Customer Reviews

Walls of Zhumar (Way of the Rat, Book 1)

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this comic is pretty much a martial arts comics, which few exsist today that are made ouitside of asia, but it is real fun, the story is of Boon, who stumble upon a ring that makes him a martial arts master in a certain field of combat, but more of these rings exsist, and there is pretty nice fight when the owner of the ring of baldes faces down boon. Complete with a talking monkey, war, and touch of humor, i highly suggest Way of The Rat for anyone whose likes martial arts movies of just good solid comics

Okay, I admit it: CrossGen Comics came and went before I got around to sampling its wares. So, now, I'm kicking myself and feeling bittersweet about things, because, as it turns out, there were many bits of excellence that were produced by CrossGen Comics. And here I am, playing catch-up. So far I've gotten my hands on several outstanding issues of SOJOURN, CRUX, MERIDIAN, and NEGATION. My favorite, though, is WAY OF THE RAT.

CrossGen stood out because its titles didn't cater towards the superhero sensibilities. No capes or cowls for CrossGen, and, to be perfectly honest, this may have been what made me hesitant about trying it out earlier. It's a shared universe, with WAY OF THE RAT apparently sharing its general locale with two other CrossGen titles THE PATH and BRATH. On the world of Hann Jinn, on the outskirts of the Empire of Shinacea, sits the isolated fortress city of Zhumar. In Zhumar a chain of momentous events is set off when lowly thief Boon Sai Hong steals two mystical objects from an aged scholar.

These two items are the Ring of Staffs, which grants its bearer instant mastery over any staffed weapon, and the Book of the Hell of the Hungry Dragons, a scroll which opens the gateway to a hell populated by baleful dragons. This very quickly garners Boon the unwelcome attentions of the sinister ruler of Zhumar, Judge X'ain, and the Thieves' Guild, which seeks him for violating its code of conduct (something about Boon bogarting the booty). There's also the Silken Ghost, an enigmatic white-shrouded woman wise to the ways of wushu and very much interested in the proceedings. And when Boon later gets his mitts on the Phoenix Heart (another sacred relic, this one able to release ghosts), the collective manhunt intensifies that much more. Boon, in his desperate attempts to evade capture from his fellow thieves and from the city guardsmen, is aided by the sentient monkey Po Po. If by "aided," it's understood that Po Po mostly insults Boon incessantly. Nevertheless, Po Po becomes Boon's de facto sifu.

And because WAY OF THE RAT isn't all about Boon, we are soon introduced to a key subplot. Even as Boon, Judge X'ain, and the Thieves' Guild play out their shenanigans, a horde of barbarians lays siege to the walled city of Zhumar, this horde led by the mighty and shirtless Bhuto Khan, wielder of the Ring of Blades and coveter of Boon's stolen sacred artifacts.

WAY OF THE RAT ran for 24 issues before CrossGen folded in 2004. The first six issues are collected in the trade WALLS OF ZHUMAR (WAY OF THE RAT, Book 1), and, hells to the yes, I recommend it. These issues read so damn quickly that I feel I should be upset with the brevity of the thing, except that I know better. Chuck Dixon is a solid storyteller and never did much care for excessive exposition. WAY OF THE RAT is a fabulous series, embodying the finest of wuxia tradition. Dixon incorporates elements of whimsy, straight-out comedy, fantasy, and sizzling kung fu mayhem. He's tremendous with the world-building bits, with making the reader feel that the story is something out of some ancient and mythical China. He does this in part thru dialogue and the usage of colorful and evocative names and sobriquets (Boon's nickname of the Jade Rat, the Book of the Hell of the Hungry Dragons, etc.), and he does this thru characterization. Our central character, Boon Sai Hong, is a rogue who tries to become a hero. But Chuck Dixon doesn't make Boon out to be a perfect hero. Boon has plenty of flaws and several moments in which he makes the wrong choices or is just incredibly foolhardy. But you end up rooting for him.

And never mind that Po Po is an animal sidekick. This monkey, brimming with hilariously caustic commentary (most of which is showered on Boon), is one of the best sidekicks/mentors in the field of comics and beyond. For those who've read Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir's Destroyer series, Po Po reminds me most of the diminutive Master Chiun, teacher and father figure to Remo Williams. Po Po and Master Chiun are equally pompous and haughty and very much convinced of their superiority. The crummy thing about these WAY OF THE RAT trades is that the letter columns from the original issues are left out. These letter columns were howlingly funny because it was Po Po who fielded the fan mail, and his aloof yet cutting responses simply cracked me up. I'm actually compelled to submit an example:

- From issue #5, one fan letter started out like so: "I was really excited when I saw Chuck Dixon had a new book coming out, but almost didn't order WAY OF THE RAT when I read that it had a talking monkey in it..."
- Po Po's response: "That my presence in these pages was almost enough to discourage you from reading this continuing adventure makes Po Po sad; sad for your parents who must forever bear the shame of having brought you into a world where Po Po's magnificence is wasted upon you."

Another element which drew me in is the mystery surrounding the Silken Ghost's identity. Is she the old scholar's daughter or the beautiful princess (yes, of course, there's a beautiful princess)? The dastardly villains, Judge X'ain and Bhuto Khan, are admittedly pretty clichéd characters, and we only care for them inasmuch as how they receive their comeuppances.

CrossGen seems to have built a rep for featuring awesome artists, and it's no different with WAY OF THE RAT. The clear star of this series is artist Jeff Johnson. Jeff Johnson has this knack for laying out clear and evocative visuals, and his double-paged spreads are masterful stuff. This man also illustrates some of the most fluid martial arts sequences around. It is a sheer pleasure whenever Boon goes into action, and I know that Jeff Johnson doesn't really break down every martial arts move on paper, but it sure seems like he does. I've heard that he himself practices martial arts, and this makes total sense. The fight choreography in WAY OF THE RAT is incredible in its grace and in its attention to detail. Johnson's skills are emphasized even more when a lesser light like Rod Whigham drops by as the guest penciller (in issue #5).

So I'm throwing myself a pity party; it's pretty horrible that I found out about WAY OF THE RAT years after its demise. Not to mention, all those other nifty CrossGen titles (I am also really digging SOJOURN and NEGATION). And since I've gone thru my buddy's collection of CrossGen comics, I guess it's time to go the trade paperback route. For fellow latecomers or for the curious, WAY OF THE RAT has two other trades out: THE DRAGON'S WAKE (#7-12), and Way Of The Rat Volume 3: Haunted Zhumar (Way of the Rat) (#13-18). I say go ahead and check them out; it's certainly worth the post-mortem fun.

Surprisingly, I didn't like the first issue of "Way of the Rat" the first time I read it. Oh, it was a passable action-fantasy, but it didn't engage me enough to justify spending three bucks a month for the comic book. Still, I kept hearing people say how good it was, and I started to wonder if I'd missed something, so when this collection of the first six issues was published, I decided to give it another try.

I'm glad I did.

"Way of the Rat" is a fast-paced martial arts action flick on paper. Our hero is a thief who happens upon a pair of mystic artifacts -- a scroll and a ring, the latter of which transforms him into a fighting master whenever he lifts a staff. With the help of a spiritual guide in the form of a talking monkey, the "Jade Rat" learns he has a much greater destiny than that of a criminal and embarks upon a quest to become a hero.

Reading this collection, I realized quickly why I didn't care for it in single-issue form. It's fast paced. SO fast-paced, in fact, that in that first issue I never got a chance to feel for or care about any of the characters. Reading six chapters in one go cured me of that. "Way of the Rat" is going to join CrossGen's "Mystic" as a comic book I prefer to get in trade paperbacks instead of magazine form.

In medieval China, the border city of Zhumar is threatened with total destruction at the hands of a a Mongol-like horde from the west. However, the evil judge-ruler of the city has struck a bargain with their warlord. In exchange for several powerful magical artifacts, the city will be spared and the judge will be allowed to rule on. Alas, the schemes of the mighty are wrecked by the lowliest rat-in this case Boon Sai Hong (The Jade Rat), a member of the Thieves Guild who inadvertently steals two of the three artifacts on the very night the judge was to have them stolen. Yes, this is a plot straight out of a Hong Kong flick, and it's probably no coincidence that the bumbling hero-thief bears more than a passing resemblance to a young Jackie Chan. The parallels to Chan's films grow even stronger when his two mentors are introduced, a pudgy fellow who looks an awful lot like Sammo Hung, and another who could be modeled after Yuen Bao. The book's film forebearers are perhaps too much in evidence in some of the action scenes, where the artist's have attempted to capture the visual poetry of the combat acrobatics by creating sort of stop-action, slo-mo renderings of Boon's moves. Many others profess to love the technique, but I found it very off-putting and distracting.

Most of the book has Boon racing around the city, attempting to elude the judge's assassins, his own Thieves Guild brothers (who are displeased with him), and a mysterious masked woman in white (presumably a princess). This plays out again the siege of the city, in which the Mongols are aided by a Russian military engineer who unveiled a massive cannon. The passage of time gets somewhat confusing actually, as Boon's chase scene over rooftops and through alleys appears to span days, if not weeks, as it is intercut with the siege. It's all pretty stock stuff, a lovable rogue whom destiny grants great power, and then becomes a hero, with a princess in the offing. There are some fresh touches though, like the talking monkey mentor he gains, and the Russian cannonmaker. All in all, not bad, but not great.