Saturday, June 28, 2008

Manga — JoJo's Bizarre Adventure : Stardust Crusaders

Weighing in at almost the same length as the previous two volumes combined, the third volume brings us forwards about another 50 years, and another two generations of JoJos -- Joseph (far right above) now accompanies his grandson (to his left) Jotaro and others in an epic trek across Asia to Egypt, where the revived Dio Brando -- his head posing fabulously on the body of Jonathan Joestar (below) -- is causing long-distant harm to Jotaro's mother.

And this time, instead of the ripple powers, all the significant participants have "Stands" -- second magical selves that are the focus of some super powers, second selves that can project at some varying distance from the person; so we work through the Greater Trumps and the Ennead as inspirations for Stands in a running battle from Tokyo to the streets of Cairo (including one bizarre episode where Dio hijacks the car of an American senator, and manages to find a sidewalk to drive along, to bypass a traffic jam).

There is also a bonus "Where's Wally?" (Waldo for the USAns) moment

Overall -- it didn't grab quite like the previous volumes, possibly because of the length before anything was resolved, though it was still fun, with the most bizarre and stylish -- and occasionally disgusting -- fight scenes (in the general sense, when combats included video games and poker).

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