Back when tigers still smoked, a bear crawled into a cave and crawled out a woman, becoming the mother of the great ancestor known as Dangun. That is the story everyone knows, but no one remembers the others who left the cave too soon and scattered into the world, learning to hide their fangs behind human smiles. Seventeen-year-old Narae Lee is about to meet the animals that walk among us, quietly waging war on the spirits and creatures that everyone else believes were only myths.

Legend of Dangun has art by Street Bard, adapted by namwoong, based on original work by Dodongpa. Localized by WEBTOON. Published by WEBTOON (September 19, 2026). Rated 16+.

Erica Friedman
Rating:

With a powerful prologue, we learn the creation, the rise, and fall of the warrior known as Lucky Ricky. He sacrificed himself on the battlefield to support his wife. Her returns home only to find himself thought lost. Betrayed, the brave warrior becomes a killer, making his way through enemies of all kinds, only to eventually die. Reborn again as a child, Ricky has yet another life... and he chooses to find his old self once again.

The Warrior's Ballad is strong out of the gate, with great battle scenes, as Ricky balances the lessons of both lives, while trying to not make the same choices or become the same man he was. Ricky the warrior now has new memories, many of them happy times, and family, as well as fear and uncertainty. When he has to leave home, he chooses a path to bring him closer to a truth, but it is a hard and bloody path once again. The writing and art are solid here. There's little romanticism about battle. We are given scenes of war and death that all but smell of blood; they are so forceful. So much so that scenes of Ricky 2.0's home life feel suspicious from beginning to end. We are not wrong. Reincarnated Ricky will not be allowed a quiet life, so when he chooses the path she chooses, we cannot feel all that sad. Ricky himself has no regrets and almost immediately finds himself drawing on his former knowledge as a fighter.

There is no peace in this story. This is a reincarnation from battle into survival and revenge and, if you read a lot, you'll basically guess the answer to his existential question by chapter 4. That said, the journey is likely to be long and bloody, which should make for some excellent reading. For folks who want a slightly more realistic look at fighting than comics filled with magic and healing potions, or if “The Song of Roland” is something you enjoyed as a youth, then you'll probably find The Warrior's Ballad entertaining.

Bolts
Rating:

While I do feel that a lot of Webtoons have pretty standard presentations, sometimes I come across something that completely blows me away visually. The Warrior's Ballad is a series that, on paper, has a pretty standard narrative set up. It follows the life of a young boy named Ricky who plans on making it out on his own as an adventure, but little does everybody know that he is actually this tortured, cursed soldier who died on the battlefield after having everything taken away from him. Now all he wants is to live a peaceful life and maybe uncover secrets of the past battles that he was told to engage in. I appreciate the fact that Ricky, as a main character, has a legitimate reason for not having a lot of agency, but that does not mean that he does not use the muscle memory skills of what he learned to protect those in his new life. I feel for this man a lot and hope that he is able to have the peaceful life that he desires, even though that is not going to happen.

A lot of my emotional resonance for this character comes down to just how much the presentation frames his struggle. This is a gorgeous WEBTOON with incredibly expressive and detailed art. The facial expressions are fierce, carrying so much emotion in a single frame. The framing isn't afraid to get over the top or exaggerated in dramatic ways, but it's necessary in order to communicate the full literal and figurative weight of everything that is going on. When the story cuts back and forth between Ricky as a child and back in his past life, everything just feels heavy. Combine this with incredibly bold color contrast, and what I'm left with is a story that I feel like I could recommend just on its presentation alone. This is a perfect example of how the medium itself can elevate a relatively standard story into something exciting. This is the type of action-adventure that I think a lot of people will enjoy if you're looking for a good time.