In Magic From The Margins, Latonya “Penn” Pennington explores sci-fi fantasy webtoons and Tapas comics by marginalized creators. For the fourth entry, they’re checking out The Uncommons.
The Uncommons
Created by: Tony Weaver Jr.
Pencil/Colors: Hannah Lee
Lines/Pencils: Andy Robles-Valdez
Lines: Spencer Amundson
Letter/Edits: Joanmette Gil
Platform: Webtoon
Genre: Action
Rating: Teen
In a futuristic city, a teenage girl named Iris has the gift of Second Sight, which allows her to track objects and people and see different outcomes for the future. When she sees an apocalyptic vision of the world ending, she decides to recruit another teenage superhero called Influencer to help her prevent it. Yet there is more to Influencer than his superhero image suggests. Now Iris, Influencer and other young teen heroes in the making must overcome their own self doubt in order to save the city from calamity.
One of the things that I immediately latched onto when it comes to this comic is the art style. There’s some anime influences here when it comes to certain facial expressions and the background art, but that’s not why it appealed to me. It was the bright color palettes that caught my eye and the way color is used to enhance the characters in the comic. For instance, when Iris uses her Second Sight ability, you see oranges and yellows that represent her powers.
Moreover, I also liked how color was used to enhance the more sinister aspects of the comic, such as the antagonists and the internal thoughts of the characters. The latter was especially impressive because Iris and the protagonists have self doubt they are grappling with. The use of smoky curling letters, black and then a brighter color like red gives the self doubt more emotional weight.
Speaking of the characters, there is a large cast and the comic takes its time to gradually introduce you to them. Most are heroes in the making, but some have unsavory plans for destruction. As the first character you are introduced to, Iris, is fun and earnest, yet also unaware of her own potential despite being able to see potential in others. She and Influencer have been my favorite characters in the comic so far because they end up being a good influence on each other.
When it comes to Influencer aka Kenny, I liked how his character took the persona of a social media influencer, mixed it being a superhero and then gave his character humanity by showing how high expectations doesn’t necessarily equal to high self esteem. Kenny ends up having to learn to believe in himself in order to be brave enough to help people and seeing that play out is wonderful.
Last but not least, the action in the comic is dynamically drawn. The scrolling format suits it well because you can see the movement play out bit by bit. One particular page that stood out to me is when Iris fights robots while saving a kid.
All in all, The Uncommons is a teen superhero comic for a modern age. With earnest and wonderfully flawed characters, vibrant art and dynamic action scenes, it is entertaining and memorable. Whether you like superhero comics or coming of age stories, there is something you’ll like for sure.
The Uncommons is currently available to read on WEBTOON.
Keep up with every entry in K-Comics Beat’s Magic From The Margins column by clicking here.
