Is Dark Lights by RDCWorld a perfect OEL shonen?

Yes

Today I’m reviewing Dark Lights, the OEL manga written by RDCWorld/Mark Phillips and illustrated by Giorgia Lenzi, with Pamela Dema as assistant. One chapter is currently available, and you can read it on the RDCWorld website after signing up for their $5 support tier. An anime adaptation for HBO is currently in production.

Summary:

In an alternate version of modern day America, every person in the hood is born with a superhuman ability. Some have impressive abilities: Control of fire. Manifestation of clones. Invisibility. Flight. Telekinesis Teleportation. Others minor abilities. They can make water boil. They can summon a light breeze. They can track runaway cats really, really well. A vast range of powers have made the people special. But there’s a catch…These powers only manifest at night. This means that from dusk until dawn, the hood is a dangerous otherworld, where gangs wage epic battles with powers so strong, full city blocks can be eradicated in a matter of minutes; where the average citizen hunkers down in fear knowing that as long as the violence stays in the hood, the police will be of no help. But, as soon as the sun comes up, everyone’s back to normal. Back to work, back to the grind.

Welcome to the world of Dark Lights.

Part 1: What’s amazing about this manga

There are little cues that mangaka can give to show that they think a little bit deeper about their world. The two biggest for me (I’ll stress: for me) are giving everyone distinct footwear, and giving every character a unique room.

This is because I’m into interior design and I like drawing shoes, so that’s naturally where my eye goes.

In either case, it is not necessarily an indication of low skill if every character’s wearing Chuck Taylors and lives in a prison dorm. The setting may not call for that unique flair, or it’s a time/budget constraint. Hell, I’ve used plenty of Default Clipstudio Rooms for my characters. Sometimes you just need to show A Room, and your time budget is better spent elsewhere.

And Dark Lights only has two clear shots of the protagonist’s room, and they’re both perfect. I see this and I know this character lives in this room. It is a great example of

Josh Sippie

’s Snapshot Theory. Let me show the pages where you see Protag-kun’s room (Reads left-to-right):

Now let’s zoom in on his desk:

I didn’t even notice he has a Dragonball poster the first time I read this. And this in no way feels like an afterthought, I could absolutely see this character thinking Goku kicks enough ass that he earned a spot next to his PC monitor.

And as for the shoes: Dark Lights does that perfectly too. For example, here’s the first two major characters we meet in Dark Lights:

Demetrius and Abel are old friends but have deep ideological differences. The shoes, their outfits, the way they carry themselves - all tells the audience how different they are. Every character, every scene, has this richness and depth that makes the world feel fully realized.

And, satisfyingly enough, detail about shoes is an important plot point.

This is why I love OEL manga: you wouldn’t get a scene like this in a Japanese-made manga.

I was then all the more surprised when researching this to find that the artist for this was an Italian woman. There’s countless little details that felt very true-to-life, that in no way indicated the artist was attacking this from an outsider’s perspective (disclaimer, I’ve got an outsiders perspective no matter how you slice it, so that’s my bias).

Giorgia Lenzi is also an interesting choice based on her portfolio. Before Dark Lights, she was (is?) a concept artist and character designer at Tsume Art. That means a company that makes (officially licensed!) waifu figures commissioned her for turnaround sheets, concept art, and promotional images. Here’s a small sample from her Artstation:

also one of the only artists to get Tsunade’s fat oppai right so that’s an automatic 10/10

If the concept art discussion for Dark Lights went “Okay I need my manga to look 25% My Hero Academia, 10% Legend of Korra…” this artist could deliver on this request with microscopic precision This is someone with a unique mastery of different mainstream shonen art styles - and it shows in Dark Lights.

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Part 2: What I Didn’t Realize

I’ll kick this section off by clarifying that I am not Black, and I feel pretty goshdarn peeved about excessive purity politics in fandom. But I still like hearing different “sociology of the media” analysis. The same way my ears will perk up every time I’m in a biker bar and the two biggest guys start shoving each other after an hour of passionately arguing whether Goku could beat Superman. I don’t care who wins, but I’m interested in how it plays out.

Anyway, in Toran L’s review of Dark Lights on Medium, he brings up “The single-parent household as a hood trope”:

I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing…but I know it’s a reality for a lot of folks who grew up in the “hood” or in poverty. Whether it be through violence or crime, or both, a parent (often mother) is left raising a child on their own. It’s exciting to see a possible reality portrayed within media where the single-parent and child thrive without the other parent present, but I anticipate that it may depict the single parent as being overwhelmed and struggling to make ends meet, and the child (Vincent) as being neglected and possibly misbehaving.

Its’s a valid point. And it went completely over my head when I read this. Vincent’s home life, him constantly in detention, blowing off his homework… none of that registered as him being a bad example (and whether or not media needs to be a good example is another discussion). I just thought it was cool seeing a character who’s high school life was a little closer to my own.

I might be more inclined to raise an eyebrow if Vincent was the only Black character, but this is a series with an all-Black cast. No one character needs to stand out as the model minority. So if Vincent’s a little too rough around the edges, his friend Zeke can balance the energy in the room

Ditto for Vincent being an electricity-themed superhero. I had forgotten the “all Black superheroes have electric powers” trope while reading (and a Black reader might be quicker to pick up on this). But in a story where everyone’s Black and everyone’s got superpowers, Vincent having electric powers didn’t stand out as a flagrant stereotype.

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Part 3: Confusing Summaries, Or, Maybe I’m The Asshole

This is really my only critique, and it might not be a bad thing at all.

But little details about this manga were cleared up when I read the summary. I didn’t realize that everyone’s powers only come out at night, or the specification that everyone born in the hood has powers. I think this manga assumes you found this through RDCWorld and read the summary/heard his elevator pitch before reading the manga. Which, fair.

I’m definitely the outlier here. I found out about this series while on the Apple Black fandom wiki, mindlessly clicking around, and I saw there was an OEL manga I hadn’t read yet. I had never heard of RDCWorld before now- sorry.

But even without knowing specifics about the world, this was still a 10/10 read. There was never any confusion about the plot. For example, 50 Vicious and JJ get in a scuffle at school. Outside of school, their fight escalates to them using their powers.

I figured there was a reason why they didn’t unleash their powers at school, and didn’t realize they were physically unable. What’s more is before this fight, there’s a clear shot of the moon. So the story does tell the reader that nighttime is important, and it’s not directly shouted in our face.

In any chapter 1 of a story, I will always (always) prefer a moment of confusion to overexplaining the Lore to a reader.

I’m also not clear on what came first. Is this manga being made as a tie-in to for the upcoming HBO anime, or was it made as a sort of pilot episode for a nonexistent anime, that they then pitched to different networks before getting accepted by HBO?

There’s also no word on when the anime is coming out, but snoop on social media long enough and you’ll find WIP crumbs here and there.

Dark Lights was announced in 2021, the first chapter was published October 2023, and… No word on the next update. I know these things take time, but I hope this isn’t stuck in Development Hell. This was a solid first chapter, so I hope we’ll get to read more soon.

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Link to manga one more time:

• Read Dark Lights on RDCWorld’s website

If you’re the creator of an indie comic/manga and you’d like me to review it, leave a comment and we’ll talk 🫶

Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. I’m not trying to be an art theif, just a critic. Pls no bulli.

Thank you for reading!