Comics
Review: “Translucid” #1
Well, shit. This comic is bananas. “Translucid” #1 is the coolest take on villainy that I’ve seen in years. A true psychological look at good and evil. Writers Sanchez and Echert present us with an almost Dom/Sub-type love between superhero and villain, causing all kinds of chaos in its wake. Leading us to wonder, who’s the real villain here?
WRITTEN BY: Claudio Sanchez & Chondra Echert
ART BY: Daniel Bayliss
PUBLISHER: BOOM! Studios
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: April 16, 2014
Starting off rather innocuously, we are introduced to our villain: The Horse. He’s a Carmine Falcone-like criminal mastermind (with a Knight chess piece style headdress) fresh out of prison with a renewed sense of psychopathy and an odd determination to prove the dependency of his superhero counterpart, The Navigator. He orchestrates his own abduction in order to show that The Navigator would sooner blow up the Empire State Building than see him perish in its place.
When The Navigator plays directly into the trick, instead of being pleased, The Horse is angered at the dependency The Navigator shows, and punishes him by forcing him to watch his failure play out in a grand explosive gesture.
Since the beginning of the comic book hero/villain relationship, it’s always been clear that the two feed off of each other. This comes as no surprise. They never truly want to end each other’s lives, because without one, the other ceases to exist. Good is only relative to the evil it counteracts. “Translucid” definitely explores that notion but smacks it around a bit first. In a standard hero/villain relationship, we find the villain on the sad end of the dependency continuum, whereas “Translucid” turns our hero into a sad, pathetic, almost treacherous, fool-in-love for the villain. To the point where The Navigator’s dependency on The Horse causes more damage than The Horse could possibly do on his own. It’s fascinating. It’s daring. I love it.
I didn’t think I was going to enjoy this comic book as much as I did. I had the impression that it was going to be the hero/villain equivalency of a bromance film. And for a second during the comic when a reporter refers to The Navigator and The Horse as a “dynamic duo” I thought my initial feelings would be validated. But Sanchez and Echert swing wildly off course as The Horse dominates in emotional stability, completely putting The Navigator (along with his creepy amount of respect for his “nemesis”) in his place. I’m crazy excited to see where the next five issues of this strikingly original comic book will take us.
Review by – Bree Ogden
The supernatural world of Korean folk horror movie Exhuma grows larger with the arrival of prequel spinoff webtoon Maengjong this weekend, Variety reports today.
Naver Webtoon debuts Maengjong on May 30.
The series hails from Haemuri (Olgami) and will trace the high school origins of how shaman duo Hwarim and Bonggil, played by Kim Go-eun and Lee Do-hyun in the 2024 film, came together to face occultish threats.
The story is set to begin when “Hwarim, who has been concealing her identity following a childhood encounter with a snake spirit called Jin, crosses paths with Bonggil at their school.”
Variety notes that Exhuma director Jang Jae-hyun participated in the project’s early concept stage.
“We are presenting ‘Maengjong,’ a new series capturing the appeal of the horror-occult genre, ahead of the full summer season,” said Lee Jeong-geun, Naver Webtoon’s Korea webtoon content leader. “With the high school story of Hwarim and Bonggil, who left a strong impression in the film ‘Exhuma,’ enhanced by Haemuri’s characteristic tense direction, we expect it will be a welcome work for genre fans.”
“It is meaningful that the spin-off story of ‘Exhuma,’ loved by many audiences, expands by meeting the new grammar of webtoon,” said Lee Hyeon-jeong, managing director of the film business division at Showbox, which distributed the film. “We hope it will be a fresh experience for both film fans and webtoon readers.”
Exhuma was a breakout hit in 2024, becoming the first Korean occult film to surpass 10 million ticket buyers and the country’s highest-grossing film of the year. I wrote in my review that “the intricately woven Exhuma delivers one of the year’s biggest surprises in horror so far.”
The bond between Hwarim and Bonggil was one of the film’s highlights, making this prequel webtoon a must for fans.
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