Review: Legend of the Mantamaji Book One
Written by Eric Dean Seaton
Art by Brandon Palas and Andrew Dalehouse
Published by “And… Action!” Entertainment
Cover Price: $14.99
Elijah Alexander is New York’s hottest, but also the cockiest, Assistant District Attorney. Everything seems to be going his way. He has a great girlfriend, an extremely successful career, and tons of money. That is why it shocking for him to find out he is actually the last of a mythological race of knights known as the Mantamaji and that he is the only one able to save mankind from the Mantamaji’s greatest foe. Can he Elijah accept his past and save mankind?
The Good
The best thing about Legend of the Mantamaji is the art. That’s not to say that the art is fantastic or anything, but it is also not bad. It is fully serviceable and most of all consistent throughout. That said, it does have some problems. There are splash pages all over the place in this book where there should not be splash pages. Splash pages are for a very big, exciting, and important moment in a book and people just standing in a room in plain clothes is not splash page material. I blame that more on the script that the artist, but it is still a problem.
The Bad
The about the author paragraph in the back says the Eric Dean Seaton is a director of children’s sitcoms on the Disney Channel like “That’s So Raven” and you can definitely tell. All of the characters in this book are extremely broad archetypes. Elijah is the immature jerk that has to learn how to become a hero. You have the Obi-Wan Kenobi like old Mantamaji. Sure, archetypes can be a good thing if used right to introduce us to characters fast, but you can’t just stop with the characterizations there. You have to move beyond to basic archetypes and create real and actually interesting characters. I can tell you right now that I do not care about any character in Legend of Mantamaji. Every single one is boring, bland, and I can read a better iteration of these characters elsewhere.
Where Seaton’s characters fall flat, so to fall the story and the dialogue, especially the dialogue. That is where Seaton’s time on the Disney Channel really rears its ugly head. Picture some of the cheesiest and worst dialogue in 80’s action movies and that is what you get in all of the action scenes. The rest of the time the dialouge is so superficial and lacking of subtext that it is really hard to take anything being read seriously. I know this is a comic book, but the characters can at least talk like real human beings. The worst character out of all of this is Elijah. I get what Seaton wants to do with him. He wants Elijah to learn from his mistakes and become a hero, but Elijah too unlikable. He is a douche for so much of the book that I didn’t care when Elijah finally decides to accept his destiny and become a Mantamaji.
The Verdict
Us at Outright Geekery really love getting advanced books to review. We like shining some spotlight on creators and publishers because at the end of the day we are just fans of comic books like most people who come to this site. That is why it pains me to write a negative review on a book like this. I love comic books and I fully believe that Eric Dean Seaton and everyone else involved with Legend of the Matamaji do too. At the same time, I would do a total disservice to everyone that reads our site if I recommend this book. The story is bland, the writing is terrible, and the art is just okay.
Story: 2 out of 5
Art: 3 out of 5
Overall: 2.5 out of 5