Writer: Rick Remender / Artist: Sean Murphy / Image Comics
Rick Remender’s cyberpunk, action romance, Tokyo Ghost has hit the ground running, simultaneously effective as a techno-thriller and a parable for our internet-obsessed culture. The plot has taken some interesting twists and turns while giving us some compelling backstory, strongest when the focus is on Led and Debbie’s turbulent relationship. But as is the case in most Remender books, nothing lasts forever. Shit gets real.
Issue #4 forgoes much of the Led/Debbie romance dynamic as Led’s famously violent past as a constable comes back to bite him in the ass at the worst possible time. The action picks up in a major way, but is just slightly hindered by the amount of exposition. Still, Remender sufficiently conveys that this is setting up to be one of those “our hero cannot have nice things” ever. It would have been nice to get a little more of the romance and rebuilding we got in #3, but honestly the action was visceral and rather traumatizing (in the context of the plot) enough that you’re left fufilled. Meanwhile, you have Sean Murphy doing the Lord’s Work with his pencils. The panels for the action beats work in such a fluid manner, but my only real complaint with the visuals is that we didn’t get as many of the splash scenes that had us falling in love with this book in the first place. When you have Sean Murphy and Matt Hollingsworth at your disposal and you don’t give us some gorgeous backgrounds, you’re doing your book a disservice.
Bottom Line: The story is still pretty compelling and the action was pretty entertaining but the execution wasn’t quite as tight this month. Still a good book overall, though.
8 Last Samurai Sendups out of 10
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