Bastard Samurai Volume 1

by Michael Avon Oeming, Miles Gunter, Kelsey Shannon

Jiro is a student of the KoZu Sword School, an underground training camp in midtown Manhattan that takes in orphans and twists and transforms them into Bushido warriors. The Yakuza use these kids in death matches staged across the city rooftops where Japanese businessmen gamble heavily on the always-fatal outcome. This killing life is all Jiro has ever known. But a rendezvous with fate is about to change all of that. In one moment Jiro realizes that everything he has lived for is a lie.The Samurai live by the Bushido code, one of which is the righting of wrongs. Now with the only ally he has-his sword--Jiro is forced to make the hardest decision of his life.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels

112 pages, Paperback

First published February 15, 2003

About the author

Michael Avon Oeming is an American comic book creator, both as an artist and writer.

His 1998 comic book Bulletproof Monk was made into a film of the same name.

The previous mentioned collaborations are The Mice Templar from Image Comics, which he draws and co-authors with Bryan J.L. Glass,[1] and Powers from Icon Comics which he draws, and sometimes co-authors, with Brian Bendis. His creator-owned projects include Rapture, on which he collaborated with his wife, Taki Soma,[2] and The Victories, both for Dark Horse Comics.

As of 2010, he is employed as a staff member of Valve Corporation, working on Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2 and Portal 2 webcomics.

Reviews

[Shawn M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This should have been a one shot and even then it would have sucked. It felt so rushed that at the end they just added needless filler to meet the requirements. Some art panels looked cool reason I did not give it a one star.

[N. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weird one. Not sure where I found this. But I found it amusing that the love interest is so sketchy even Jiro questioned whether she raped him in his sleep. This comic feels grimy and I need a bath.

Good read.

Everything's confusing.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars for Mike Avon Oeming's art
2.5 stars for the script
A hyper-violent yakuza/American gangland tale of death & blood. Subtitled 'Samurai Noir' the kinetic artwork lends that some credence, but basically this is a 90s action B-movie on paper.

[Joseph Szabo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Simon Kinberg wrote in his introduction that Bastard Samurai was: "A book as graphic and cinematic and visually-arresting as any flick out there!"

Mr. Kinberg is right about all those points. It's the plot, characters and themes of Bastard Samurai that are not very interesting.

I guess the author had to make sacrifices.

If you want all the things in the Kinberg's quote plus excellence in plot, characters and theme, read Frank Miller's Samurai-Influenced/Science Fiction work called Ronin.

It's much, much better.

[Chadwick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kinda enh, actually, but Oeming is such a good visual storyteller that it all works.