The Fall 2024 K-Comics Guide

Reincarnated Murim Lord

What's It About? 

Regret is the bane of old men. When aging Alliance Lord Hajin Cheon of the Grand Martial Alliance reflects on his immense legacy, he finds that he recalls little of his deeds or even the lives of his closest advisors. Stricken by a mysterious ailment, Hajin suddenly passes away only to wake up in the body of Ridan Byeok, heir to the Byeok Clan of swordsmen. The only problem is, Ridan is a well-known wastrel, the polar opposite of the virtuous and stern Hajin. Righting the wrongs of his predecessor, Hajin begins to uncover the truth behind his death…

Reincarnated Murim Lord has a story by JP and art by boom-kyoum, with localization by WEBTOON. Published by WEBTOON.

Is It Worth Reading?

When the great martial artist and alliance lord died unexpectedly in his eighties, the last thing he planned on was being instantly reborn in the body of a young man in his twenties – one who appears to have been absolute scum. But that's exactly what happened to the man now known as Ridan, and for most of the first dozen-odd chapters of this murim manhwa, he's trying to figure out who, exactly, he was reborn for. Was it for himself, to get another chance at a different sort of life? Was it for Ridan, who may deserve a second chance despite appearances? The answer Ridan eventually settles on is that it was for the original Ridan's parents, but I think it may go even further than that: he was reborn to right the wrongs the original Ridan caused, but also to give the rest of their sect a better future.

While that's not entirely unusual in the genre, it does make for a bit of a slow start. Ridan spends what feels like far longer than it actually is to learn about the kind of person “he” used to be, and his first steps towards setting things straight are devoid of the sort of exciting martial arts madness you might expect from the genre. (Murim is the Korean equivalent of wuxia.) Still, seeing him attempt to rebuild bridges is nice, especially when it comes to Lady Song, his erstwhile fiancée. She's likely the reason Ridan's body was available to house a different soul, and while she probably overreacted, it's undeniable that he was a jerk to her. Lady Song wants out of their arrangement, and Ridan is willing to give it to her, even though he's been musing that maybe he'd do things differently with this new chance and have a family of his own. But he doesn't want one that's forced on someone else, and this marks the first major change in his life. Between letting Lady Song out of their contract and suddenly wanting to train, it's clear to everyone that this isn't the same young man who got their sect deep into debt to some very bad actors.

What all of this means is that if you're looking for immediate action, this isn't necessarily going to be an immediately engrossing title. That goes for the art, as well – it's good, yes, but it's also mostly shots of people's faces, and there's really only one major fight in nine chapters. There are a disproportionate amount of profiles, too, and the artist is much better at getting emotion out of frontal images, so it's not quite as good as it could be. Still, Ridan's decision to be a better man than he was in either prior existence is well on its way, and his relationship with his servant Gwangdu stands to be one of the best buddy stories in the Manga, Light Novel, and K-comic Guides. This is worth giving a chance, even if a few linguistic choices, such as the word “ronin” in a Korean comic set in China, give me pause.