Pantheon High V.1
Writer: Paul Benjamin
Artists: Steven and Megumi Cummings
Company: Tokyopop
One of the things Tokyopop has done in the past couple years to advance manga readership in the West, in addition to publishing an amazing number of quality imported titles, is to start its own line of Original English Language manga. These are manga created by Westerners, and some of them have been very good indeed. Books like The Abandoned, Steady Beat, Dramacon, Mark of the Succubus, Psy-Comm, and The Dreaming have gone a long way toward showing that manga need not be produced in Japan to be good. Pantheon High steps up to the bar right alongside those others in quality and excellence. (And, no, I don’t believe manga has to be produced in Japan to be ‘real’ manga.)
Pantheon High has a cool hook. It’s a modern-day high school, but the students are the offspring of a human and a god or goddess from Norse, Egyptian, Greek, or Japanese mythology. Some look normal, some don’t, but they are all teenagers and someday they will be demigods. That gives them abilities beyond the normal ken, and that means trouble when you talk about teenagers. It’s a riff similar to PS 238, the X-Men Academy stuff, or some recent movies, but making them mythological figures intstead of superheroes gives Benjamin millenia of cool stories to play with and draw from and opens the artistic possibilities up for the Cummings in all sorts of fun ways.
There are four main protagonists, each from a different pantheon. Grace Morganstern is the daughter of Tyr, Norse god of War, and the fact that all of Tyr’s children have lost a hand like he did has her more than a little worried. Yukio Takahashi is Benten’s son, and the supernatural good fortune he inherited from his mother, the Japanese goddess of Luck, lets him get through the day without really working too hard. Griffin Pierce, Hades’ son, has a bit of a death wish, but that seems natural for the child of the Greek god of Death. Aziza el Ra is the daughter of Ra, Egyptian god of the Sun, and is very aware that her father is the head of his pantheon. She’s a socialite and a bit of a snob. Four very different kids, who run in different circles, but when some of the children of more evil gods hatch a plan that takes out most of the school, they’ve either got to work together or go down separately.
Benjamin takes the perfect approach to the mythology here, making it fun and interesting. Throughout the book he drops throwaway references in the speech of the kids that help make them feel more different, but not so much that the essential teenage high school feel is lost. For readers with a previous knowledge of mythology, these will bring a laugh or a knowing nod, but Benjamin covers all the bases by including a section explaining them all in the back as well, just in case. He also does a great job of linking each character to their divine parent through some personality quirk or behavior pattern, but still keeping them individuals instead of just walking symbols. It’s easy to care about these characters, and this first volume left me wanting to know more about this world.
The Cummings do a top notch job on the art, detailing human-looking students and creatures of myth with equal animation and clarity. The facial expressions so important to revealing feelings in manga are done excellently, panel layouts keep the eye moving but use angles well, and the temptation to overtone is resisted. Backgrounds were missing in a number of panels, but that’s common in manga and even helps keep from focusing too long on panels less important to the story.
Overall, I’m quite impressed with this book on several levels. It was genuinely fun to read, I found myself going back and looking at it again to look more carefully at the artwork, and the mythological references made me excited. I’ve always been a fan of the myths of various cultures, and seeing some used in a good story like this was a treat.
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Good to see manga reviews here on the Pants.
Another title recommend to me by Dan in the past, so one I’ll definitely have to check out sometime soon. And besides that, I can say I defintely like the concept.
On a side note, I read Battle Royale and really liked it, much more than I thought I would. Kinda silly concept you might see in a crappy fighting game, but what made it work for me was the art. It was much more dense, for lack of a better word. By that I mean it was more detailed than most manga, which was a plus for me. That, and an excellent translation/adaptation from Giffen really helped. Another manga to get addicted to…
03 Mar 2007 at 6:38 pm
QuoteThanks for the review Dan. This was definitely a “can’t judge a book by its cover” moment for me. The concept of this book sounds like it could end up being a lot of fun. I just recently finished playing God of War for the PS2 so I’m actually on a mythology high right now. Surely one to check out. By the way, you refered to this book as volume 1; does that mean it’s a trade or a single issue? Also, I’d like to go on record as saying Comicpants.com is the definitive website on the internet for my comic related news and reviews. The podcasts are great as well. I’d like to thank all of you guys (or is it y’all?) for the work you put into this site. Outstanding!
03 Mar 2007 at 8:39 pm
QuoteThanks for reading, Randomize. Glad you like us. Manga are usually published in volumes of 200 pages or so. Often, these are collections of the stories as they ran in manga magazines in Japan, but with the OEL manga that’s not so much the case. Instead it’s more like a graphic novel, done all at once. I believe there is supposed to be at least one more volume of Pantheon High.
03 Mar 2007 at 9:18 pm
QuoteI was talking to Paul Benjamin at Staple yesterday, and he says he is currently working on volume three.
Also, I bought a copy vol 1 from him, and I’ll be giving manga another try… Maybe I’ll finish this one.
04 Mar 2007 at 12:38 pm
Quotethis books looks really great
how about march’s down the line?
04 Mar 2007 at 12:57 pm
Quotei know little to nothing about what manga is good and what is not. i have read several volumes of lone wolf and cub and loved them, but i feel lost as where to start looking abt other things. i don’t know if this is possible(because some of the reviewers on the site may not be into manga), but i would love to hear a manga podcast that would certainly give some ideas to those curious but intimidated by all the manga out there. i guess it is no different than a new american comic reader, but there are not as many quality sites dedicated to manga that are new reader friendly. if not the podcast, i would love to hear what just you suggest.
04 Mar 2007 at 1:43 pm
QuotePicked this up today. Based on your past recs, Dan, I fully expect to like it. Haven’t read it yet, but I can say that the art looks nice, and the concept sounds very enjoyable.
Next on my manga list: Azumanga Daioh.
04 Mar 2007 at 5:04 pm
QuoteIt’s on the way… buying a comics shop and the STAPLE! show have delayed me, but I’m hoping to get it written in the next couple days.
This is also why I have yet to comment on any threads in the past few days… expect mega-posts from me soon.
05 Mar 2007 at 12:27 pm
QuoteGo Randy!!!
05 Mar 2007 at 3:44 pm
Quotewell the last post looked odd but it’s a quoting problem, don’t feel like fixing it
05 Mar 2007 at 3:47 pm
QuoteI just finished reading it.
I liked it quite a bit, and I’ll probably pick up vol 2. The story was fun, the characters were endearing, and the art was expressive and exciting. I also really dug the mythology hook. In fact, the title has managed to pique my interest in reading more manga.
This is actually the only manga volume I have ever been able to finish, so I don’t really have much to compare it to. However, despite really enjoying the volume, I do have some minor complaints.
1) Keeping the characters straight was a bit difficult at first as there were several introduced right up front. The report cards were quite useful for keeping the protagonists straight in my mind, but I would have liked to have seen all the major antagonists get a report card as well.
2) There were a few times when I had a hard time with the art’s storytelling. I had to look over a few panels more than once to get a handle on what happened. Being very unfamiliar with manga, this may or may not be my own shortcoming rather than the artist’s. I honestly don’t know.
3) This one’s more of a personal gripe than an actual shortcoming of Pantheon High. How many times is it really necessary to see a high school girls panties? There were a few times when panty shots and/or implied nudity created a comedic situation or further characterised someone, but there were also a few times when it seemed to be inserted for no real purpose at all. This doesn’t seem to be isolated to this title but rather seems to be a common practice in manga. I readily admit my ignorance of all things manga and ask somebody to please explain this phenomenon to me.
Overall, it was a damn fun ride, and I’m looking forward to more.
05 Mar 2007 at 4:44 pm
QuoteFixed it for you.
The quote functions works pretty decent until it tries to put a quote inside of another quote.
05 Mar 2007 at 4:47 pm
QuoteOn the subject of Tokypop’s non-Japanese manga, have you (Dan, or anyone who cares to answer) read Becky Cloonan’s East Coast Rising? Cloonan drawing pirates sounds like it would be fun.
09 Mar 2007 at 6:31 pm
QuoteI missed that one. I’ll have to track it down- it does sound cool, and I think Cloonan’s got scads of talent.
09 Mar 2007 at 9:58 pm
Quote