The Black Belt Club

The Black Belt Club: Seven Wheels of Power

By Dawn Barnes

Illustrated by Bernard Chang

1 Out of 5 Covers

The Black Belt Club could have been written by a committee.  All the elements of trying to put together a successful franchise while missing the mark on everything that actually matters.  Multi-ethnic cast: check; some sport to bring them together: check; pseudo-mystical mumbo-jumbo that grants them powers: check; ill-explained threat to the world: check.  However, the characters and writing are dull, the plot rudimentary and the illustrations weak.

The story focuses on Max Greene, who has been invited to join the exclusive Black Belt Club at his dojo.  This club, consisting of three other students, is actually mystical in nature, with each member having a spirit animal which somehow allows them to travel to another dimension (I think; it wasn’t really clear where they went).  They are tasked by a yogi to recover the seven wheels of power from Master Mundi, because somehow if they don't this will cause darkness to cover the Earth. 

So yeah, it didn’t really make a lot of sense with the mixing of cultural traditions and events happening without much rhyme or reason.  Even though the point of the story is really about Max gaining confidence, he is pretty whiny throughout, which makes him more annoying then compelling.  And considering the artist is supposed to have worked at Marvel and DC, the art is flat and simplistic ; even worse, the panels show up at random, revealing no consistency in the storytelling.

Even though the bell curve dictated that at some point a book I read would be on the low end of quality, I secretly hoped never to have to give a one cover rating.  But the only quality to this book is that it does tell a story; it just doesn’t tell it with any quality.