Wednesday Webcomics: “Odd Worlds”

Odd Worlds tells the story of Melria’s escape from her family as she tries to save reality itself, and is a succubus at the center of everything.

Odd Worlds, by Ariann, a Mexican illustrator, is fantasy-drama, which began in September of this year, and has over ten episodes currently. It is written and illustrated by Ariann. Like her other webcomic, Bring Me Love, this webcomic has a notice which says that it “contains adult themes and situations and is recommended for mature audiences,” which seems like a standard notice on webcomics which Webtoon terms as mature. This made the comic more intriguing, as a person who has written about many mature animated series, from Disenchantment to Inside Job. As a fair warning, this review will have spoilers about the webcomic’s plot and characters.

The comic begins with Melria telling her boyfriend Ruben that she does not want to be a succubus, but wants to escape. They are captured by her father, Amodeus, who kills Ruben and sentences her to 1,000 years of solitude. Her brother, Lilum, breaks her out, and she goes her own way, into the portal of an apartment of Aegon, a gay man, where she adjusts to new life in the human world.

Odd Worlds has compelling characters and stories, with Melria as a succubus and Aegon as an “oddity,” a being who can heal and multiple himself very fast. One of the funniest comic issues so far is the one where Donna Sharma complains to the author about her coloring, with the author giving her colors back only in the human universe and with minimal shading. She then is transformed into a brown-skinned woman with pink and purple hair. I love when comics have the characters break the fourth wall! That’s always fun.

Like her other comic, Bring Me Love, Odd Worlds has relatively simple designs but unique characters and colors which pull in the reader, making the reader more invested in the story as it progresses. That style is the strength of the webcomic. The story is in its early stages, but more developments are portended in the future based on a recent character listing.

Odd Worlds is one of the many stories to focus on the supernatural but also feature a succubus. Merryweather’s webcomic My Succubus Girlfriend, is one example, with other examples including the possible succubus in Penny Dreadful, and Bo, the succubus, in the Canadian live-action series, Lost Girl. There’s also a succubus protagonist in Christian Onu’s Karishika, a 1996 Nigerian film, who “seeds misery on earth,” Verosika Mayday, a succubus pop singer, in a few episodes of Helluva Boss, and Morrigan Aensland in the video game, Darkstalkers.

Some define succubi (singular is succubus) as demons who assume female form to “have sexual intercourse with men in their sleep” and as demon female lovers who appear in dreams to seduce men and have sex with them. The word came about in the 14th century. Their male demon counterparts are called Incubi (singular is incubus), who try and impregnate human women, also taking on a human form to seduce people. Due to this, the mature content warning on the webcomic makes perfect sense.

The webcomic is filled with LGBTQ characters. In an issue celebrating the comic reaching 1900 subscribers, Ariann noted that Melria is genderfluid, pansexual, and demisexual, while Donna is asexual and aromantic. There are also a number of upcoming LGBTQ characters like a 1,000 year old genderfluid and pansexual person (Mlinz), a 19-year-old bisexual man (Sam Yung), and an 18-year-old lesbian woman (Oriana Beltran). This makes Odd Worlds similar to other webcomics which have diverse sets of characters.

In closing, I would highly recommend Odd Worlds and look forward to the continued development of this webcomic (and its story) in the days, weeks, and months to come.

Odd Worlds is available to read on WebToon and Tapas.

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You can find Ariann on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. The webcomic can be supported on Patreon.

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For more great webcomic recommendations, check out our Wednesday Webcomics archives!

Author: Burkely Hermann

Burkely is an indexer of declassified documents by day and a fan fic writer by night. He recently earned a MLIS with a concentration in Digital Curation from the University of Maryland. He currently voraciously watches animated series and reads too many webcomics to count on Webtoon. He loves swimming, hiking, and searching his family roots in his spare time.

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