Evolution: Road to Space Monster

[condottiere77]

The story is too childish for me. Of course the researchers are cartoonishly evil, of course the MC is acting like he was training his whole life for a day he will reincarnate as an Alien.

"You write what you know."

It's what you get in an industry of young adults writing for an adolescent audience that endlessly demands MORE of the SAME. You get writers whose desire to produce has outpaced their life experiences, and they end up rehashing what little they know (witness the subgenre of manga written about young mangaka struggling to get picked up for publishing). If a writer has only read a hundred derivative variations on isekai reincarnation, that writer is going to write a derivative variation on isekai reincarnation. Or derivative variations of HR Giger's Alien (and I blame WH40K and Starcraft for this as well).

You have to look for authors who have a more diverse background -- movies, books, games, etc they've consumed which shape their ideas and inspirations. And that usually comes with being a few years older (though age is no guarantee of greater depth).

I thought it was funny and ... innocent? Naive? to see how the writer tried to write the bad guys. They spent a battleship's budget to develop the first villain, and no one thought to address social skills and emotional health? Among all the things that required suspension of disbelief, that was the one I got hung up on.

IRL corporate "villains" understand that maintaining top performance requires a foundation of good mental and physical health. But maybe the writer (or audience) feel it's too mundane and boring to have a villain who wakes up early, goes for a run, drinks his/her green healthy smoothie, then shows up cheerfully to work and settles diligently into the perfectly ordinary (to them) task of performing human experimentation. Or maybe the writer doesn't know how to write it, b/c they've never watched/read an action/thriller story like the Bourne Identity. It takes a LOT of experience, effort, and planning to write a story like that.

But to be clear, I think it's great to see them putting out a story at all b/c it's valuable experience. It's like any other kind of art -- the first ones are awful, but each one produced is practice for a better one next time. 10 stories or series from now, the author's work will probably look nothing at all like this one.

 

[Andigo]

I read ten chapters, basically looking for an excuse to give up on it getting better. Maybe if you're into slasher violence for its own sake, you may enjoy this manhwa, but no matter what it adds the DNA will not change. Flat villains and cat murder was harsh. I used headcanon that the organism is delusional by design instead of a #1 world-class RPG expert. The simple conveniently-named worldbuilding was telling, but at least it made references. My final straw was the lack of women after the comically evil prey fell far short of the source material, while blatantly referencing it, which made me concede there's only surface-level callbacks in general. I'm used to suspending my disbelief, or considering how realistic tech or diversity would affect what I'm reading, but faux depth can get tiring. Hopefully I've learned more confidence to drop a story.

Yes seriously. The last straw was that, on a massive ship, despite outright referencing certain nuanced Ridley Scott and James Cameron films, the only woman is the mean-spirited Alien reference at the very start of the story. I enjoyed how horrid she was, but it turned out she just appeared as an Ellen Ripley (and cat) callback, amidst a testosterone army. Megacorps use everyone they can, from the roided-up troops to the neuro-amped intelligencia, to the crew of large ships. Am I to assume there's dystopian gender segregation? Not again... 🤣 A lot of guys writing stories in present day, especially from conservative cultures, barely factor 50% or more of humanity into random appearances and offensive ability lotteries.

For all that this mimics source material, it's very surface level themes and art direction. I'm not expecting something as weird as Starcraft Zerg, Space Hulk Tyranids, or the phallic Alien zenomorphs, and I get that the referenced assymetric squad vs monster FPS games are intentionally straightforward, but I want something more than monster go brrrrr.

So yeah. The author is pulling from a narrow mindset in general, the major flaws are probably accidental and not pragmatic, and I've got no reason to expect this will have any depth or heart. There's no pull for me to stay with a genocide-run plot with zero nuance... If you want this kind of hunting and gore, play a video game or watch a LP. This story reads as an adaptation of something an author wrote for their own enjoyment, which is totally cool, it's just not kino.

 

[InsaneAwesomeTony]

The cat didn't deserve that

 

[vodkavodka]

They spent a battleship's budget to develop the first villain, and no one thought to address social skills and emotional health?

I come across this cliche too often in stories for teens, and it always feels awkward. When I witness a mean boss executing a subordinate for a minor mistake, and everyone in the boss's team reacting nonchalantly, I can no longer immerse myself in the story.

 

[SmokeScreenz]

Damn this manga might be a gem. Haven't seen any mangas before with the mc isekaing as an human eating alien who can evolve and trait steal from the preys he's eaten without any empathy. The villains seem one dimensional, but the premise is so far decent, therefore imo its a worthy read.

Gore is nice and cat gore was nicely done as well. I'm happy that author isn't afraid to draw this type of work.

Someone complained about some stupid stuff like there's no women apart of the leader that got eaten, but is it even a problem? I didn't even think about it while reading this. Its great that there's no women so far, as such there wont be any horny baits that mc would somehow befriend.

 

[Magnetows]

Damn this manga might be a gem. Haven't seen any mangas before with the mc isekaing as an human eating alien who can evolve and trait steal from the preys he's eaten without any empathy. The villains seem one dimensional, but the premise is so far decent, therefore imo its a worthy read.

Gore is nice and cat gore was nicely done as well. I'm happy that author isn't afraid to draw this type of work.

Someone complained about some stupid stuff like there's no women apart of the leader that got eaten, but is it even a problem? I didn't even think about it while reading this. Its great that there's no women so far, as such there wont be any horny baits that mc would somehow befriend.

I think that slime, no.26 is a female... Technically not a woman, but still a female XD

 

[Buttsbuttsbuttsbutts]

Honestly I kind of immediately hate this series. Strong incel undertones. The whole thing reeks of a power fantasy from someone who feels excluded from society, especially the way the humans- as an earlier commenter mentioned- are cartoonishly evil. It's bizarre and uncomfortable that the writer never addresses any conflict in the character about killing and eating humans when he was one presumably recently. There's an opportunity in the premise to explore some really interesting conflicts and reckonings with disgust, or if they wanted to horrify the reader, to at least let the humans exist in a complicated and morally neutral form to let the reader grapple with an empathy/disgust conflict. Instead of doing anything with any of this, the writer doesn't even bother explaining how the mc became a xenomorph. The lack of reflection and emotional development mixed with the unnecessary gore in the cat scene (mc loved cats in a past life but has no qualms about killing one in this life?)

It's bizarre to me especially to casually murder the cat when the MC seems to have such an emotional attachment to the research subject. It's really just an empty power fantasy without any true character or conflict development.

 

[SmokeScreenz]

Honestly I kind of immediately hate this series. Strong incel undertones. The whole thing reeks of a power fantasy from someone who feels excluded from society, especially the way the humans- as an earlier commenter mentioned- are cartoonishly evil. It's bizarre and uncomfortable that the writer never addresses any conflict in the character about killing and eating humans when he was one presumably recently. There's an opportunity in the premise to explore some really interesting conflicts and reckonings with disgust, or if they wanted to horrify the reader, to at least let the humans exist in a complicated and morally neutral form to let the reader grapple with an empathy/disgust conflict. Instead of doing anything with any of this, the writer doesn't even bother explaining how the mc became a xenomorph. The lack of reflection and emotional development mixed with the unnecessary gore in the cat scene (mc loved cats in a past life but has no qualms about killing one in this life?)

It's bizarre to me especially to casually murder the cat when the MC seems to have such an emotional attachment to the research subject. It's really just an empty power fantasy without any true character or conflict development.

Why do yall care so much about some stupid ass cat getting eaten when the same happens to humans in this story as well?

Maybe something wrong with you, if eating a cat instead of bunch of humans crosses the line for you.

Eating cats = no no.
Eating humans = alright.

 

[Zeiferl]

pretty good to be honest. the guy is literally a monster who doesnt feel remorse agaisnt anything that is edible. there are not many stories where the mc becames something like that.

 

[DigitalCielo]

I've read a few Manhua's and all I can say is this suffers from style over substance. Panels and images are needlessly long and scenes are extended to waste chapter page space. I get more content out of 2 chapters of One Piece than I do out of 6 chapters of this series. That may not be a fair comparison but it is what it is. Is it an interesting read? Yeah might interest some people. Do I want to keep reading it? No, I don't like having to scroll so much.

 

[Ta123]

10 chapter and yet no Gore tag...

 

[salem5]

Honestly I kind of immediately hate this series. Strong incel undertones. The whole thing reeks of a power fantasy from someone who feels excluded from society, especially the way the humans- as an earlier commenter mentioned- are cartoonishly evil. It's bizarre and uncomfortable that the writer never addresses any conflict in the character about killing and eating humans when he was one presumably recently. There's an opportunity in the premise to explore some really interesting conflicts and reckonings with disgust, or if they wanted to horrify the reader, to at least let the humans exist in a complicated and morally neutral form to let the reader grapple with an empathy/disgust conflict. Instead of doing anything with any of this, the writer doesn't even bother explaining how the mc became a xenomorph. The lack of reflection and emotional development mixed with the unnecessary gore in the cat scene (mc loved cats in a past life but has no qualms about killing one in this life?)

It's bizarre to me especially to casually murder the cat when the MC seems to have such an emotional attachment to the research subject. It's really just an empty power fantasy without any true character or conflict development.

Human can do the most inhumane shit with just the smallest of excuses, No use waxing morals when you are a space alien trying to survive by eating humans who mean jack shit in their own society.
Also, welcome to the isekai genre, it's the definition of gratuitous power fantasy and escapism, being stickler goes against the charme 😂

 

[InstantNootles]

Cat was harmed, 0/10, immediate drop.

 

[Buttsbuttsbuttsbutts]

Why do yall care so much about some stupid ass cat getting eaten when the same happens to humans in this story as well?

Maybe something wrong with you, if eating a cat instead of bunch of humans crosses the line for you.

Eating cats = no no.
Eating humans = alright.

I mean my problem is that the character doesn't grapple with either, not that he committed the killing. I explicitly said it was disappointing that the character didn't grapple with killing humans and that the character also didn't grapple with killing a cat when he loved them, without any explanation. Does the new monster brain feel less empathy? Doesn't make sense since his empathy for the research subject is a big plot point. Did he hate humans when alive? We don't know. There's just literally no character development to explain anything. It's just a totally pointless series of events that tells us nothing about the character, his morals, doesn't engage with any of the interesting points of the plot.

I'm not complaining about the morality of the main character- you can write a story with an evil main character that might be interesting- but that the evil seems random and pointless. For instance there could be an interesting moral relativity question about his need to survive vs the other humans who would also kill him, that would be an interesting question to grapple with, but the manga never goes that route. It raises really interesting moral questions- loving cats previously but then choosing to kill one- but doesn't actually choose to engage with any of it. It's just empty.

The main character might as well be doing a let's play for how low the stakes are. It's just an empty play by play of events.


I was curious because your comment missed a major point of my complaint, and the 'there might be something wrong with you' seemed weirdly salty and I noticed you posted that you thought it was a gem. It's hard to read a bad review of something you liked, and I get that and the urge to defend it. I realize you liked this manga and that's cool, it's not for me, for all the reasons stated. No big, my guy.

 

[Opor97]

Repetitive and boring plot that leads to nowhere. Don't waste your time

 

[Kllick]

Novel raws currently have 424 chapters. Webtoon chapter currently up to novel chapter 19

https://booktoki309.com/novel/2136186?stx=진화하는+우주괴물이+되었다&book=일반소설

 

[uhhhhhhhhhhh789]

OMG. Dozens of humans slaughtered like cattle brutally, but innocent kitty cat gets eaten.. WTF??????????????????????

 

[Redcap]

As other commenters have said, the writing is pretty one-dimensional, and there's several issues with it. (Where are all the women? lol) But amongst it all there is also a certain love for the genre, every panel has another nod to tropes within assymetric 1v4 squad games, isekai power-ups, and several nods to sci-fi classics.

I will say the "cartoonishly evil" comments are a bit off the mark, Weyland-Yutani anybody? We've already seen a couple individuals who seem to just be stuck in shitty environs (the ship mechanics for instance) but given the humans aren't the main characters, they do leave something to be desired. But he has also begun to lay larger plans between governments and organizations that set the Amorph in the crosshairs of several baddies. Also interested to see the development between the Amorph and Specimen 26, there's something there that is only barely beginning to be fleshed out.

All in all I give it a solid 5/7, it's not amazing, and it doesn't really do much new or genre-redefining, but it's just isekai power-fantasy garbage in that aspect, I'm willing to give it time to differentiate itself from other manhwa. It's like the Kumo spider manga if the main character was a bit less likeable, but I'm hoping that developments change my opinion.

Seems decent.

 

[GreenGuitar]

In the midst of endless romcoms, finally something interesting to read. It shines even brighter thx to MC being truly evil and not another revenging retard.

 

[donoghu]

I would give this a 7/10 with a special "unusual" award.
The part where it loose most of its points is that it's suffering from your typical Manhua's plot driven bullshit where the MC magically gets access to what's required to dominate everything.

It's kinda strange though because I feel some nostagia about this story since, in 2016, I worked on a prototype of a game that has some really close affinity with this, but without exactly the same plot's crap.