Blank, Vol. 1
Published by: Tokyopop
Writer & Artist: Pop Mhan

192 (175) pages.
Original Language: English
Orientation: Left to right
Vintage: December 2006
Lettering: Lucas Rivera
Cover Design: Pop Mhan & Chris Tjalsma
Editor: Tim Beedle
Publisher’s Rating: Older Teen, 16+

Rating: 3 out of 5

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Premise: Teen-aged super spy with amnesia can’t remember a single thing, except the name of the girl he’s supposed to protect. If she’ll let him.

Synopsis:

Aki Clark is 17, a junior at St. Agustus Private School. She seems to have it all together– though her mom is dead and her dad is always busy at work, she has the support of her close friend Kristin, her sort-of-friend Bryce, and she knows kung fu. No really. She places in tournaments. She and a few other students have a chance to take their Mixed Martial Arts Club to the State finals.

She’s not your typical damsel in distress. In fact, even if one were to use the word “damsel”, there’s no distress, and she’d probably kick your ass for saying it.

Aki, however, has at least one problem. There’s this stalker who may or may not be a secret agent. No matter what his more distant past, he recently spent a few weeks at Marduke Psychiatric Institute, from which he escaped to seek out Aki. He’s determined to protect her, whether she needs it or not.

He can’t remember his name. He’s shacking up in a kid’s tree house down the street. (the poor kids aren’t too happy about that.) But he must have some kind of secret agent mojo because he manages to enroll at Aki’s private school, even though he left the name on his application blank. The headmistress, without blinking, says “Welcome to St. Augustus, Mr. Blank”

Aki is getting sick and tired of Blank. Even if he is willing to get beat up to protect Aki. And even if it seems like a surprising number of people are showing up to give Aki grief…

She’s not sure what’s going on, but it seems to be related to her dad’s top-secret work as a rocket scientist. Her own skills and courage are formidable, but maybe she does need Blank’s help to get through it all.

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Review:

Before we get into the nuts and bolts of the review, let’s back up a step: School girls in uniforms? Check. Teenaged hero, with super powers? Check, and (possibly) check. Excuses every tenth page to show some female character’s bra, panties, or both? Check.

Wait, are we sure this guy isn’t Japanese? Well, if the artist blurb on the back cover and the end notes are to be believed, Pop Mhan has worked for both DC and Marvel, and he’s married. No word yet, however, on what his wife thinks about his portrayal of 17-year old high school girls. I’m thinking there might be a beat down (much like those he draws) at some point in Mhan’s future.

This first volume has a lot of fun playing around with the premise, perhaps to the detriment of the story line. It’s nice seeing a creator take the time to introduce his characters slowly, however, and there is plenty of sporadic random violence to distract us if we feel the comic is moving too slowly.

The main plot is moving, though. A series of escalating events complicate Aki’s otherwise boring life, and she has to deal with both the odd occurrences, and the fact that Blank isn’t just a psycho stalker and may in fact be telling the truth. Both she and her dad are in danger, and things get more serious every day. Also playing out in the background is a growing attraction between Aki and Blank, even if she’s not ready to admit it to herself yet.

As a character, Blank reminds me of Onizuka of GTO: He’s a doofus who’s only skill is fighting, and only redeeming feature is a heart of gold. (Blank even has the same haircut.) Needless to say, if you liked either the manga or DVDs for GTO, you’ll like this new series a lot.

If I were to rate this as a stand-alone book, I’d likely only give it 2 points out of 5– but it has a strong ending and with the hints dropped and other foreshadowing throughout the book, this is a solid lead-in for a very promising series.