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The Marshall King Review

OVERVIEW

While not wholly unique to this series, the Marshal King’s first chapter is filled with colour splashes of Sunsets, gold, and pale skies, breaking up the surrounding a-typical black and white layouts. Unlike a lot of other series that use colour in Jump however, there’s clearly more deliberation in how and where it’s placed, giving things a level of thematic placement not far removed from choices we’d be more likely to see in cinema.

When I got the notification telling me that Shonen Jump had a new debut series to read, I was so eager to dive in, that I didn’t even stop to check the name of the author. It was immediately apparent that I didn’t have to, as Boichi’s style unmistakably caught my eye, an artist who understands appeal in ways that I seldom see in quite as much detail.

Boichi is one of those artists that can render in ways that adds to the detail of a scene, without removing any of the much needed clarity in a medium that leans on the readers ability to follow the action and not get too stuck into them. The only thing that was taking me out of the experience a little was the desire to check whether Jim Godspeed (what a name!) and Ace from Boichi’s One Piece contributions looked as similar as I thought they did.

I don’t think it’s all too fair to linger on this afterthought though. Even if it’s true, I feel like as artists we tend to keep designs around that have the nebulous cool factor to them as a way to make the process of large scale projects less of a chore.

PLOT

Strictly speaking there’s no stakes or tension to speak of. The Marshal King instead gives us questions, action, and the hint of a goal for our protagonist. This is where it shines however, from the opening page with a quote from Ecclesiastes of all things, to the larger than life Godspeeds giving us a taste of this bombastic western setting.

M. Godspeed, starts the story off in the middle of performing an over the top train robbery, where both the attempt and the target of, set the stage for the entire first chapter's scope. In this same moment we learn that M. Godspeed is an outlaw, has gold arms, and his son is after his bounty. Flicking a few pages in, we cut to Jim who appears to have done just that, carrying… or rather dragging his father’s corpse in a massive crucifix shaped coffin.

Of course this is the age of desperados, and so the bandits on the road can’t help themselves once they discover the value of Jim’s bounty. Where his father exits the story in a massively explosive fashion; Jim’s entrance by comparison is somewhat humble, using a coffin lid and small arms to take down any threat to life. When the dust settles, his proclamation is made, while the deeper reasons are unexplained, Jim is going to become a Marshal, and his dad’s body is his ticket to entering the academy that will teach him how to do just that!

THOUGHTS

I may be reading too deeply into things, but when stories skip ahead, it tends to be to imply an action that is later revealed to have not happened or at the very least to have happened differently, and while it seems very clear that Jim DID want to take his own father down out of a passion to thwart outlaws and desperados, I’ve been down this road enough times to know that there is a very clear potential to add a twist to what really happened between the scenes.

If we take the idea that Jim killed his own father at face value however, we can at least appreciate the dramatic irony of foreshadowing the robbers and bandits getting their asses handed to them when they try and take on the guy who did it, just because to them he looks too scrawny and inoffensive.

It was genuinely refreshing to travel through a first chapter so quickly. I find that a lot of stories will absolutely ram a first chapter to bursting with dialogue, and while this does mean we get a very clear sense of what the story will be about; I think it’s always better when a balance is struck.

Also despite me making mention of there being little to no tension in the introduction as it stands, the question of “Why is Jim doing all of this?” and “what is the relationship between the father and son?” are enough to make these swift introductions work even better. Nothing else is slowing the pacing down, and so when the chapter ends, those questions remain fresh in my mind.

In fact I’m trying to think of another time in recent memory where getting to the end of the chapter left me with the question “over already!?” but in a way that left me eager to read more. Boichi is practically Jump royalty and I don’t doubt that we’re in for yet another great outing with such an iconic author.