King of Hell (comics)

, also known as Demon King in some countries, is a Korean manhwa written by Ra In-soo and illustrated by Kim Jae-hwan. In the United States, "King of Hell" was published by Tokyopop.
Plot.
King of Hell, Takes place in the past in the Land of Korea and its corresponding realms of afterlife, commonly referred to as the next world or hell in the manga . The story primarily revolves around Majeh, the envoy to the next world, and his existence as a servant to the King of "Hell".
In the beginning the King of Hell focuses on Majeh's work as the envoy for spirits to the next world and his various other roles as the servant for the King of Hell. As the storyline develops, we learn of Majeh's past life in which he was a legendary swordsman and martial artist. Because of his past life, Majeh, upon his death, was sent to a special realm in the next world. This realm, known as "Moorim of the next world," is reserved for great warriors who past lives were deemed to be either evil or to be a great threat to other and possibly a threat to the Kingdom of Hell. Upon His arrival to Moorim, Majeh was challenged by over 50 warrior at once and he easily defeated them without any struggle. Because of this incident, Majeh was considered to be one of the most dangerous people in Moorim and was removed by the King and made envoy to the next world.
Beginning of the series.
Aware of Majeh's incredible power, the council of the Next World declared that he was too dangerous and placed a seal on him, causing Majeh to revert to his teenage form and suppressing the vast majority of his powers. However, even in his teenage form, Majeh is still an incredible martial artists who has no trouble in defeating most of his opponents as well as any martial artists he may come across in the living world.
Samhuk, A member of Hell's greatest inspection organization, is observing Majeh's movements as he was ordered to by the King of Hell. Early in the manhwa, Samhuk is caught by Majeh and forced to be his slave or die by his hand! Samhuk, being told of Majeh's power, reluctantly agrees and ends up as a slave and a punching bag for Majeh. It is soon discovered that a rift between the two worlds has opened letting demons crossover and Majeh is ordered to hunt them down.
While on his task to rid the world of the newly freed demons, Majeh is ordered to return to Hell where he learn of a new calamity has occurred and Hell's most wicked Demons, those who resided in Moorim, have escaped into the world of Mortals. However, because the escaped fiends are malignant spirits and evil they must find the body of a recently deceased martial artist to fully utilize their lethal martial arts. Majeh is tasked to arrest these formidable enemies to which He refuses.
The King of Hell, with not other choice, tricks Majeh into going back to his preserved body. Upon his return to the mortal world into his old body, Majeh reverts to his teenage form, due to the sealing spell that was placed on his spirit in the next world. Now back in the mortal world, Majeh has no choice but to complete his task, but is now severely disadvantaged due to his body being that of his teenage years.
Martial Arts Tournament Arc.
Shortly after being returned to his body, Majeh meets Chung Poong, a skilled martial arts disciple who is constantly paralyzed with fear in battle, and Dohwa, a female fighter who specialized in the art of poisonous needles.
Just for fun, Majeh decides to accompany them to a martial arts contest which is for fighters under the age of 15. Dohwa, being older, is unable to participate due to the fact that the contest for martial artists over the age of 15 had already finished its registry a day earlier to their arrival. Majeh, his natural state being suppressed to that of a teenage boy, enters the contest with Chung Poong. Also entering the tournament are five martial arts prodigies.
These martial art prodigies are as follows: Crazy Dog (martial artist, no affiliation), Young (assassin, Mooyoung Moon Sect), Dohak (monk, Sorim sect), Poong Chun (Shaman, Shaman Sect), and Baby( ??, Blood Sect). As the tournament progresses, the Majeh meets and learns about some of the prodigies and somewhat of their backgrounds. Meanwhile, in the backgrounds of the tournament, it seems that there are people undermining the tournament to ultimately cause a rift between the light and dark sects to put into motion a possible war between the two factions. The tournament itself if being held by one of the light sects and one if it seminaries Mo Young, a good man who believes that there are forces that are trying to start a war in the world but is unsure to what end.
After two day of the tournament, two of the five prodigies, Poong Chun (defeated by Majeh) and Dohak (Defeated by Crazy Dog), and as well as Chung Poong were eliminated from the tournament. The next fights were Majeh versus Crazy Dog, and Young versus Baby. The fight between Young and Baby resulting in Young resigning stating "My senses are telling me it would be a mistake fighting you." The fight between Majeh and Crazy Dog does not finish as the tournament is interrupted by one of the Moorim demons. Crazy dog is killed by the demon when he attacks him for interfering in his and Majeh's fight.
The fight that ensues is the hardest that Majeh has had yet in the Manhwa. And it is soon realized the power gap between Majeh (in his current form) and the Moorim Demon. Mo Young attempts to intervene but is quickly out matched. Samhuk leaves and informs the King of Hell of the situation and the king informs Samhuk that hope is not lost, because as Majeh gets closer to the line between life and death, the special seal that limits his power weakens and Majeh is allowed to return to his adult form. The end result is that the Moorim demon is no match for Majeh in his adult form.
Missing martial artists.
After the martial arts tournament, the assassin prodigy, Young, tags along with Majeh to find missing martial artists while Dohwa and Chung Poong go on a side mission to find a magical tablet that will help make them stronger. Majeh and Young uncover the crimes and plans of an old group called the Sa Gok, a group thought to have been wiped out, this group plans to rule the world by eliminating both the White and Dark Sects, they were planning new plots to go on with their task. The Sa Gok had turned the missing martial artists into zombies and would use them to start a Great War between the "good" and "evil" sects in Korea.
Majeh then dragged Young out to Devil Mountain to investigate rumors of a tomb recently found there. This is where the title King of Pa Chun first comes up, a legendary swordsman from 300 years before who rocked the martial arts world. The funny thing is that Majeh happens to know exactly where the King of Pa Chun and his legendary sword was buried and it is not in Devil Mountain. Majeh eventually reveals to all of his fellow treasure hunters, including Chung Poong and Dohwa, that the rumors of a tomb and treasure were an elaborate trap.
Majeh was able to stop the Great War cold then left to continue hunting down the remaining six escaped fiends. The first one he encounters is the old man that interrupts the young dragon tournament. He encounters another fiend while on a side errand for the martial arts leader and helps the monk it was trying to possess destroy the fiend completely. He encounters two more on Raven Ghost Ilse leaving only three (the second one was defeated by the "heaven sage" monk at his death) more for him to find. The only problem is that to get enough power to defeat them he has to die.
Volumes.
Each volume includes new and old faces from the previous volumes. However, many of the characters introduced are never seen in the subsequent later volumes as they are killed off are never mentioned again. Majeh, the main character opts to travel with two specific people beginning in the timeline of volume 3 in which he meets the coward Chung Poong Namgoong and the femme fatale Dohwa Baik. As the manhwa progresses, other characters such as Young, Crazy Dog, Cerberus and occasionally Baby, are often seen accompanying Majeh on his journey.
There are currently 47 volumes available from Champ Comics in Korea. Before Tokyopop shut down their North American publishing facility, they had published up to 22 volumes of the series. It is currently unknown if the series will be picked up by another English-language publisher.