There are certain themes common with many fantasy stories. Perhaps one of the more common themes lies with the depiction of elves as J.R.R. Tolkien described them and which was later immortalized in fantasy role-playing games. These fantasy elves would often be quite beautiful, graceful, intelligent, and basically better than humans. Some fantasy stories would take a slightly darker look at elves, with them being haughty and arrogant (though considering how “superior” they were to humans, this could be considered perhaps justified from the viewpoints of the elves) or even xenophobic at times. But for the most part, elves were treated like pointy-eared humans that embodied everything humanity should be.

Seeing that Undertow is set in a fantasy setting, it’s only natural to assume the agile and arrogant pointy-eared female, Saehral, is an elf. And to be honest, despite the fact the humans of this world seem unfamiliar with elves and consider her to possibly be a monster (or a defective human), I’m still hedging my bets that she’s an elf. However, rather than being a member of a civilized and haughty race that is superior to humanity in every way, Saehral has a number of traits that are decidedly not elf-like. There have been several scenes of Saehral licking blood off of arrows (though she’s not aware of what they’re called) and enjoying the taste. She is unfamiliar with basic agriculture or on how humans bake bread, calling these things “magic” (which reminds me of Arthur C. Clark’s quote: any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology).

Yes, that’s right. This pointy-eared arrogant (and talented) girl considers things such as baking bread, growing food, and even soap to be “magic” which helped humanity conquer the world. Add in some of her other personality quirks (such as the eating of raw meat and enjoying the taste of blood) and Undertow has created a species of “elf” that is not only unique, but decidedly non-human. Saehral is not a little Mary Sue wannabe or even Legolas from the LotR movies. I found this to be a refreshing change from the portrayal of nonhumans in far too many fantasy stories, where dwarves, elves, and other races are basically funny-looking humans.

I felt the story fluctuated between possessing an effective and fairly unique storyline and the typical clichés that inhabit most fantasy stories. Saehral’s travel-mate, a human warrior that she starts traveling with (after conning Teyn out of his gold), starts out a fairly incompetent and idiotic lead, though he eventually shows some moments of intelligence. One thing I found puzzling was how Teyn would shift from thinking Saehral a monster (because of her licking human blood off of arrow heads and eating meat raw) to assuming she was a human with deformed ears or the like; the shift was too sudden and I felt not well explained.

Teyn’s role as village idiot is taken up by a third lead, the young noblewoman Twaki. I’m not entirely sure if Twaki’s ignorance is due to a lack of intelligence or the stubborn arrogance of a noble who wasn’t interested in learning her lessons and spent her time with her head in the clouds. It does allow various characters to present information dumps to remind her (and clue in readers) as to various aspects of their world’s past; Twaki’s revelation concerning her suspicions about Saehral also hints that if my belief that the girl is an elf, they came out the losers in a war against humanity. As Brittany Fuerst tends to tease us with details on Saehral’s heritage and past, we’re not likely to learn the truth for some time to come.

The artwork for Undertow has slowly evolved over time. Initially, the comic was drawn in greyscale (though Fuerst has drawn several pages of a “Chapter 0” to help introduce the characters and lessen the abruptness of the early strips). The early comics definitely show Fuerst’s roots in manga and anime, including several unfortunate moments of chibi art and story which I feel diminish the effectiveness of those earlier comics. The chibi elements are mostly abandoned as Fuerst’s artwork evolved away from its manga roots, but do crop up from time to time, perhaps in a deluded belief that the humorous elements need to be chibified to help readers identify when the comic is upbeat and amusing.

Even with these flaws, I found Undertow to be an interesting and fairly unique fantasy comic. Saehral is perhaps the strongest element of the comic, with the question of who and what she is being an integral part of the story. Twaki’s own evolution as a significant character is another integral part of the story and has shifted the comic from what was initially a somewhat random fantasy story into a more epic form of storytelling. And while I found Teyn to be the weakest of the protagonists, there is enough potential in the character that he’s not a complete write-off. When you add in his interactions with Saehral (who is to me the most unique and fascinating part of the comic), and you end up with a comic that is well worth reading.