Comics / Manga

The Innocent

By Chris Zimmerman
December 15, 2011 - 14:02

Series about less than savory individuals attempting to do good to make amends for past sins are not exactly original. Working in comics, Avi Arad has no doubt been exposed to several stories of this nature which probably helped to influence the conception of The Innocent. Of course Arad rarely (if ever) actually wrote for an actual publisher, helping to explain the erratic pacing and minimal explanation of the mythology at play.

The Innocent is a one volume story that follows a former detective named Johnny who is convicted of a crime he did not commit. He is immediately sentenced to death via the electric chair but is miraculously restored to life by a young woman named Angel who tells him he can regain his life if he agrees to save other innocents from his fate. Unfortunately, Johnny is only interested in exacting revenge on those who wronged him, establishing a conflict of interest with Angel. Along with a new life, Johnny is given a set of supernatural abilities that allows him to combat the murderers and deviants in his quest to save a young man named Joshua from the same people that set him up for a fall.

The manga thrusts readers into the story, beginning with Johnny’s death without any hint of character development to speak of. This is a problem because it gives the reader little reason to actually care about Johnny. From our first impression of him, Johnny comes off as a selfish jerk. The pacing of the volume doesn’t help matters, jumping right into the action without any explanation of who Angel is or how she has the power to bring people back from the dead. Johnny even asks her if she is an angel at one point but she blows off his question and that is the main problem with the Innocent; it abandons characterization in favor of action. It feels as though this is the second volume of a series rather than a complete story.

While the manga boasts an interesting premise, the final product falls short.
The characters lack proper development for readers to invest interest while the volume feels like it is missing half of the story. The end result is a decent read that attempts to accomplish too much in too little time, sacrificing its characters and story in the progress.

Rating: 7 / 10

Last Updated: January 1, 2026 - 11:07