There’s a variety of reasons comics end up in the pile. Some are longer series that I’m waiting to end before I dive in. Other series require important context that I can only get from reading another series first.

And then there’s the few that end up there because I didn’t know they ended, partially due to Comixology no longer existing since that was the easiest way to track what came out every Wednesday. Fuck You, Jeffrey Bezos. Again. And this is why I haven’t until now taken a look at Orphan and the Five Beasts by James Stokoe since the first issue came out in 2021. 

The series starts with the titular Orphan, Mo, and her quest to slay the five people who were taught by her master ages ago to defeat the bandit king of the mountain. Their imminent slaying is caused by a mistake of her master’s: in their desire to kill the bandit king, each person was taught only one skill from the master’s school. While they had promised to return to him after their ordeal so they could learn the rest, none did. Learning only one aspect of the martial art has left them open to corruption and all five have begun to plague the land in various ways. In these first four issues, we see Mo take on Thunderthighs—the new leader of the mountain bandits—and Chopper Teng—an inquisitive student that now cuts off pieces of his own body to feed and hypnotize the citizens of whatever village he wanders to.

Something that Stokoe does so well throughout this first part of the series is contrast two of our antagonists and Mo. We set up early all of the downsides to not following through with training and have in Mo someone who has completed all five aspects of the master’s teachings. We also see the five traits of those five people who came to the master in their time of need—iron willed, inquisitive, compassionate, ardent, and indefatigable. While all five of these traits are positive, we’re shown the ways in which they can be taken to extremes when those are the only things driving a person. At the core of what Stokoe is saying here, and literally showing us with how Mo interacts with the world and fights through the Beasts—is that balance is needed. Becoming someone well-rounded by going beyond your one definable trait is a task that takes time to learn, but it keeps you from slipping into the extremes.

Orphan and the Five Beasts reads like a lost shonen masterpiece that also shows its readers that your own humanity needs diversity in order to be stable. Stokoe is doing mythologizing in a way that doesn’t feel like it’s trying to teach you a lesson as you read through the choreography of his fight scenes—it’s just presenting you with a solid story that has much more happening beneath. 

Get excited. Get practicing.

Drew Barth (Episode 331, 485, 510, 651, & 674) resides in Winter Park, FL. He received his MFA from the University of Central Florida.