By Jay Antani and Matt Hentschel
Tokyopop, 180 pp.
Rating: Older Teen 16+

I have mixed feelings about one of Tokyopop’s newest OEL titles, The Mysterians. By traditional standards (right-to-left orientation, reverse binding) it isn’t manga, but Tokyopop classifies it as such. Having never reviewed any OEL before, I had a bias as a die-hard fan of purely Japanese manga. Could I look past my bias and review The Mysterians as an actual story? The answer is yes… and no.

The Mysterians is the story of five teenagers, each hailing from different parts of the world. They are called upon by a secret underground organization to fight the Reticulans, a race of aliens bent on sucking up Earth’s resources to survive. Sounds pretty generic, right? It is. The Mysterians comes off as a rehashing of older sci-fi shows and movies. Without cute sidekicks or fresh plot twists, the whole “we’re the only people who can save the world” thing seems a little stale. In addition, the book doesn’t merit an Older Teen Rating. The gore is pretty weak overall and the kids are probably the most boring teenagers I’ve ever met.

The thing that surprised me the most about the writing was the ecological undertones. The Reticulans are powered by UV rays and greenhouse gases, and create tar rain. Obviously in our world, these are pressing matters, so at least The Mysterians gets an A for Topicality.

The characters are just as weak as the story. Though each comes from a different background, the characters can’t seem to escape the stereotypes that have been set out for them. Logan, the English heir to an airline corporation, is a hard-ass, stemming from anger towards his mother. Twins Jenna and Jamie are the Great American Stereotypes: Jamie is a spunky, Hot Topic Goth, while her sister Jenna loves pink and Abercrombie & Fitch. Sadly, their abilities fall into the same stereotype trap, ranging from super-human strength, ESP and telekinesis to just being really smart. You’d think in this day and age, with Heroes and X-Men enjoying popularity, that kids could have cool powers again. The art doesn’t help the characterizations, either. The characters are drawn with the potential to be interesting, but the effort falls flat as they’re rather plain.

The Mysterians is an okay comic overall, but I wouldn’t really call it manga. It does have some allusions to manga–the enemies looking like sub-par versions of the aliens in Parasyte and the kids’ suits look like the armor in Guyver–but it never truly becomes manga. Manga is largely a cultural aspect of Japan, touching upon how the Japanese live their everyday lives and who they are as people. Americans can’t just take this art form and make it their own without giving respect to the Japanese, which is exactly what The Mysterians doesn’t do. I would say if you want a good American comic disguising itself as “manga,” go for The Mysterians but if you want manga, go for Parasyte. You’ll at least get more bang for your buck gore-wise.

Volume one of The Mysterians is available now.