Lone Wolf and Cub Omnibus Volume 1

Like a lot of people, I first became aware of Lone Wolf and Cub by watching Shogun Assassin. I was working in a movie store, and a regular customer would talk about martial arts and samurai movies with me regularly, and one day, he came in to lend me his copy of Shogun Assassin. I’d never seen anything like it before, and fell in love with the character of Ogami Itto, who may very well be the original one-man army character. I looked up as much info as I could about it, and found out that it was actually an edited version of portions of a series called Lone Wolf and Cub, which was based on a very long comic series. I set out to read the comics in no time, and quickly became addicted. About 10 years has passed since I finished the series, and now that these huge collections have been released, I’m going though it again to see how it holds up. I’m happy to say that this comic, which started all the way back in 1970(!) very much holds up, and a lot of comic artists and writers could learn a thing or two by reading just one story in any of these volumes.Ogami Itto was the shogun’s executioner, and has chose to live the path of an assassin, offering his sword and son, Daigoro, to anyone willing to pay for his services. Itto has more than enough skill to deal with the most feared foes, armed with his dotanuki sword and expert tactics. He does whatever it takes to get the job done, even if it means appearing weak. One case has him allowing himself to be captured by the enemy, dismantling them from the inside out once he’s in their lair. Another has him entering a prison with some of the toughest criminals out there, getting unceremoniously beaten, then allowing himself to get put on death row after he kills a few of the guys that beat him after he gets the info he needs. The funny thing is, with all these dangerous situations, the guy’s rarely in any serious trouble because he’s just -that- good. This first volume of the Lone Wolf and Cub Omnibus contains 16 chapters in the series, with each chapter showing why Ogami Itto is probably the baddest fictional dude to grace any form of media.As much as I could go on about how awesome the brutal fights are in this series, I think that everyone gets that by now. Fights are over very quickly in Lone Wolf and Cub, making you wonder what happened to manga where many fights are drawn out over the course of several books in some cases, usually just to showcase how powerful characters are, or worse- letting characters “power up” over several chapters. Goseki Kojima does a fantastic job showing how skilled Itto is with any weapon in just a couple of panels, never wasting a single space with unnecessary flash. Kazoo Koike’s writing is top-notch, and there is some very clever stuff in here. Ogami Itto isn’t a mindless killing machine- he has reasons for doing things the way he does them, and the majority of what he does in this volume is all planned out in advance. There were a lot of times I found myself smiling because of how tricky something was.To be completely honest, I loved every single chapter here except for one which felt like a short filler episode. But even that one wasn’t bad by any means. It just wasn’t anywhere near as good as the others. Some of my favorite were:-Chapter 5: Suio School Zanbato. Ogami Itto has a duel with a high ranking samurai, even getting a written note from the guy stating that he agreed to the duel. After dispatching him, the samurai’s men seek revenge on Itto, planning to ambush him on horses.-Chapter 8: Wings to the Birds, Fangs to the Beast. Probably one of the more well-known chapters here. Itto and Daigoro head to a hot spring that’s ruled by outlaws at the moment, who’ve taken the nearby village hostage. Itto does a very noble thing to save a prostitute, and deals with the outlaws in a way that only he can. Having a baby cart that’s full of built-in weapons sure helps.-Chapter 9: The Assassin’s Road. This is the one chapter where we learn something about Ogami Itto and Daigoro, going over part of what led them to this path they walk. One of the duo’s most memorable moments comes at the end of the chapter during a duel where Itto bows his head down while dashing at his opponent, revealing Daigoro on his back wearing a mirror on his head to reflect the sunlight at the opponent, blinding him.-Chapter 12: Tragic O-Sue. This is basically a Daigoro story. With his dad sick, resting in a small temple somewhere (and having some pretty gnarly nightmares about demons), Daigoro is left to fend for himself after he gets imprisoned by a high ranking samurai’s family. The master of the house wonders if Daigoro is the son of the infamous Lone Wolf and Cub assassin he’s heard so much about.-Chapter 16: Half Mat, One Mat, A Fistful of Rice. Finally, we end the book with the first opponent who actually stands a chance against the assassin. A highly skilled samurai turned sideshow attraction takes the father and son out for a meal after accidentally almost harming Daigoro. He doesn’t like the path that Ogami Itto is on, and wishes for him to stop, for his son’s sake. Itto refuses, for both him and his son have chosen it. As a result, he chooses to stop the former executioner himself in a duel. This leads to a very intense moment where the two stare down each other, and visualize several possibilities of what’s going to happen when they make their moves.And keep in mind those are only 5 of my favorites, and there are at lest 5 others I could go on about! What are you waiting for? This is a crazy-good deal for so much of the story. My only issues are that it would be so much better if the volumes were in hardcover format, because the paper covers do start to wear down quickly due to how much content there is, and I’m still not happy that they reversed everything. Yes, this reads like a standard US/European comic, from left to right, and as a result, all the artwork is reversed too. Dark Horse has a reason for it, and it’s not a very good one. Maybe in another couple of decades they’ll finally put it out as it was originally published?Those minor complaints aside, nothing should keep you from buying this book.

Lone wolf and cub, what can I say about these book, or manga . It is one of the most beautiful book I have purchased so far from Amazon. The book is full of great story telling and the drawing aré beautiful. I recommend this to anyone that’s a fan of lone wolf and cub.

Lone Wolf & Cub Omnibus Volume 1A very nice thick manga from Dark Horse Manga, over 700 pages of pure black and white action, intrigue, and self exploration in this book.This is my first manga, I believe. The closest I ever came to this type of stuff was Scott Pilgrim and SharKnife, the latter being absolutely deplorable.The story revolves around a Ronin out to atone or avenge the death of his wife, carrying his son with him. Why he has his son at all is revealed halfway through the book and is one of the more powerful scenes so I won't go through it now with you.Basically, he's an assassin. He often uses his son and puts him in grave danger to meet his mission, but his reasoning is "Even a Wolf Cub is still a Wolf", seeing as his son is strong and can take care of himself.This is absolutely brilliant and I for sure will be buying volume two in this series. Lots of action, lots of neat problem solving and unique murders and stories to keep you guessing each time. It did end softly with the last two stories but 98% of the book is gold.Definitely check it out, even if you've never read this sort of thing (like myself), you might like it.

I first read LW&C in First Comics, many years ago when Frank Miller introduced LW&C to the Western world as a epitome of comics making. He did qualify that there were editorial changes made to the original series, including omitting some episodes and resizing of panels to fit western comics dimensions. That lasted for about 50 issues and disappeared. I never got to complete the series. I estimate that it probably covered about one third of this epic story.When Dark Horse started reprinting LW&C in their pocketbook sizes, I resisted buying as that was in a ridiculously small format. In addition,there were also 28 volumes and you can chalk up the cost for getting a series for which I already had about one-third of the storyline.Now that Dark Horse is reprinting this series in a larger format, with a doubling of content per book and a modest cost increase per book which works out to a reasonable cost saving for the total series, how can I resist?There are episodes here which were never featured in the First Comics series. So far, everthing is nifty and this is 5 stars for me.

I bought this as a Christmas gift for my brother. He really likes it

I'm am well familiar with this story and got this copy as a relatively inexpensive addition to my collection. Unfortunately the translation is inappropriate and irreverent to the origin material. This version has vulgarities and depicts the story in an anachronistic way, inserting mannerisms and speech in way that fits the present day America and not Edo feudal Japan.I give it four stars because the art is exquisite and I love the works but unless you are compelled to buy this for it's low price point look somewhere else for a true representation of this story.