Blood and Water Are Equally Important In “Rayven Choi”

Everyone knows the saying “blood is thicker than water”, right? Well, that’s not the full quote. The saying actually goes “the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb”, which spells out an entirely new meaning. Rayven Choi explores that meaning through Rayven, a young African American woman who was eventually adopted and cared for by a Korean family. Though she was born in one family and raised in another, she holds them both in high regards and uses her experience from both worlds in order to avenge her parents’ killer. Very minor spoilers ahead! As always, I recommend giving this comic a read before diving straight into this review.

A Quick Summary

Rayven Choi has a total of five chapters. Each chapter is roughly thirty pages, so the full comic comes in at a whopping one hundred and fifty pages of content. We follow Rayven, a woman on the hunt for her mother and father’s killer. After their deaths, she was sent to live in Korea with a nice family in an attempt to keep her out of harm’s way. After all, it wasn’t safe for her in the states anymore, especially not if her parents’ killer was aiming to cut all his loose ends. However, as she grew older and learned how to defend herself, Rayven found a way to return to the U.S.. While she worked under the supervision of her Uncle Jack in his hapkido dojo, she teamed up with some prospective contacts in order to track down the one who took her family from her.

One of the more interesting parts of the story is Rayven’s familial background. She’s a Black woman with Black parents, and when they’re killed, she’s whisked off to Korea to live with a Korean family. It’s clear what she thinks of them both: she loves her blood family, but she still loves and respects her Korean family despite their differences. Korea is also a very different place in comparison to the United States, and she’s definitely treated like an outsider when she’s not with the family. In the United States, she appears to be more at home. But she still carries her experience with her Korean family in practicing hapkido, and she respects her Korean father enough to go home when he eventually finds her. It shows how she’s able to love and respect both of her families equally, which is incredibly honorable.

Attention To Detail and Connections To Reality

Rayven Choi does something that I think most comics stray away from. With most comics, you’d expect to see traditional pen or pencil lineart and some basic colors and shading. But Rayven Choi uses a painterly style with lots of definition and attention to detail. As a hobby artist, I have the utmost respect for artists who paint because it requires a lot of patience and time to master. And for the entire comic to have this style? I can only imagine how long it took to finish everything. It’s honestly awe-inspiring!

But here’s the real kicker. At the end of every chapter, there’s a movie poster using live-action actors. It looks fairly professional, and at first, I thought it was a cute Easter egg. But I realized there’s a YouTube link at the bottom of each poster. Turns out, Rayven Choi is a short film!! Now, I’ve gotta warn you, if you’re interested in reading the comic, I wouldn’t watch the short film first. It follows similar dialogue, events, and the overall narrative of the comic, almost to a point. The production quality isn’t much to brag about, and the acting isn’t Oscar-worthy, but it’s definitely worth a look regardless. It’s always interesting seeing how a comic is adapted to the big screen.

Aside from the movie poster, there’s an advertisement in each chapter for the team’s official website and store. Rayven, her family, and her friends wear merchandise that you can get in the store! It’s really clever advertising!  Since they also appear in the short film, you can confidently walk around and say you’re matching. This alone shows just how much love and care was put into the story, and you’ll be hard pressed to find anything quite like it at the indie level.

Overall Thoughts

Overall, Rayven Choi is a fun yet suspenseful read! It’s action packed, especially towards the later chapters. There’s also a fair amount of intrigue and collecting clues, but that comes with the territory. If you’re a fan of the spy genre, or just action in general, I’d definitely give this comic a read! I’d also recommend this to anyone who’s looking for a good dose of BIPOC representation, since this comic has a lot of it in its main cast. Rayven and her companions are well written and well represented, and it’s hard not to enjoy everyone she befriends. Personally, I loved Cassius and Keoka, they were both hilarious! I’m honestly surprised they didn’t hook up by the end – they’d be such a power couple.

You can purchase Rayven Choi on the team’s official website. All five chapters can be bought individually for $6.99 USD, or you can purchase the complete collector’s edition for $24.99 USD. They also have the series available in Korean, as well as the aforementioned merch and other comics they’ve written.

If you’re interested in watching the Rayven Choi short film, you can do that on their Youtube channel! Another fair warning, though: don’t watch it before reading the comic! (Or, I mean, you can if you want. I’m not gonna break into your train car and force you at gunpoint to read the comic first. But you’ll thank me later if you do!)