Advance Review: It’s All Laughs And Plot Twists In `White Savior’ #3
by Tom Smithyman
Overview
This smartly written limited series continues to poke fun at the white savior trope in the funniest ways possible. While the artwork can be a bit unrefined at times, the laughs continue unabated.
Overall
8.5/10While plot twists are one of the tried and truest tools that writers use, they’re not often a staple in comedies. Then again, White Savior isn’t a conventional comedy.
The limited series pokes fun at the trope of the same name, by – in a twist from the last issue – making the would-be hero of a threatened Japanese village nothing more than a drunken actor. Oh, the book’s protagonists accidently kill him off as well. That leaves Todd Parker, who has mysteriously time traveled from today to feudal Japan, to act as the new white savior. Expect that Todd is Asian. Also, he’s largely incompetent.
Thankfully though, he is frequently hilarious thanks to the writing talents of Eric Nguyen and Scott Burman. While the situation is life and death, the writers don’t take anything all that seriously. Even the mustache-twirling bad guy who threatens to slaughter everyone in the peaceful village complains how difficult being a baddie can be. “I have to scowl all day long, and my throat is killing me from the yelling,” he whines. The pair even get in “trouble” from their boss by writing editor’s notes without telling their editor. OK, so it’s not highbrow humor, but funny is funny.
Nguyen and Burman throw in another twist in this issue as well, though it won’t be revealed here. But it does move the story along, adds a level of intrigue and contributes to the comic overtones. What more could you ask for from a twist?
Nguyen draws the story with colors by Iwan Joko Triyono. While they are not the most detailed panels, the battle scenes are especially exciting. And some of Nguyen’s depictions, particularly of the big bad, have a Jae Lee-like quality to them. That’s a great artist to be compared with.
The limited series has only one more chapter before concluding next month. Hopefully more teams will learn from these creators and rely on humor to get their points across to readers. That would be a real twist.
White Savior #3 will be available for purchase on March 15, 2023.