In my review of issue 1 I said that Daomu
has potential for readers who haven’t read the book if it does more
to treat the reader as if they don’t know the story at all and
inform them more of what is happening. Sadly, at the end of issue 2,
I still have very little knowledge of what is actually happening.
Issue 2 picks up right where issue 1 left off
with Sean Wu opening a mysterious coffin his father told him to
burn. Sean is confronted by a horrifying sight but feels strangely
at ease as his Uncle Tsai approaches. Tsai then offers Sean a
glimpse into the world Sean’s father lived in, an explanation for
why he was abandoned and an opportunity of a lifetime.
One of the redeeming factors of issue 1 was the
very cool art work, especially the shoot out. The character designs,
perspective used and drawing of the rain gave the scene a very cool
feel that helped you feel like you were there. Issue 2 provides no
moment that feels remotely the same as that moment and overall the
art is a bit flat. There is a lot of dialogue, again, so there’s
very little opportunity to present any cool action scenes and the
one bit of action at the end of the comic felt rushed and I had to
look over it a few times to work out what was actually happening.
Just like issue 1 the major problem with Daomu
issue 2 is the fact that it’s an adaptation of a novel. Even though
I haven’t read the book it seems like they are trying to adapt huge
chunks of the story straight from the book. In both issues there’s
just been page after page of constant dialogue and it’s a little
overwhelming and even uninteresting for those who are new to the
series. There is also very little characterization done to make us
like Sean. He’s always complaining about everything and it wears
thin after a while. Issue 2 also seemed to contain some lapses in
dialogue where Sean’s uncle would say something and Sean’s response
would be to something else or he would ask Sean if he wanted him to
tell him something and then tell him something different although
maybe I just dozed off a little bit during all the dialogue that
seemed to go nowhere and missed a few things.
Daomu is looking
like a series that will only sell well with those who have read the
novel. To any new readers the story is a bumbling mess filled with
walls of dialogue that don’t make sense and are only intermittently
broken up with some action. This series really needs to pull out all
the stops in issue 3 to hook new readers.