Review: Lucky
CaezHel's Lucky is a shapeshifter from the Incandesence, a race of beings created from a combination of stardust and the "essence" of a parent/creator. Sometimes the reproduction process fails and a defect is produced, a Shifter with a burned-out star. The infant Shifter does not have long to live...
One such defect runs away from his birth moon, cradling his dying star. He is found by two adults who, very much against the laws of their culture, somehow manage to fix the damaged star. The infant - now named Lucky for obvious reasons - is returned to his moon of origin.
As he matures he is haunted by an inexplicable feeling of loneliness. Shifters commonly visit other worlds and mingle with the locals, but after a century (but still a youngster by Shifter standards) Lucky despairs at ever finding the closeness he seeks with another being. His sibling Moon suggests that in order to avoid rejection by the people he meets, he should change his appearance in order to fit in.
To Lucky this is a dishonest tactic, why should he deceive anyone? Is it not wrong to hide your true self?
He chooses a planet called Earth and appears to one of the locals - a young musician called Francis - in his true form. The true form of Shifters is vaguely humanoid but with a few differences: four arms, four eyes, four pointed ears and a general cosmic glow that dazzles, not to mention, occasionally wings .. There is also a variety of Shifter - such as Red, who found the infant Lucky and was an accomplice in his illegal fix - who have horns and a pointed tail...
So begins a complex web of relationships as Lucky takes on human form - tall, handsome, dark-skinned with long iridescent hair - and moves in with Francis and his friends. Red is part of their social circle, in human form, as the somewhat grumpy Arturo, who may or may not be dating their neighbour Chris...
Lucky and Francis may or may not be starting a relationship of their own, but there are tangles to unravel along the way, not least being the history between Francis and Arturo.
As if all that was not complicated enough, there is the question of Lucky's fate. According to the old laws of the Incandescence, there is no place in the universe for a defective Shifter. Is Lucky being watched? Is he in danger?
Lucky began in 2018 and has over 78,000 followers on Webtoons. It is a rich narrative that dives headlong into the perplexing minefield of human (and not quite human) relationships. An inevitable corollary to this is the fundamental subject of personal identity, which is explored in equal depth here. The alien Shifters are essentially very fluid and take on different forms as easily as changing an item of clothing. Androgynous in their true form, they assume male of female human forms at will.
The actual human characters are no less unconventional: Francis and Art are bisexual, Francis lives with a female couple, their neighbour Chris has non-binary gender... There is an underlying theme here of freedom of choice when it comes to being what you want to be, avoiding the fixed norms of traditional society... but freedom is just the first step in a journey of self-discovery. Next comes the even harder part; negotiating relationships with other beings no less complex than yourself. Learning to trust, and who to trust, learning to deal with the inevitable emotional pitfalls as the story progresses.... The obstacles never seem to end.
This is light years from the type of science fiction that most people are familiar with. This is no space opera with laser battles and bug-eyed predators; the emphasis is much more on drama than action; theme rather than plot. The story moves at a leisurely pace, in no great hurry to actually go anywhere too quickly, delighting in every little detail along the path. That might not be to everyone's taste but if you are a journey-over-destination / stop-and-smell-the-roses type then this will be right up your alley.
The art is a powerful expression of that with deft use of light and dark to create varying moods. The shifting palette can be dizzying at times, but beautifully so: the characters literally glow like prismatic rainbows. The line art finely renders their bodies and faces, every subtle emotion well delivered. Breaking with the usual convention there is no rigid panel structure, each page is one long vertical, seamless whole.
If you want to lose yourself in a kaleidoscopic maze of a saga, just dive in and keep scrolling up.
Zak Webber
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