Review: Akolyte
"Let your past fuel your future."
In a distant star system a small, nondescript spaceship sets down on a barren, nameless moon. The pilot is King Khalon,"a stranger from the stars". The passenger is Demtri Price from Sapphire City, Earth. The two men met two years earlier, when Demetri agreed to join Khalon on a quest to unlock Demetri's destiny...
During that time, Khalon has been Demetri's tutor, training him in combat. Upon reaching their destination, the king tells the Earthman to take a moonwalk in order to enter the next stage of his journey of self-discovery.
Our hero meets a mysterious towering blue humanoid who reveals that Demetri has an awesome cosmic power locked within him. A power that is now to be unleashed...
Akolyte by writer Lonzo Starr and artists Opi Hidayat, Michael Woods and Bruno Lima is an Afrofuturist sci-fi superhero tale with strong mythical/spiritual elements. Here we have the old 'average dude doesn't know he's a super saviour' trope, this time as an African-American music producer with a god-like heritage stretching back into ancient times.
It's a play on many old legends: the ancient Egyptians believed their royal family to be half-divine; the symbol on Akolyte's chest incorporates a cross, alluding to another demi-god; other characters are introduced as deities of Order or Chaos in superhuman form, as in the mythology of many old cultures. The hero's name is of course another spiritual reference; the meaning of the word acolyte being one who assists a religious authority with ritualistic duties.
This is all nicely woven into the sci-fi comic traditions of good vs evil; a Silver Surfer / Green Lantern type transformation of the everyman into a super space warrior. It's tied together with a deeper theme; personal evolution through pain and hardship, reclaiming the failures of yesterday to shape the new self of tomorrow... Existential metamorphosis.
Despite all this other-worldly, high-minded background, our hero is refreshingly down-to-Earth, enjoying the rough 'n' tumble of his (now hyper-enhanced) fighting practice and relishing in using his new abilities to whup bad guy ass ("Please choose the hard way!") ... but, returning to Earth, he has more than bank robbers to tangle with, which is good because it would be disappointing for him to only face off against mundane criminals (even if these ones are sporting missile launchers to give them that certain edge)...
No sooner has he cleaned up the local baddies than a new challenge presents itself: a threat from outer space that could spell the extinction of humanity. This is Akolyte's raison d'être ... will he be equal to the task?
It's unapologetic clichéd fun, and the artwork has the suitable flash and impact to go with it, the action and energy balanced with characters who are finely crafted to a high standard. But it's more than just superficial gung-ho; to truly fight evil - to truly be a saviour - you need more than just muscles and firepower, you need the courage to make huge sacrifices. Leaping into the fray, Akolyte ponders the words of Edward Snowden:
"There are no heroes ... only heroic decisions."
Time to step up.
Akolyte on Koncret Comics Print / Digital version
Zak Webber
Twitter - @sfcomicartist / Instagram - @sfcomicartist
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