by Whitney Grace
Staff Writer
Sherrilyn Kenyon is a popular paranormal romance and mystery writer and following in the footsteps of other paperback masters, she is making her way to comic book adaptations. The Dark Hunters: Infinity is aimed at a teen audience and delves into the fantastic world of vampires, demons, zombies, and dystopian futures haunting teen bookshelves these days. This comic follows the exploits of Nick Gautier, the typical outsider, bad boy struggling to make life work for him. He hangs out with the wrong crowd, when things get deadly. Kyrian Hunter saves his life and Nick starts to work for Kyrian to pay off his hospital bills, but he is steadily drawn into the supernatural under world. Nick turns out to have powers himself and must navigate people trying to corrupt him. He actually has the potential to become one of the most powerful creatures in the world, but a strange man named Ambrose wishes to prevent it and save Nick. Little does Nick know that Ambrose is actually his future self.
Where does Kenyon go right with this comic? She has developed a strong lead character with a relatable back story that leads into an interesting twist on the traditional “save the world” supernatural plot. She is also using the future Nick as a plot device to guide the action and as a prevention tool to help younger Nick avoid imminent catastrophe. Also the supernatural universe Kenyon created is filled with neat nuances that translates well to comics. Where does she go wrong? She remains pretty strong until the second volume, when she tosses in so many new characters it makes the mind whirl. The story is dragged down by Nick as he spends way too much time thinking and talking with people for the necessary plot development. This is one of the pitfalls of adapting pre-existing works into a graphic novel. It is a very fine line and volume one gives hope for a successful transition, but number two banishes all hope to Hell. Lastly, the comic is trying to pass itself off as a manga. Big eyes, small mouth, pretty girls and boys, and that Asian flavor do not guarantee selling more units.
Give or take, Dark Hunters: Infinity will appeal to supernatural fans searching for a series to fill the Twilight hole and the less than spectacular paranormal series imported from Japan. It will pass the time, much like Kenyon’s mass market paper back empire.