Title: No One Left to Fight.
Writer(s): Aubrey Sitterson.
Artist(s): Fico Ossio.
Colourist(s): Fico Ossio & Raciel Avila.
Letterer(s): Taylor Esposito.
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics.
Format: Paperback.
Release Date: March 24th, 2020.
Pages: 128.
Genre(s): Comics, Fantasy.
ISBN13: 9781506713045.
My Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆.
What would heroes do if there’s no more evil to defeat? Would they be able to survive the lack of excitement and adrenaline that it once procured them to fight those who enjoyed chaos? Maybe refocusing themselves to excel in other domains of life might stir some new purpose in them. Maybe embracing the life of a responsible adult is the answer to all this? Maybe they’re just not looking in the right places and the action they crave deep down is just around the corner. Praying that it succeeds enough to solicit a second volume, this creative team composed of Aubrey Sitterson (The Comic Book Story of Professional Wrestling, G.I. Joe) and Fico Ossio (Spider-Man, Revolution) look to dazzle the world with a brand-new series. Collecting the No One Left to Fight #1-5 issues comes an exciting, splashy, flawed universe highly-reminiscent of a beloved manga franchise.
What is No One Left to Fight about? Vâle, the hero of the universe, has returned to his beloved friends after a long isolated journey. His friends have, however, moved on and now live happily as parents to two kids, having also put behind them their life of battling evil. Reacquainted, Vâle, Krysta, and Timór are now off on a mysterious new trip as they explore the universe to find past allies and mentors, but something isn’t right with their great hero who is hiding an internal psychological pain. As if things couldn’t get any worse, the world isn’t without no one left to fight as they thought as a strange creature bids his time before an opportunistic engagement to destroy them all.
“None of us have made perfect choices.
But those choices have made us who we are.”— Aubrey Sitterson
This story is an indisputable homage to Dragon Ball that doesn’t hide any of the similarities with the cult-classic manga as it presents a tale of adulthood, which is sometimes questionable, through various characters who cross paths once again after countless years have passed since their greatest battle. While there’s no significant depth to these characters, writer Aubrey Sitterson teases readers in terms of world-building with very little details offered to what happened in the past and what is going to happen to these heroes on their mysterious journey in the near future. The characters also continuously engage in an emotionally overwrought conversation about unresolved inferiority complexes and conflicts of jealousy, making for an infuriating and childish dialogue.
Artist Fico Ossio, however, offers an extremely vibrant and colourful world through his original artwork that continuously leaps out of the pages as you progress through the story. Conveying a truly cotton-candy universe where colour themes are nearly inexistent, if it weren’t for some clear character designs allowing us to distinguish good from evil, the artwork is an innocently entertaining hook to this series and might, unfortunately, be the only good reason to explore it too. Also borrowing on some 80s science-fiction technological designs, there is enough assimilation of known franchises to give this series its own sense of genuineness without being a rip-off. The series also abandoned a lot of logic to forgive the chaotic and destructive powers that some of these characters carelessly utilize throughout the story for mundane reasons revolving around unresolved complexes and unrequited love. Beware of these issues if you’re to explore this story.
No One Left to Fight is an energetic and vibrant universe heavily influenced by Dragon Ball that limits itself to teasing rather than delivering a satisfyingly complete narrative.
Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for sending me a copy for review!
Roars and Echoes 
A thorough review indeed! Well-done!
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Thank you so much for taking the time to read it. I appreciate it. 🙂
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Hmm…I really like the concept of this. I mean, the question you ask in the beginning: what if there is no one evil left to fight for heroes, can definitely be pretty interesting. But it seems the execution for this isn’t fully realised overall. Shame, as the art really does look great, and from reading your post, it doesn’t seem like a total loss, which is good😊 I’m not too familiar with Dragonball (hey can’t keep up with every franchise lol) so can’t say much about that, but that said, you’ve made me curious enough for this one despite some of the flaws. Well done!😀
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You knocked the wind out of me there! Dragon Ball was not part of your younger days, Michel?!?!!?! Oh man!!! 😛 Something needs to be done about it!!! 🙂 But yes. This isn’t completely horrible but I think it would succeed much more with a younger audience (maybe young adult). Its flaws can really kill the fun if you look too much into it, but the artwork makes it fun nonetheless. Thanks for reading, my friend! 🙂
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Lol…I know right? It’s horrible😅😅😂😂 But hey, so many franchises out there, there is bound to be one or two that I missed out on😊
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It looks colorful and fun.
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You summed it up perfectly. 😉 But if you look too close, it will show its flaws and ruin the fun. 😉
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Probably not something I’d try, though the general premise is interesting and has some potential. I never did get into Dragonball, just couldn’t watch it, so I doubt if I’d catch any of the similarities. One of those pages is pretty funny, though, a My Little Pony shirt on what at first appears to be big bad creature. Talk about another series I was never into. 🙂
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Not getting into Dragon Ball?! How is that possible? :O Just kidding. I can’t tell if not being able to recognize the parallels with Dragon Ball would work for this story or if it would just make it seem ridiculous too… Hmm… As for My Little Pony… I sure hope you never got into that one! 😀 Thanks for reading, Todd!
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Oh please. That’s why God invented DragonBall Z, and All New Dragonball and Dragonball KaiZ and Dragonball XYZ and ALL New Dragonball XYZ and….
Ok, you get the point 😀 The whole point of DB/Z is that there is NEVER no one to fight (and I’m sorry for that really bad syntax there). Without the fight, the universe collapses. So for these writers to imagine such a thing is self-defeating in my eyes. Or, even worse, they find someone to fight because they (the authors) aren’t actually talented enough to create a true story out of their idea. Either way, the story is dead on arrival in my head.
But looking at that art, whooowheee, where’s Chichi and Bulma and Android18?!?!?
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Just to be clear, I am not pissing on your review. I read my comment and realized I came across that way and that was not my intent. My intent was to piss on the idea presented by the creators 😀
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No worries, I definitely got that from your previous comment. 😉
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That reminds me of what Marvel has been doing with a lot of their comic book series (see X-Men, All-New X-Men, Ultimate X-Men, Superior X-Men, Something X-Men)! 😛
Hahahaha the title is definitely self-defeating the moment that a new adversary was introduced. While there are other “hooks” in the story (e.g. why the main character has those migraines here and there), it makes you wonder why the title/premise would be something about having no one to fight… At least for the time being, it doesn’t seem like a sequel is in the work…
Maybe in volume 2 we’ll get parallel characters for those guys! 😉 Although Chichi and Bulma could just fused into the Krysta character here. 😉
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I have noticed, when I pay attention, that a lot of the group series of heroes seem to be different versions of how amazing they are 😉
My response here is pretty much why I don’t delve deeply into the graphic side of novels any more. While comics have changed, I’ve changed even more and simply am not a target for them.
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Plot and concept sounds interesting, art looks amazing and so the world. Sad characters didn’t have depth. Great review!
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Thanks for reading, Yesha! The art is a lot of fun in this one, that’s for sure! 😀
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The art looks childish, too. Perfect match to the childish dialogue.
“What if there was no evil?” Pleeeeeease. That’s not possible, so stop trying, only to show that it’s impossible.
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Hahahaha clearly they dove into something without thinking through a lot of plotlines. It just felt like one of those ideas sitting by the corner of the table that they decided to try because… why not? 😛
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I guess…
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