Sword Master #9 is better paced and competently plotted compared to other recent issues, but there's a hard ceiling on quality for any comic that looks like midday sketches from a high school student working through a "How to Draw Manga" guide. Read Full Review

*** Reviews the entire series ***

I'll give Marvel the benefit of the doubt of at least attempting to expand their universe to other demographics, now going east to the lands of yellow people. And characters like Swordmaster and Aero carry some great potential, but the falter with lackluster writing. I really liked the concept of Sword-master and where the story was going. There is a great mythology built around Lin Lie, our main character, of this ancient sword he has inherited to use against a giant monster, but Lie only wants to use this sword to find what happened to his father.

And like Aero, it has more or less the same strengths and weaknesses. It has some great art and colors, again carrying the series with heavy manga/eastern influences with some killer colors. Especially during the fight scenes, the coloring was great. But the story sinks due to it like Aero not having any weight. I finish reading an issue in like a minute. The dialogue is very light so everything just moves quickly. I don't even have to use my brain to process stuff because there is just so little happening. It feels " hollow " if that makes sense.

I like this slightly better than Aero purely on the ideas presented, but falters in its execution. Contrast with Aero, I also liked the backup stories involved with Shang Chi, something fun to read along with the main story. But given Sword-master's tremendous potential and a good start, it simmered issue by issue. It reads fast, has some good ideas, great art, but has nothing to make me stick with this character or series in the long run.

6/10
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