beautiful girl who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time… And it only takes one look at her for Giancarlo to fall mercilessly in love, putting to test his strength of will and causing him to doubt his very being.

Okay, if that didn’t have you gagging, I’m going to assume you enjoyed the entire Twilight franchise, because I’ve pretty much described the same concept. Personally, it’s not my cup of tea. The story in this case is flat, unbelievable, and just plain boring. Giancarlo has no reason to fall for Jenny, who’s even painted to be some sort of prostitute. On top of that, we get into some weird pseudo-projected inner-turmoil fight between Giancarlo and the “demon within.” Really? That was the best you could come up with, Christopher Hart? You know, as a creative writer myself, I’m more than willing to exercise my suspension of disbelief. But in this case, the total lack of creativity had me wincing at every turned page.
The art is all right; I’ll give it that. It’s pretty to look at, at least. However, the artist had me flipping back and forth between action sequences to figure out what happened, and that just reeks of poor composition. So I can’t even really distract myself with a visual story – in both ways, the whole volume fails at story telling.

To say that The Reformed was a disappointment would be a total understatement. This is undoubtedly one of the worst titles I’ve read in a while, and even makes me want to try Black Sun, Silver Moon again. With flat characters, a yawn-worthy story, exposition with more plot holes than Swiss cheese, and terrible visual composition, I can’t even recommend flipping through this at the bookstore. Hey, Christopher Hart? Next time you’re writing a story, if your favorite character is your poorly integrated antagonist who has no impact on the story at all, you might take that as a hint that you went in the wrong direction.