Golgo 13, Vol. 1: Supergun

Golgo 13 (VIZ - 13 Volumes) #1

by Takao Saito

Golgo 13, the world's greatest assassin for hire, never fails a job and never sees his clients again, unless they try and betray him.

Genres: Manga, Comics, Crime, Action, Fiction, Graphic Novels, Mystery

208 pages, Paperback

First published February 7, 2006

About the author

Takao Saito (斎藤隆夫, さいとう・たかを) is a famous mangaka, creator of Golgo 13.

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

Προσωπικά έχω διαβάσει τις δύο σειρές που παρουσίασα παραπάνω από την LEED και την Viz, με κάποια μεγαλύτερη συμπάθεια προς αυτήν της LEED επειδή και λόγω χρονολογίας κυκλοφορίας μου δίνει το αυθεντικό αίσθημα παραπάνω. H Viz έριξε αρκετή ψηφιοποίηση στα χρώματα, κάτι που το απολαμβάνω αλλά σε μερικά σημεία είναι πολύ έντονες οι εναλλαγές μεταξύ των καρέ και σε συνδυασμό με το συμπυκνωμένο σχέδιο των Ιαπώνων, φορτώνεται το κόμικ και κουράζει. Ο Golgo είναι ο κλασσικός αγέλαστος τύπος που δεν εκφράζει ποτέ τα συναισθήματα του,γυμασμένος και γεμάτος ουλές από τα βασανιστήρια που έχει υποστεί , ξεφεύγει πάντα από τις πιο απίθανες και στριμωγμένες καταστάσεις. Φτάνει σε σημείο να καμπυλώνει την πορεία της σφαίρας (Βλέπε την ταινία Wanted) και γενικά το σενάριο είναι πολύ ευφάνταστο γεμάτο με πολιτική δολοπλοκία και με επικές σκηνές και ατάκες. Συγκεκριμένα προτείνω από την πρώτη σειρά το Galinpero με δύο κατασκοπικές ιστορίες, η μία από τις πρώτες του από τα 60s,και η δεύτερη πιο ντετεκτιβική,σχετικά με την δολοφονία ενός διπλωμάτη στην Νέα Υόρκη.

Γενικώς και οι δύο εκδόσεις ακολουθούν ένα φορμάτ των 1+1 ιστοριών, με την πρώτη να αφορά τις απαρχές του Golgo και την δεύτερη πιο εκσυγχρονισμένη να αφορά τον πλέον επαγγελματία Golgo σε σενάρια πολύ μεγαλύτερης κλίμακας σε επίπεδο χαρακτήρων και πολυπλοκότητας της υπόθεσης. Σε όποιον αρέσει να διαβάζει crime/detective/espionage κόμικς, προτείνω ανεπιφύλακτα αυτή τη σειρά manga, θα την απολαύσει ιδιαίτερα και θα την διαβάσει πολύ γρήγορα γιατί τα τεύχη είναι λίγα και φεύγουν νεράκι(ναι είναι τόσο καλή η ροή). Το μόνο μου παράπονο είναι ότι η πλύση εγκεφάλου που άρχισαν να υφίστανται οι Ιάπωνες σχετικά με την Αμερικανική κουλτούρα και την αποδοχή της στις αρχές του 1970, είναι εμφανής στο κόμικ σε περισσότερα σημεία από όσο θα ήθελα.

[Mateen Mahboubi · Rating 2 out of 5]

So apparently Viz decided to just translate and publish a “greatest hits” of sorts of this long-running manga but I don’t know how they chose these two because I can hardly understand how they thought that these two would be the best way to introduce English-language readers to the series. Two strange stories.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic action/adventure manga. It looks like even though this says Volume 1, it's just volume 1 of an American "best of" type collection, as the two stories were randomly selected from the hundreds of Golgo 13 stories published in Japan. While I'd rather have seen a sequential English language collection starting from the beginning, I suppose I'll have to take what I can get.

Golgo 13 is an assassin, a James Bond type character who is legendary in the world of spies and law enforcement. To me the biggest flaw in the series is how Golgo 13 is made out to be practically superhuman, but I suppose that's what this type of story is about. But did we really need to know about his amazing penis??

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Golgo 13: Supergun

Just a quick one. I am hardly an expert on Manga films. In total, the animé feature films I have watched could be counted on one hand. And I hate to admit, my ignorance of Manga comics is even greater. But Golgo 13 is a character whose adventures I have enjoyed, and when I saw a copy of one of the Manga comics I had to pick it up. Now Golgo 13 has been carrying out ‘hits’ for over four decades, and as the cover of this book states that it was ‘created’ by Takao Saito, rather than ‘written’ by, I’d guess these adventures were put together by some new kids on the block. I say ‘these’ because there are two stories in the book, the first major story is The Gun At Am Shara and the second lesser one is called Hit And Run.

What surprised me about the book is that it doesn’t take place in a fictional universe, it happens in our world and uses real events as a backdrop. The major story, The Gun At Am Shara uses the aftermath of the Gulf War as it’s setting and Saddam Hussein as a villain. The President of the United States, although never named, looks a lot like Bill Clinton.

The Supergun is not a reference to Golgo 13’s marksmanship, or even the weapon he is carrying on the front cover. It refers to a gigantic cannon built by Saddam Hussein and hidden at a secret dam facility in Iraq. Once again I was very surprised by the story. From the films, I had an impression of the type of story I would get, but this is just a bloody good espionage story. The beginning could come from a movie like The Peacemaker or Patriot Games with high tech satellite imaging, and boffins interpreting the intel. In fact the first 50 pages of the book are filled with this – and while it is fascinating and laying down a nice platform for the story, it also means that we are 50 pages into the story before Golgo 13 makes an appearance.

Golgo’s mission? Well it’s not a hit – is to go into Iraq and destroy the cannon, but not the dam. In this story, Golgo is not a hitman, but employed by the American Government as a secret agent. It’s a bit of a character turn-around, and I don’t know if this is ‘updating’ the character for a modern audience - as we a living in a time of ‘terror’, or simply the ‘new kids’ who have written this tale, have not been particularly faithful to Saito’s original character.

I really enjoyed this book, but not as a Golgo 13 adventure. As you’d be aware by now, that I love my spy films and books, and on that level, this book really satisfies, but as a Golgo 13 story (from my limited experience) this appears to be very different.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Has a spread dedicated to how great Golgo 13's penis is. No joke

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This viz series collects some of the best Golgo stories from its decades-long history, but the two chosen here make a poor introduction to the character.

The first, super gun, is a political thriller involving Sadam Hussein, bill Clinton, and a scientist who looks like Henry Kissinger. It’s overly long and boring, with Golgo barely making an appearance. The political stuff is totally cliched, like a fourth-rate Tom Clancy.

The second story, much shorter, is also a lot better, featuring a more natural arena for Golgo — the criminal underworld. It’s actually pretty clever how it plays out, but

*SPOILER*


Golgo isn’t even in this one at all. Ha!


*/SPOILER*

So, if you’re not already familiar with Golgo, I don’t think this volume is going to make a whole lot of sense. The 1983 movie is a much better starting point.

Golgo 13 is in some ways a similar character to Kenshiro from fist of the North Star. Both are the strong, silent, invincible type and both serve as avenging angels of sorts. Much of the appeal of their mangas derives from anticipating the punishment the duo inflicts on villains, and so a lot of time is spent establishing their villainy, their initial confidence, and their dawning fear and desperation as judgement draws near. But while Ken fights to protect the innocent, Golgo only works for cold hard cash.

[Kirk · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know this series has been around a while, so I was a bit surprised to see stories that relate to historical events that I believe come well after this character’s origin.

The stories themselves are interesting, but the character is just passé for me, just your typical Bond type character who is perfect in every way, cold and calculating . . . all the bullshit you probably expect from this archetype.

I have never understood the appeal of it.

Luckily, he isn’t in the first story too much. He just swoops in to bang a chick and shoot shit. Then he’s gone.

So mysterious.

So manly.

There’s still a lot to offer here though. The artwork is fun and the political/military drama in the first story was refreshing compared to what I normally read, so I may pick up another volume some time.

[Niche · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're not familiar with Golgo, he's basically a Japanese hard boiled secret agent super sniper. The plots feel like a hard boiled James Bond, closer to the book version rather than the movies as being more "serious" and few if any gadgets. The appeal for me, as it were, is that he's so hardboiled and hypermasculine that it circles around to ridiculous corny/campy territory (though it's entirely unintentional). The character bio/dossier at the end pretty much sums up his Gary Stu super intellect, skill, strength, and "amazing penis" (that's a quote) that makes women helpless.

This manga series is apparently a picked collection, which doesn't lend itself to someone not familiar with character. The first story has lengthy intro about a giant cannon being built in Iraq that's capable of striking the US with bioweapons. The second shorter story is about a detective wanting revenge on a mob boss involved in a hit-and-run.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Careful What You Wish For…

G13 went on assignment to infiltrate Iraq and take out Saddam Hussein’s guns. Genius behind the gun design was killed by his apprentice who worship, and wants to use it for glory. Only he won’t go far. Not when G13’s got him in his crosshairs. The next story, Hit and Run, the gangster was out joyriding with his girlfriend, and accidentally struck a woman crossing a street. He ran of course. The PI’s out for revenge for his fiancé in hospital. Puts word out that he’s got Golgo 13 on contract for the gangster’s life. Like magic, the gangster got scared. Read the rest if you want to find out. Still fun to read the series again.

[Ben Zimmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this more than I thought I would. I feel like it's like the Japanese equivalent of Tom Clancy, but because of that it doesn't have any of the jingoism, and it kind of rips. It also doesn't have any of the military tech fetishization, as illustrated by a sniper whose signature weapon is an M-16. It was surprisingly fresh for something that so obviously follows a formula. This is sort of a greatest hits compilation of the series, since it hasn't all been released in English. I'm sure there are some real duds in the original run, but what was here made me want to read more.

[Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

at any rate, an amazing penis

[Joshua Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

a manga that felt more like a euro comic

[Natalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I honestly have no idea on how I feel about this book. This manga didn't keep me interested because there wasn't much there. So this review will be very short.

What to say about this manga . . . Well, it was okay at best. It wasn’t horrible or anything like that but it wasn’t interesting enough for me to be to want to finish this manga series.

In a nutshell, this is basically James Bond but manga style. The main character is mysterious, a powerful assassin, a ladies man, and a kickass strategist. There’s not much to this guy really. He’s badass and there’s little known about him . . . and that’s about it.

The other characters, they’re not interesting either. I’m not sure you can even all them characters really. They just appear, serve their purpose and that’s it. So as you can see, the character cast is very tiny.

There’s not much to the story either. It’s just the main character taking jobs while also having this mysterious past that no one seems to know. But I do admit that he’s very creative and resourceful on how he gets his job done. Just looking at the strategies he uses is always fun and I do enjoy those parts. The other scenes, not so much.

I can’t find anything else to say about it. It wasn’t bad, you either find it enjoyable or you don’t. For me, I just didn’t find it that interesting.

[Jonah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had it in my head that Viz would have started their translation of the Golgo manga with the beginning (it started publication in 1969), but it begins in the Clinton era. At first I was a bit disappointed, but Viz only intended to release thirteen (get it?) volumes of Golgo's "greatest hits" (someone at Viz has a sense of humor and managed to sneak it past their boss). Anyhow, in Japan, Golgo is already up to 163 volumes, so there is no way Viz could hope to get it all published, especially in such a depressed market and limited appeal to a younger demographic (no gender-bending, reverse-harem moe lolita goth maids, etc. blah blah blah).

They do a great job with what they do present, however, and there is fun supplementary material at the end of the volume regarding Golgo's past aliases, cover-professions, method of operations, operational strengths and physical characteristics - my favourite observation under the latter section:

[line pointing to Golgo's groin]
"Lures all the women in the world to the "height of ecstasy"; at any rate, an amazing penis."

Oh, and he's also the world's top assassin.

Lots of historical players from the Gulf War era feature in the main story of this first volume.

I even learned some fun facts about artillery tech. from WWII.

[Samantha wickedshizuku Tolleson · Rating 3 out of 5]

We start off with Chapter 1: Operation Big Safe.
Meet Golgo 13, smoker, womanizer, and Special Agent. We're immediately dropped into the scene of an ambush, and Golgo is left only in his drawers to figure out an escape route. The year is currently 1966, and Golgo is discussed between officials trying to figure out who he is, what he does, and who is next on his list.
The British government orders a hit on one of Hitler's men who managed to escape his War Crimes.
The art-style isn't one of my favorites, but my husband always goes crazy over this anime when ever a spy mood hits my fancy. Very old school in its manner.
Check it out, and it just might be to your taste.

[CountZeroOr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Golgo 13 is entertaining in spite of it's main character. The art is very well done, and the characters are interesting... except for Duke Togo. Golgo 13 is generally a dull Gary Stu. The way that characters repond and react to his presence is more interesting then the character himself, to the point that of the two stories in this volume, the most interesting one is the one that Golgo doesn't appear in at all.

I'd certainly recommend reading the manga. However, after reading it, at the suggestion of Helen McCarthy, I cannot, for the life of me, see the appeal of Duke Togo outside of being a wish fulfillment character for people with limited imagination.

[Víctor Segovia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Desde que leí sobre el presente personaje en una reseña en la página llamada "La Guía del Cómic" me quedé con las ganas de leer algo; inlcuso de retomar ver anime por la serie que llleva su nombre.

El presente libro no es más que el primero de una colección de grandes relatos de acción y suspenso del mejor asesino a sueldo y su rifle m16 modificado a funciones de rifle de francotirador. Una colección de la cual no sé cuantos tomos sean pero que me gustaría tener, al menos, unos cuantos más.

[নাজমুল হাসান · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very much influenced by James Bond 007, this asian spy/assassin thriller is quite average in my opinion. Don't know why it has had such a long run and large following. Maybe old school fans loved it for its antique value. Most of plot twists are kinda cliche and can be seen from miles away. I might just have a look at the next volume and decide if I should continue or drop it.

[Erik · Rating 2 out of 5]

The two stories here are ok, but the characterization is nonexistent. The main character has no personality, and the supporting cast pops in and out only to advance the plot. On top of that, the shot Golgo 13 takes in the first story is really ridiculous.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book but became too cheap to buy the rest of the series. T_T

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a great series, but why the fuck isn't it released in chronological order? Give me the whole series, dammit!