Aya (2nd Series)

(AK, 2006)
™ and © AK

While battling smugglers Aya, so-called “princess of darkness,” discovers what they’ve been smuggling; an Ultimate Green Goblin-looking creature who believes he’s an Egyptian Pharaoh. And, while looking for his lost bride, the creature goes on a killing spree.

Here’s the weak link of the AK line. The dialogue is overheated and hackneyed (For example: “It’s true what they say … freaks do come out at night … and they come out fighting.”) and, except for a fairly nice Paul Gulacy swipe, the art’s just barely professional. It’s uniformly ugly, regardless of whether the subject is the pretty girl or the monster.

The whole package reads and feels incredibly dated, like a typical ’90s bad girl comic, especially since Aya is stuck in a skin-tight outfit (which reveals nothing but leaves little to the imagination) that just isn’t making it if she’s going for a whole “creature of the night” vibe. According to her mission statement as given on the inside front cover, she’s supposed to be “striking at the heart of corruption;” this sounds a lot more interesting than generic monster fighting.

— S. A. Bennett

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