With the city of New Chicago besieged by demonic yokai and trapped within a magical dome, Riri Williams has rigged a mana-powered mech suit to dole out justice and keep the streets safe as Iron Heart! But when the opportunity arises to avenge the death of a friend, Riri finds herself entangled on a dangerous quest for vengeance alongside legendary sorcerer, Moon Knight. Marvel Mangaverse: Iron Knight #1 continues the Marvel Manga saga but moves almost too quickly through its sliver of the story.

The reintroduced world of Marvel Manga has been interesting so far. Demons called yokai wander the Earth with technology on the fritz, the yokai’s mana is needed to power things. Mages have stepped up to fight the demons and yokai and those mages have their own conflict about the right direction of things. It works really well creating multiple conflicts and delivering some intriguing possibilities of where things can go. Marvel Mangaverse: Iron Knight #1 introduces this world’s Riri Williams who is on a quest of revenge for killing her friend. She meets Moon Knight who is on a quest to kill the same demon as Riri so the two team up.

Cody Ziglar delivers an interesting story with Marvel Mangaverse: Iron Knight #1 but overall it feels like it’s limited by the one issue and page count. Emotional moments never quite get a chance to really play out or hit right, instead last only a panel or two and things move on. The comic delivers a lot of conflict that could make for an intriguing story but again, the limits of the comic make them all compressed. It’s one that has to get you from point A to Z in one issue and can’t dwell too long on everything in-between. It makes for a comic that’s full of cool ideas that don’t feel fleshed out or don’t hit with much of an impact.

The art by Kei Zama is good but lacks the real manga punch we saw with the debut issue of this mini-event. While that issue mined the visual quirks of manga, this issue is pretty standard for a Marvel comic, feeling more like your average monthly floppy visually than action oriented manga. Zama is joined by Wayne Faucher on ink, Arif Prianto on color, and Ariana Maher on lettering and all together, the comic has some cool designs but not cool moments.

Marvel Mangaverse: Iron Knight #1 isn’t a bad issue, it’s a fine next chapter in what’s playing out among all of the Marvel Manga releases. But, it lacks the excitement of the first issue and it doesn’t hit the emotional punches its narrative goes for. It’s a comic held back by its format.

Story: Cody Ziglar Art: Kei Zama
Ink: Kei Zama, Wayne Faucher Color: Arif Prianto Letters: Ariana Maher
Story: 7.0 Art: 7.0 Overall: 7.0 Recommendation: Read

Marvel provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

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