The world after the fall vol 1 by singNsong

Illustrated by Undead Gamja, adapted by S-Cynan
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Jaehwan and many others suddenly find themselves as "Walkers" in a Tower that has crashed to Earth. They must complete the 100 levels in order to save the human race. There are many obstacles and mini-boss fights that clear out most of the other Walkers, until Jaehwan is the last man standing. What he finds out in the room of the final boss throws everything of the past years into complete disarray, and Jaehwan has to reconcile what he believes and what is his perceived reality. 

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This story suffers from a classic case of tell-not-show. Most of the many years of Jaehwan and other Walkers going through the Tower are told in exposition. We are supposed to have emotional attachments to characters who don't make it, but for some of them, we learned of them pages before their demise. There could have been a LOT more to develop between these characters to make the emotional impact land effectively. Likewise, the reveal at the end has almost no impact on me because we didn't spend the time grinding with Jaehwan -- we were told he did it. 

There are a lot of pitch-black panels in this comic that make the details fairly hard to see. As this was originally a webcomic, many of the illustrations are no wider than a phone screen, meaning we're seeing small slivers of action sequences. While I have appreciated other webcomic adaptations, this one didn't embrace the new format or make any changes from screen to page.

Sara's Rating: 5/10
Suitability Level: Grades 9-12
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This review was made possible with a digital reader copy from the publisher through Net Galley.

Publisher: IZE Press
Publication Date: November 8, 2022
ISBN: 9798400900044 (Paperback)

Tags: Rating: 5/10, Suitability: High School, Manhwa, Dungeon, Action Adventure, Adaptations, Ize Press, IZE Press