MISC. MANGA, *Sharknife

Taking into account the genre-crossing that Scott Pilgrim pulled of by bringing together elements of video games, anime, manga, and American comics, Sharknife is a bad-ass kung-fu superhero for the Nintendo generation! Think, Viewtiful Joe meets Kung-Pow: Enter The Fist. Creator Corey Lewis has worked on projects like this before with the American comic adaptation of the Rival Schools game, or his own comic of Peng.

Gung-ho busboy Caesar Hallelujah works at the Guangdong Factory which is a multi-layered restaurant that is constantly being attacked by his adopted brother Ombra Ravenga who keeps sending wave after wave of "monster-of-the-week" to topple the competition. Win evil monsters show up, Caesar gets a fortune cookie from his sexy fly love interest Chieko, and transforms into the superhero Sharknife to stop the daily terror. Caesar was granted his power by a strange ancient shark god, while Ombra was also given the powers of an orca. Once Caesar eventually defeats a hundred monsters, he is given the powers of Double Z, although Ombra uses this power to level up too.

This is a profoundly unexpected surprise for otaku and video games alike. The story is engaging enough, even though it has a bunch of stereotypes thrown in that actually make it work. You'll catch some crossing over with Lewis' Peng comic too as both stories take place in the same universe. BTW, there are two versions of the first volume, the second one is a reprint titled Stage First features additional material, including stuff from Oni Press' Free Comic Book Day specials. If Street Fighter consumed your Saturday nights as a teen, then you will be all fired up for this one!