Review of "Return to Labyrinth" Volumes 1 & 2

"Return to Labyrinth" is the sequel manga series to the 1986 fantasy film directed by the late, great Jim Henson and starring a young, but still talented Jennifer Connelly and the amazing David Bowie. So far, two volumes have been released with two more on the way.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Labyrinth story (How dare you! Go out and watch it!), it focuses on Sarah Williams (Connelly), a teenage girl burdened by her "wicked stepmother" to watch over her baby brother, Toby. One day, she wishes that Toby would just disappear forever. To her horror, she finds that Jareth the Goblin King (Bowie) wants to make Sarah's wishes come true. He kidnaps Toby and takes him to his magical kingdom, the massive maze called the Labyrinth. Sarah then embarks on a journey to rescue Toby, meeting new friends along the way and discovering her true strength.

"Return to Labyrinth" takes place far after the events of the film, starring a 15 year old Toby Williams. He's just like any other kid, trying to get through high school. Yet all of his life, he has somehow been given anything he wished for. This is due to Jareth, who has been secretly watching Toby all of his life, granting his wishes. Jareth wants to make Toby his heir to the throne. After a series of mysterious events, Toby finds that he has traveled to the world of Labyrinth. And thus begins the adventures of this series, with Toby meeting new friends, encountering some friends of Sarah's, and struggling with the throne of Labyrinth.

Now I am not normally a manga reader. But I made an exception for these Henson books. I really had no idea what to expect when opening these pages. Would I get a rehash of the movie, with virtually nothing new to this magical land? Or would I find a world completely unrecognizable to me, bearing nothing linking it to the world I once knew? I am very proud to report that these books are excellent sequels, paying respect to Jim Henson's creation while blazing new ground.

The first volume is definitely the strongest of the two. It captures the essence of Labyrinth while nicely mirroring Sarah's original quest with Toby. Toby is portrayed perfectly, a guy who is just trying to wrap his mind around this strange world. Jareth, while missing that Bowie charm, still shines as a dark, yet charming, goblin. We meet some fun new characters (Hana, Stank, Moppet) that fit in perfectly with Labyrinth. And we old fans are treated to some cameos to characters past (Hoggle, Ludo, Sir Didymus) that advance them even further. There are some great moments that just make you crack a smile. In particular,the reveal of Hoggle as the ruler of the Bog of Eternal Stench was hilarious, but made me sad to see how much he hates it.

The second volume, while still good, just doesn't maintain the speed of the first. It slows down a lot, not covering nearly as much ground as before. Jareth and some of the other creatures then lose their imposing nature for no good reason. They just switch out of character and lose the awesomely creepy letters used in their word bubbles. It's minor, but enough to bug me. Also, there's several plot points that aren't explained. The reader is expected to just accept Jareth's past relationship with Queen Mizumi. But we don't know enough about it yet. The reveal of one the new characters, Moppet, is just too weird and doesn't really make sense. I know it will probably be explained later, but it's just so freaky and seemingly impossible that it bothers me.

The art for both volumes is great. Done by Chris Lei, it's not dark enough to make the books creepy, but stays away from being too comical. There are occasional times where the characters look a little too goofy, but I guess that's what to expect from manga. It was a little hard to tell Toby apart from Jareth in the second volume (another minor complaint for that volume) but the writing quickly told me who was who. Overall, I was very impressed with Lei's art.

Jake Forbes has crafted a superb story. He gets the voices of each & every character perfectly. He has rooted himself in this world, touching on already done concepts while exploring more of the world around him, introducing new but fitting aspects.

While disappointed with Volume 2, I still enjoyed both books in the long run. They're excellent stories that I look forward to reading more of. Whenever the next books are released...

Final Scores =
"Return to Labyrinth" Volume One: 9/10
"Return to Labyrinth" Volume Two: 8/10