Skip to main content

Invincible Universe: Battle Beast

Well, here we are again. I'm trying this one writing piece per day thing until I get bored and go on hiatus until the next Olympics. You may ask why write these when most eyes are glazed over from TikTok shorts and are unwilling to do an honest day's reading? Welp, I suppose writing is a therapeutic business, so let's just take this as our lotus pose for now and get on with it. Battle Beast is a cool little space romp starring a pissed-off lion who is desperate to be killed so that he'll be a little less pissed off. This series kind of hits like Saitama from One-Punch Man, if he were a little furrier and more deliberate with his approach to finding a worthy match.  Hang on a minute, though, we need a few sidekicks for this adventure to tick all the right boxes, and so our Battle Beast in question is joined by both a disgraced prince and an AI that is gifted with a robotic form. The former is eager to take his rightful place on a throne that was forcefully taken from a ...
Post a Comment

Dive into the World of Vagabond: The Genius of Takehiko Inoue Unveiled

 Splash-Page Spotlight: Vagabond by Takehiko Inoue


I went ahead and selected  at least four of my favourite splash-pages from the epic manga that is Vagabond. Beautifully delivered in hardcover format, Takehiko Inoue puts his talents on full display with this epic story of swordsmanship and self-discovery. 



Contented

The first image jumped out at me with its tranquil and serene tones, which none the less managed to communicate something far deeper. While the traditional Japanese countryside home remains a bucket list destination, I felt it appropriate to appreciate the sense of balance that the page communicated. The home, a wonderful representation of culture, of values and tradition,  is dwarfed by the larger natural landscape, which further dwarves our contented monk and cat below, thus perfectly illustrating and completing a well-balanced  natural hierarchy.



Scars

For my second choice, I chose the striking image of one of the primary female characters. A young lady orphaned as a girl and raised by a different family. Her steely eyed gaze communicates both a kind of indifference, and yet also a severity that suggests a hardened heart molded in the furnace made manifest as the worst trials offered by the world. I liked the addition of the farmer's hat and walking stick, which further communicated both simplicity, as well as hard work and humility. 



Demons

Even amidst the chaos, the brilliance of black white in manga is demonstrated in its incredible shading, sharpness of line and attention to detail. 



The Future

Our protagonist walking with a raging inferno behind him, struck me as deeply appropriate given Takezo's determination to move forward in life while leaving his past to be cleansed in the flames of acceptance, determination and rage.  

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Splash-Page Spotlight: Violator Origin

Violator: Origin We Were Not Always As We Are Now Violator situated himself as one of Malebolgias more resilient and resourceful henchman within Hell's hallways, and an otherwise beloved and irreplaceable fixture in the Spawn universe as a whole. Yet even this conniving servant of the dark realm has a past, a remarkable past chronicled in Violator: Origin by Marc Andreyko. The following are the striking and inspiring images brought to the fore by the tag team of  Brad Simpson and Piotr Kowalski. Enjoy.  In the Beginning... Before his fall, the one we come to know as Violator was a beautiful angel named Baziel. Swayed by the words of Lucifer, Baziel came to doubt the will of his Creator and was the first to harness the residual waste of creation to become the very first Hell Spawn.   War The striking image of Lucifer's war on heaven is delivered in the all too familiar artwork style that the Spawn comics have come to be known for.  Re/Birth The birth of The Viola...
Post a Comment
Read more

Wrestle Heist: The Wrestling Comic We Never Knew We Needed

  I'm going to write now, or attempt to write now with very little regard for good spelling, style, grammar, syntax, etc. For in the age of AI, crap writing is the new good writing, apparently. Authenticity is the goal in a world where anyone can sound like a literary genius. But enough of this prattling, let's cut to the chase and say at the outset that Wrestle Heist is a good comic and a must-read at a time when the internet has yanked the curtain of mystery before the world of pro wrestling and exposed all its naughty bits for us to see. But far from removing the allure of this fascinating form of sports entertainment, the nuances of the business have presented fresh avenues for enjoyment and appreciation, demonstrating once more the desire for stories of good vs. evil.  Wrestle Heist presents us precisely with this unique and fascinating world of politics, power structures, tight outfits, and belts -  and prep yourself, dear reader, wrestling terminology is fast appr...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Infernal Hulk and Merleau-Ponty: Body Schemas and Structuring Absence

Won't the Real Hulk Please Stand Up? The Infernal Hulk comic series grants Bruce Banner his wish of separation from his monster, but the progression of the story reminds us to be careful of what we wish for. One of the most unsettling ideas in The Infernal Hulk is not that Bruce Banner loses the Hulk, but that losing him doesn’t bring relief. Banner is free of the monster, yet he is weaker, disoriented, and haunted by something that refuses to stay gone. The Hulk persists, not as a body, but as an absence that still shapes Banner’s life. This dynamic closely mirrors what philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty describes through the phantom limb. Amputees often continue to feel sensations in limbs that no longer exist. For Merleau-Ponty, this happens because the body is not merely a physical object, but a lived structure, a body schema through which we orient ourselves in the world. When something is removed, the body’s orientation does not immediately adjust. Banner’s condition in The ...
Post a Comment
Read more