Outlaws of the Marsh 1: Spirits and Bandits

Classic Chinese literature, skillfully rendered as a graphic novel

Pretty much everything I know about Chinese history comes from reading the graphic novels of Wei Dong Chen. Since he recounts ancient legends the stories might not be completely faithful to history, but sometimes legends are more valuable than truth. Outlaws of the Marsh is a classic work of Chinese literature, set in the time of the Song Dynasty, which Wikipedia tells me lasted from 960 to 1279. As always, the volume begins with a description of characters and a plot summary. Those sort of spoil the fun if you read them first but they serve as a valuable way to jog your memory if you are about to read a subsequent volume and want to refresh your memory of events that occurred earlier in the story. The volume also provides handy maps that the reader track the movement of key players. Spirits and Bandits takes place in two chapters. After Jin Wang trains young Jin Shi to fight, Jin Shi gains an awesome reputation and becomes known as "The Nine Dragons," which must be the Chinese version of a superhero name. Jin Shi befriends bandits, gets drunk, and deals with a betrayal that leaves him homeless. Knowing that he has a bigger destiny, Jin Shi hopes to hook up again with Jin Wang so they can do some tag team butt kicking. The story segues to a fierce dude named Da Lu whose anger management problem sends him strolling to another village in the hope of evading the law. He finds a hideout among Buddhist priests but he finds himself ill-suited for their temperate lifestyle. The moral of the story is: karma is a bitch. Presumably other characters will be introduced in later issues and the story will eventually circle to the beginning, in which a military leader unwittingly frees 36 spirits and 72 fiends. Doh! The point of the story is likely the contrast between Da Lu, who exemplifies uncontrolled anger, and Jin Shi, who follows a moral code. Both men are fierce warriors, driven by different motives. From this reader's standpoint, it's enough that they both like to get d...