Heart Gear Volume 3 by Tsuyoshi Takaki

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Roue, the last human and her combat android Chrome continue their search for Heaven Land.  Their current goal is earning earn safe passage to paradise through victory in the combat arena Valhalla.  The pair have been split up as Valhalla’s ruler Wodan recognises their potential, Roue tucked away in the stronghold and Chrome smashing up foes in the Colosseum.  Soon or later they will have to contend with Hildr, a war general and Wodan’s main obstacle.  She might be the duo’s greatest ally… provided she and Chrome avoiding killing each other as part of Wodan’s scheme.

There are many way to capture an audience’s attention.  Takaki chooses to do this through explosive action and artistic flourishes.  From the heart-shaped shimmer in Roue’s eyes to the application of dotted screen tone for highlighting shadows and hair; this is the volume where I started to really appreciate the smaller details within this style.  An arena duel between rivals who both need to win but wish they could be teaming up to fight the real villain is the most straightforward plot an action series can have. While Chrome’s tin-man blandness remains an issue its Hildr’s stoicism that ends up being effective.  Outside their duel, Volume 3 is Takaki developing the divide between Hildr and Wodan as potential commanders of Valhalla.  With humanity gone these machines built solely for military leadership have to decide what that means.  More importantly they have to define what it means to live in a post-human wasteland.  Should they remain enslaved to meaningless goals in a changing world?  Should they strive to evolve and individualise beyond their core impulses even if could spell disaster later? The dialectic argument has more bite to it than most the ethical musings in the series as it is an actual argument fuelling the narrative.  Rather than someone bombarding the 12-year old Roue with questions nobody can answer.  

This is also where the science fiction aspects of the series get cast by the wayside.  As it goes along Heart Gear feels more and more like fantasy story that just so happens to have robots in it.  Science-Fantasy is a respectable genre,  but it does fell that Takaki needed to introduce cyberspace landscapes that impact the physical world to find interesting ways of framing conversations in his limited desert world.  Especially significant when his main creative obstacle is that his current villain doesn’t have a human face to emote with.  Things are getting more interesting but exhaustion is starting to set in with this series.  

ABARA by Tsutomu Nihei

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Tsutomu Nihei’s superhero blockbuster.  This 11-chapter series follows a young man called Denji quietly living in a city so vast and ancient its towering buildings are considered the natural landscape.  Denji’s routine is disrupted when an attack by a monstrous crustacean known as Gauna forces a shadowy government representative, Nayuta, to beg for his help. Exposed as a Human-Gauna hybrid, Denji’s brutal fight to protect his city makes him the target of a police investigation. while he is hunted by the higher-ups in Nayuta’s agency trying to maintain control of his unique power.  

An alarming amount of ABARA’s plot will sound familiar to those who have read Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Chainsaw Man series. Fujimoto has acknowledged this as a major influence on his bestselling series and that alone makes it interesting to re-examine years later. ABARA’s story is sparse and the ending is naff.  However it is a strong showcase for Nihei as an illustrator.  In his previous series, BLAME!, Nihei gained notoriety for his landscapes and megastructures as his characters were dwarfed by the scale of their hauntingly bleak world. ABARA gleefully inverts the dynamic.  Powerful figures leap tall buildings in a single bound and treat this haunted and decaying world like their playground. Nihei fulling embraces this newfound freedom throughout.  Once you get into his rhyme the hypersonic action scenes become a delight.  Armoured titans leap through a stark necrotic city slicing off limbs and ripping each other open at impossible speeds. Nihei intelligently contrasts this with the quiet brooding and sudden bloodshed of the more human cast, ensuring that the violence never becomes weightless.  

While the grim beauty of his worlds has netted Nihei praise he has always been criticised for his people. Specifically their incredibly vacant facial expressions. Fortunately, the stoic professionals populating ABARA’s cast use this limited range of blank stares to great success as they process shock, rage or stonefaced confusion in ways that is either evocative or funny.  Showing that in the right environment an author’s biggest liability can become a benefit while enabling the greatest strengths.  Newcomers wanting a succinct introduction to Nihei’s style and long time fans desperate to see him cut loose on a straight forward action will find ABARA a perfect choice.  Just expect the sudden and unsatisfying conclusion and enjoy the ride.

The hardcover also includes the two-part story Digimortal. Noticeably more straightforward and far more goth than ABARA, Digimortal lacks the pulse-pounding action of the main feature. It does, however, benefit from just being a peek into a wider world of corporate religious rule, and the assassins fighting against it.  The more limited scope, combined with not having to have a definitive conclusion means it does come together quite well. A neat extra to a solid series that comes to an unsatisfying conclusion, that doesn’t really detract from its merit.

Punisher: Blood on the Moors

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Written by Alan Grant and John Wagner, Art by Cam Kennedy, Lettered by Jim Novak and Edited by Nel Yomtov and Richard Ashford. Published December 1991

Frank Castle is stumbling through an inch of snow in the Scottish Highlands, strung out cocaine and drunk on whiskey. He blames this predicament on Crime before promptly passing out. Until proven otherwise this is the greatest first page of any Punisher story.

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Batman: The Jiro Kuwata Manga: Volume One

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Capitalising on the Batman craze of the 1960s, Jiro Kuwata’s manga is a fascinating piece of work. Combining the charm of Adam West with propulsive action results in a string of exciting adventures for the Dynamic Duo. Dismissing this as camp would like a disservice.  The stories may show their age but as Kuwata’s depictions of death-defying heroism are as exhilarating as any modern Bat-Book. And his panache for dreamscapes and his ability explore Batman’s subconscious mind and subjective experience tap into ideas that have become foundational to The Dark Knight’s most cerebral and acclaimed sagas over the decades.

The dialogue is often declarative and interpersonal drama is non-existent.  At the same time it is punchy and direct, with possibly the most emotionally well balanced depiction of Bruce Wayne you can find. This is a Batman who books himself a vacation if he’s stressed after solving a case so he can unwind before getting back to work.  With a cheerful and confident Robin along for the ride the legendary tag-team are having a ball.

While their characterisations are extremely broad many of the villains debuting here are incredibly charismatic. The only weak link being Doctor Faceless with his unsatisfactory runaround plot. The series begins strong with Lord Death Man; the fiendish robber’s swaggering bombast makes him a delight to read while, his eerie cackling combined with Batman’s aforementioned nightmares regarding impermanent death ensure the man in a skeleton costume is a legit menace. He has since been plucked from obscurity to appear in more modern DC titles (recently in the 2024 Robin series dating the Boy Wonder’s grandmother), yet, despite Kuwata’s flexible approach to tone, Lord Death Man is not the best villain to appear in this 350-page tome. That honour goes to the mighty Karmak, who posses the unique quality of being a funny concept that becomes increasingly terrifying while still being a good laugh. If the later volumes can maintain this quality then the BatManga will have cemented itself as an overlooked classic. But this collection alone is worth reading both as a piece of transpacific pop-culture history and as well as just being an excellent superhero comic.

Soara and House of Monsters Volume 4 by Hidenori Yamaji – 

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Dwarf architects continue their adventures in domestic renovations with their human assistant and bodyboard Soara.  Volume 4 marks a sharp departure from previous instalments while still doing everything right. House of Monsters has playfully nudged towards a possible continent-wide crisis linked to our heroine’s origins before swiftly dismissing it. Always prioritising Soara’s self-discovery as she and the dwarfs encounter whimsical creatures in dire need of DIY solutions.  

Volume 4 opens a cloaked figure ambushing the party, forcing Soara into an explosive showdown. The monster battle she’s trained for her whole life but fought to protect her compatriots instead of a nation. While Soara herself is baffled by this new attacker the artisan trio are better informed due to events from their childhood. The book transitions into an extended refection on these past events through the eyes of their leading architect, Kirik. Sprawling out of Kirik’s chance encounter with the charismatic and lively Prince Leonidas of the Kingdom; their tale explores the Dwarf homeland, architecture, culture, royal family, even highlighting political disputes over trade routes. 

Pausing to dig up the past is often the exact opposite of progress for an ongoing story.  But Hidenori Yamaji ensures this flashback arc constantly resonates with his series’ core focus.  Kirik’s childhood determination to succeed in a career ill-suiting his weak muscles and small stature sharply contrasts with Soara’s lifetime of military training leaving her completely ill-equipped to handle the real world or find any identity in a peaceful kingdom.

Yamaji’s exceptionally charming artwork and adapt control of tone ensuring all develops feel effortlessly graceful.  Sadly there is a lack of home renovations in this Volume. The attempted compromise is lavish double-page spends detailing the various locations within the dwarf capital… yet illustrations of underground industrial-scale forges cannot replace a werewolf needing help managing his beachside property.  In spite of that absolutely nothing feels wasteful or unnecessary here. Much like Kirik’s hero, Prince Leonidas, Soara and House of Monsters continues doing whatever it wants with such confidence you feel compelled to follow along. Emphatically recommended.

Heart Gear Volumes 1 and 2 by Tsuyoshi Takaki

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Tsuyoshi Takaki’s debut for Black Torch, an urban fantasy series about anti-demon paramilitary shenanigans, has charming but failed to catch on.  He returns with Heart Gear; a post-apocalyptic tale about the last known human journeying across the wastelands with her android protector. It doesn’t win awards for originality, the fabled city Roue and Chrome want to reach is visually similar to Zalem from Battle Angel Alita. Volume 1 suffers from the common problem with manga where extended first chapter establishes basic premise, followed the author trying to find their footing with simple episodic adventures with further basic exposition before the final pages tease a focused overarching plot is forthcoming.  Thankfully Heart Gear has solid action and cool machines rampaging through a desolate white landscape. Chrome might be a bland character but sometimes all you need is a guy on rocket stakes dodging rail-cannon from an insane Armored Core boss to keep the reader engaged.

Volume 2 achieves better results with its episodic structure.  Around Chapter 10 the series changes gears; introducing a bored security camera experimenting with cinematography to give a quirky new perspective on events. This coincides with palace intrigue around the gladiatorial arena, Valhalla, and its tyrannical ruler Wodan. The fragile relationships between Valhalla and the other powerbrokers expressing their interests capturing in Roue and Chrome gives Wodan some panache.  The metal overlord might seem dull but he is silently weighing up conflicting interests.  He needs to plot around other factions while guessing at their intentions and figuring out how to exploit this current moment without accidentally provoking retaliation.  The conflict gets more layered while Takaki’s character designs get wilder and crazier in the arena.  So seemingly this is where Heart Gear truly begins. While not outstanding it has done enough to string me along for now.