Maximum Ride Manga

Maximum Ride Vol. #04 Manga Review

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers): The Maximum Ride adaptation has spent many, many weeks atop the New York Times bestseller list, so I was curious to check it out. Maximum Ride, or Max, is the head of a group of winged teenagers, known as the Flock, who are fleeing from their scientist creators and a group of werewolf-like assassins called Erasers.

The volume opens with the Flock staying with a seemingly kind young government employee, Anne Pruitt, who’s acting as a kind of mother figure, even going so far as to cook them Thanksgiving dinner. She has sent the Flock to a nearby school in Washington DC, and life is comfortable. A little too comfortable, Max reasons, and in her world, she’s got the right idea.

From what I can gather from this single volume, Maximum Ride’s plot has two central truths: First, any conspiracy worth its secret handshake has complete and total control of information and the populace, so that literally anything can be covered up. Second, teens can only trust each other, and adults are bad news. Suspending your disbelief and accepting these central premises are the key to enjoying Maximum Ride.

The school they’ve been sent to turns out to be extremely suspicious, with underground corridors and rooms worth of mysterious secret files. In exploring the school’s basement Iggy and Gasman uncover its unexpected secret: The school was an insane asylum up until two years ago. Not only that, but it may have ties to a series of missing children and the experiments that Max and the Flock were involved in. Perhaps it seems slightly unbelievable that parents would send their kids to a school that used to house the insane? Apparently, the conspiracy covered it up, as even a Google search won’t reveal the school’s recent past. As Max continues to investigate on her own, she also discovers that the teachers all carry guns, and even her crush might be in on the conspiracy as well! With a conspiracy this well staffed and organized, how did Max and the Flock escape in the first place… unless even that was part of the conspiracy! Cryptic statements from Max’s scientist-father seem to indicate that everything is going according to plan. Having a secret cabal that is so powerful strains the plot’s credibility, and having everything go “according to plan” defuses any real tension the story might otherwise have. That said, I can see why an audience of teenagers would relate to a thriller about having your life controlled by unaccountable adults.

Manga, sixty years of Japanese comics

Manga Studio For Dummies

Manga! Manga! the world of Japanese comics

Manga Monster Madness

Manga, the complete guide