Veritas

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Veritas is an action manhwa that contains a lot of common themes. That isn’t what makes it great. What makes it great at the themes it subverts. Where this manhwa shines are the refreshing protagonist and the good fight scenes.

What makes the protagonist, Ma Gangryong, refreshing? He’s a common action comic hero – dense, always looking to fight the strong, been taught by a powerful master, etc. However, the author built on this strong point – he’s basically a violent punk that just loves fighting.

No, really that’s him to a ‘tee’. He doesn’t care about school, doesn’t have any love interests, and the only reason ... he has friends at all is because they forced themselves on him. What does he preach, i.e. ‘his path of truth’ in shounen terms? Nothing. He cares about nothing except getting stronger. When confronted by people who tell him that they fight to protect their families, he mentions – for the first time – that he has a little sister…then promptly says he still never thought about fighting to protect anyone.

See? Refreshing. Just a violent punk who happens to be the protagonist.

Thanks primarily to him, we get plenty of great action scenes.

Unfortunately, the manga could use a lot of improvements elsewhere. Aside from the refreshing protagonist, it is cliché and dull in a lot of other ways.

The main setting of this manhwa is an exclusive school designed to nurture martial artists. Here, fighters can learn skills and challenge each other. This school is ruled by an all powerful ‘Student Council’ (of course…) who is led by the rich, intelligent, and powerful president. Sounds familiar, huh?

Additionally, the presidential election is coming up and there is a conspiracy to overthrow the leader, and this is the primary plot of Veritas. From here, you get a lot of the Batman gambits, underhanded plotting by crafty guys, and so on.

You see the same thing in every action manga which involves school in any way, shape, or form.

Aside from the bland plot, there is a problem wherein Veritas lacks decent antagonists. Unfortunately, the author has a love of basically two types of villains: The bloodthirsty lunatics (who always laugh with wide teeth) and the cold, quiet calculating types. There’s a few people in-between, but they’re rare and they get less prominence.

So in short, Veritas is great with the protagonist and action scenes, but has a generally bland story and antagonists. Overall, I’d still recommend a read if you’re into action with great art style.