God, I wanted to like Valentine's wife. It's very rare to see an LGTB+ character in shonen. But we ended up with a character who is hypersexual, makes sexual advances on a minor, and dies an excessively violent death. I don't think Araki set out with bad intentions, but he definitely dropped the ball.
Outside of that, this volume did a lot right. We got a full book of action where the majority of the cast is female. Lucy has won a lot of points with me due to her sheer tenacity. The mission to steal the president's heart, which is also the heart of Christ (symbolism!), is thrilling. Lucy is a child struggling to get by in an adult world, both in terms of social standing and in terms of stand powered violence. Nobody has her side and everybody is taking advantage of her. She's way in over her head, leaving me on the edge of my seat for the entire thing.
While I wasn't big on Hot Pants, she's won me over recently as well. Her battle with Tube Boy was similarly exciting. While a major character, it does feel as though she could plausibly die before the later stages of story. So this was an instance where Jojo's tendency to gruesomely injure its cast felt thrilling. When Giorno's arms were cut off in the fight against B.I.G., I was annoyed because I knew he would end up being fine and he had taken such a horrible injury for no reason. When Hot Pants's arms were cut off, I was flipping out because I legitimately believed she was done for.
While I expected Tubular Bells to be a dull stand, it ended up making for one of the most exciting battles in Steel Ball Run. Such a weirdly specific power gets put to great use. It's kind of like the brilliance of Luffy. You take a seemingly useless power and just turn it into gold.
Starting Wrecking Ball, I feel like there's a bit of parallel between Johnny and Gryo vs Wekapipo and Magenta Magenta. There's the obvious comparison of Gyro and Wekapipo both using steel balls, but the random humorous small talk between Wekapipo and Magenta reminds me of the dynamic between the two protagonists. It's a solid set up. I almost kind of wish we'd have gotten to see them bump into each other a few times before the big fight, but it's not a big deal.
The word I keep coming back to for this volume is thrilling. Be it Lucy's infiltration or the battle with Tubey Bells. The violence for this volume had been cranked up to 11, and the heroes felt more vulnerable than ever, making for an intense read.