Next week, we hit 200. This week, we’re almost there. Join us as we dig into the start of another arc for “Dr. Frost,” the oddly hyphenated “Jupiter-Men” and we give the latest DC x Webtoon collab a look with “Red Hood: Outlaws.” Don’t worry, 200 won’t be the end, but it may not look the same on the other side.
So read on, read on, and find all this and more in the 199th issue of The Webcomics Weekly.
Dr. Frost
‘Ouroboros’ (1) – (2)
Updates: Saturdays
By Jongbeom Lee
Reviewed by Elias Rosner
At the end of the last arc, I was wondering how ‘Ouroboros’ was going to play out. Was it going to wrap things up? Was it going to deliver on the promised reveals? Or was it going to be more of the same? While I like much of the same, I did want the comic to push the envelope a little more. This fourth season of “Dr. Frost” has slowly broken from the mold of the previous seasons in terms of the independence of each arc from each other, and that’s doubly true for the last arc and this one. Had there not been a renaming, I honestly would’ve thought it was the same arc.
There are enough differences to note why it changed, however. Frost is no longer alone, now joined by Changgyu in investigating Moon’s past while Seonga is taking charge and leading the detective side to investigate Moon’s present and the future. By the end of ‘Ouroboros’ (2) it’s clear this split is going to carry through this “case,” as it were, if not beyond. Should this be the final, very lengthy arc, then they will come together near the end. If it’s not, we may not see Frost & Seonga reunite for quite a while yet.
While the pacing is still kinda all over the place in these two chapters, the flashback we get to contextualize Seonga’s professional relationship/friendship with Jiseong Gwak, the guy who carried out a terrorist attack earlier in the season whom Seonga cannot believe did it/did it unprompted, is an exceptional example of Lee’s ability to characterize a character’s relationship over a short period of time. I feel like we’ve spent chapters and chapters with Jiseong and though the details I could recite about him are small, I can tell you what Seonga means to him and what he means to her.
Doing this also sets the stage for the present day rather well. Why IS he refusing to see her? Does he feel guilty or is it something more complicated? Does he not want to see her because on some level he knows the brainwashing wouldn’t hold up if she became involved? WAS he brainwashed or did he act of his own volition, immediately regret it, and cannot face her? It’s clear he is not untroubled by what he did and it’s clear Seonga is the key to getting him to open up.
These complications in the narrative are what keep me invested. Sure, Moon’s big plan being nebulously evil and big is a good motivation to see where the story is going but the how of it all is so interesting that I’m glad we rarely see Moon or his lackeys. Just having Frost and Changgyu bicker in front of this random old man is more than interesting enough for me.
Although, I wouldn’t pass up the promise of learning what happened to his family, and the town, 30 years ago.
Jupiter-Men
Episodes 1-5
Updates Wednesdays
Created by Actionkiddy
Reviewed by Mel Lake
What do you get if you cross Naruto with Miles Morales? Well, I don’t exactly know, but it’s probably close to Quintin, the main character of “Jupiter-Men.” This new Webtoon Original is aimed at a younger audience but features classic superhero building block plot elements, solid art, and (with one exception) great character designs.
Jupiter City has a legendary protector but opinions are mixed as to whether he’s a superhero or just a dude with a long, starry cape. Quintin, a typical teen, is obsessed with Jupiter-Man to the point of ruining his grades because he spends all his time on conspiracy message boards. Jackie, his twin sister, is more popular and is charged with being responsible for her brother after he breaks into a crime scene to find evidence of Jupiter-Man. She’s not that responsible, though, so the pair end up in a crater outside town having multi-dimensional experiences with glowing orbs.
Continued belowI mentioned Miles Morales in the intro as a comparison not only because Quintin is a young black protagonist but also because his mother turns out to be a Jupiter City police officer, similar to Miles’s father. Quintin and his sister Jackie have a sibling vibe that feels authentic. Her character design is really the only thing I dislike about the artwork. She looks like a doll, with proportions that give her such a tiny waist! It’s distracting because Quintin looks so childish in comparison. It seems like it would be a better choice to let both kids look like kids rather than making Jackie look like a preteen while Quintin gets to be young. Or, age up Quintin a bit to match Jackie and give her a waistline that looks like it might hold at least one internal organ. Otherwise, the art in the series is solid in its everyday scenes, flashbacks that explain Jupiter City’s history, and multi-dimensional orb space. I especially like the green and black sequence with an art deco vibe in the first episode.
Is “Jupiter-Men” breaking new ground? Other than featuring a black brother-and-sister duo as lead characters, no. But it’s a fun story, the art is solid, and Quintin’s enthusiasm may elevate the series if given the time to grow.
Red Hood: Outlaws
Episodes 1-3
Schedule: Mondays
Written by Patrick R. Young
Illustrated by Nico Bascuñán
Inks Assisted and Colored by Javier Rodriguez Vejares
Background Illustrations Assisted by Sebastian Frachini
Reviewed by Michael Mazzacane
The latest DC x Webtoon product has come out and it is a riff on “Red Hood and the Outlaws” here just shortened to “Red Hood: Outlaws”. Is it yet another exploitation of Bat-adjacent IP when DC has sooooo much other stuff – like two other thirds of a Trinity – they could riff on? Yes, but this is also one of the rare times Jason Artemis and Bizarro have gotten to be written by someone not named Scott Lobdell in the past half decade. So I’ll take it! Writer Patrick Young and the rest of the art team don’t flip the scrip when it comes to the Dark Trinity. They’re still the outcast, failures, who cannot match their Trinity namesakes and so instead roam the world as mercenaries doing a bit of good, bit of bad, bit of both.
Their latest contract has them sent to Dinosaur Island to retrieve a stolen family heirloom for Franco Bertinelli, an heir loom that both looks older and not Italian. Your requisite Indiana Jones references are made, though thankfully they aren’t laborious or constant. Young does a good job of showing the relationship dynamics at play as they’re cutting their way through the jungle. Some of the gags and one liners aren’t nearly as funny or effective as the strip think they are but for the most part it all fits the tone.
Structurally Patrick Young and artist Nico Bascuñán make these three episodes really just work. Each episode is built around one member of the cast giving new readers a quick look at their internal state of self loathing and failures. There’s something perversely contemporary with Artemis’ time as Wonder Woman characterized in the parlance of social media following and monetization. Bascuñán are largely fits the visual grammar that Dexter Soy laid down in the Rebirth Era, though with a thicker line and more painterly digital inking style. Some of the action beats don’t quite work in the visual landscape of webtoons, but the overall storytelling is functional. Javier Rodriguez Vejares coloring is the real stand out for this strip. Everything is saturated but with a painterly application and rendering process that keeps everything loose and lively. In a sea of webtoon Clip Studio paint powered manga adjacent aesthetics, “Red Hood: Outlaws” stands out aesthetically and narratively.
While I’ve fallen behind on some of the other DC x Webtoon projects the consistency of how these properties are rearticulated to fit the platform and more importantly speak to new audiences continues to impress me. The Rebirth era run of “Red Hood and the Outlaws” is a real soft spot for me but this feels closer to the platonic ideal readers wanted that book to be. It might be a little too cute for some but there’s plenty of internal trauma and drama to be had in this.
