A mysterious voice in your head, a hand in the dark, and something otherworldly that wants your soul. This manga, which you can read the first three chapters for free on Webtoon, delivers interesting mysteries, a strong narrative, and a new protagonist ready to take the world by storm. God Punch, written by Patrick Thomas and Illustrated by Ayinde Hall, is the creative duo behind this manga and other amazing projects from Studio Maho. Recently, they’ve opened up a Kickstarter for the 2nd part of their God Punch animated short, which is currently live with 24 days left to support as of October 19th, 2024. The short follows the events that started in their first God Punch animated short that debuted at Dreamcon 2023. Together, Thomas and Hall are on a mission to create stories that feature relatable characters, diversity, and unique storytelling, and their manga God Punch is certainly a project that brings their brand mission to the forefront.
*Slight spoilers for the story and characters of God Punch ahead
Synopsis:
God Punch follows 17-year-old Percy, a well-to-do teen from an academically affluent family, who is plagued with strange dreams that have caused him to lose sleep, have intense hallucinations, and become distant in his daily life. Despite his restless nights, he still attempts to maintain normalcy. However, as the hallucinations become more intense, Percy’s ability to discern between reality and delusion becomes more difficult culminating in his literal nightmares coming to life to collect his soul.
Unbeknownst to Percy, while he may not have the answers to what or who is haunting him, he is far more prepared and has more help than he could’ve imagined. While we have no idea what’s ahead for Percy, we do know that no matter what’s next, he’s certainly ready to put up a fight, and he won’t go down easy!
The Review:
Overall, the story of God Punch is pretty enjoyable. What feels like a cliche, redundant beginning refreshingly pivots – into a narrative that is easy to follow but stays unpredictable. The main storyline, as outlined in the synopsis, sees Percy dealing with crazy intense nightmares and a mysterious voice speaking to him. I expected the voice in the nightmares, the one referred to as “master”, would eventually catch up to Percy to pursue him. Thomas instead opts to build up to that anticipated battle between the entity and Percy. Throughout the first three chapters the master wasn't revealed, instead, we got to see a high-level henchman doing the work to capture Percy. I was delighted by this bit of pacing and worldbuilding. Each main story element presented in the first three chapters does wonders for setting up plot implications for the story moving forward.
Thomas’s writing excels at its consistent characterization of Percy as a main character. Percy feels authentically 17 years old; a bit naive and inexperienced but also having that newfound maturity teens show as they figure themselves out in the world. It’s Percy as a character that helps the first three chapters of God Punch feel special and refreshing. He is thoughtful, nonchalant, honest, and humorous which helped me feel more connected to Percy, and helped the narrative feel grounded and real even when fantastical or supernatural plot points arose. You want to know what’s troubling him, what’s haunting him; you want him to go to that party and you want him to find his way from the very beginning.
Contributing to the fun I had with this story was the growing suspense of the haunting voice that terrorized Percy. It’s such a brilliant use of foreshadowing and suspense-building. Using Percy’s delusions and nightmares to isolate him throughout the story not only gave me this dreadful feeling but piqued my curiosity for his pursuer as you watched the mystery unfold. The cherry on top was in the final panel of the three chapters. It was a fantastic resolution to the ongoing issues and it served as a stellar cliffhanger increasing my anticipation for what lay ahead.
The art of God Punch by Hall is done beautifully. When you start the first chapter you are immediately greeted by captivating cover art of Percy on a train with a boombox. Hall shines brightest in his cover pages for each chapter. It’s here where you can see his artistic vision as well as get the best visual primer for the chapter ahead which is exactly what I’m looking for when I’m engaging with an ongoing series.
Hall has a solid handle on his paneling and visual storytelling such as the first panels you encounter when starting the series. The opening panels are simple but effective images of the hand of the “master’ and perspective panels of Percy thinking out loud in his room. This opening illustrates a few of Hall’s artistic strengths: his ability to tell the story but keep it simple, and when it’s time to showcase movement and action he goes above and beyond to take the reader through the motions.
The character designs are diverse with a range of body types and hair textures that I love to see in manga-style artwork. I instantly fell in love with the character Dr.Bane who has a creative and interesting character design. I found the lettering to be thoughtful and well-picked. Actually, the lettering choices were some of my favorite aspects of the art direction. Using blacked-out spiky speech bubbles for all of the dangerous folk in the manga helped to build the suspenseful and ominous vibe that follows Percy throughout the comic. Every onomatopoeia is graphic and visually interesting, and the emotions of each character are clear with a surprising amount of nuance at times. I’d be remiss if I didn’t include the monster design at the end of chapter 1 and through chapters 2 and 3. The human head snake hydra creature was unique and I was so thrilled to see it appear on the page. Hall did a wonderful job of making the creature daunting and threatening, not just in its general design, but also in its fight scene against both Percy and Dr. Bane.
While I thoroughly enjoyed God Punch, I would have liked to see more consistency in the characterization of its side characters. For instance, when it came to Cameron, Percy’s cousin, and Gloria, Percy’s grandmother, I felt their portrayals were inconsistent. Regarding Gloria, just based on her initial dialog, I expected someone strict and a bit threatening. However, when we finally meet grandma for the first time, she’s rather pleasant. Her intensity from the first page where her text is introduced is never revisited. In regards to Cameron, his portrayal confused me. On one hand, Cameron protects Percy from bullies and stands as his steadfast confidant. On the other hand, he’s studious and tutors other students in class. In the context of the story, this makes Cameron feel disjointed as if he’s two separate characters. While I don’t think these two attributes are mutually exclusive, I do think this scene and other scenes before it should’ve provided more context so that the reader could understand the balance between these aspects of Cameron.
This issue of consistency extends to Percy’s best friend Izzy, who comes off as flat next to Percy. Izzy is the more relaxed and less serious friend of the duo, but those sentiments don’t resonate from the panels he’s in. Izzy’s dialog doesn’t feel tailored to him; his spanglish contains common phrases, but they don’t feel authentic compared to a native bilingual Spanish speaker. Furthermore, I would have loved to see more moments of him interacting in the story outside of driving the overarching plot forward. In any case, I feel like the story needs small polishes to take it from good to great. An extra beta read or another editor to give that second pair of eyes can help transform your script and give you a better product.
As for the art, there are some moments of funky proportions such as that last page I mentioned at the end of Chapter 1 and a few panels made me giggle because they looked a bit silly. Beyond that, I would have loved to see a few more dynamic backgrounds in scenes, but truthfully, the manga visually is in a great place and I only see the art improving and becoming more interesting.
Final Thoughts:
To be completely transparent, I’m not sure if I would’ve picked up God Punch on title and concept alone. From the outside without any priming, it can look pretty familiar and similar to other indie works on the market. However, make no mistake, God Punch is a refreshing tale that has a very fun and exciting narrative that is just getting started. My highlights from this manga are Percy himself and the mysterious entity that’s hot on his trail. I think Hall’s art through the three chapters is well done and while it has room to grow, it’s excelling in delivery quality and interest. I think God Punch is a great manga with loads of potential and I am eagerly awaiting what comes next.
You can read the first three chapters of God Punch for free on Webtoon. Chapters are periodically available for purchase on the Studio Maho website. Additionally, Studio Maho has produced other projects such as their God Punch animated short, available on YouTube, which debuted at DreamCon last year, as well as another great manga entry: Blade Titans. If you enjoy God Punch as well as the animated short, please take the time to go and support their Kickstarter for the God Punch animated short part 2, which is currently live with 24 days left to support as of October 19th, 2024.
