LADY S. VOLUME 3 & VOLUME 4

GAME OF FOOLS | A MOLE IN D.C.
Drawing and Color Work: Philippe Aymond | Script: Jean Van Hamme

Revelations abound in the third LADY S book, which I find to be the strongest one so far. In this volume, our heroine, Suzan, is on vacation with her father at their villa in France -- but their trip is not a peaceful one. It seems the CIA has learned of the mysterious Lady S., and believes she is connected with an unofficial European intelligence agency called CATRIG -- the Center for Anti-Terrorism Research and Intelligence Gathering. CATRIG's very existence infuriates the CIA, who, as the "world's peacekeepers", can't abide a rogue organization running around and fighting terror on its own. So the CIA stages an international incident: they send operatives posing as members of a Middle Eastern terror organization to raid the villa and kidnap Ambassador Fitzroy, leaving his daughter, Suzan behind. The intention is that Suzan will then run straight to CATRIG for help, and the CIA will draw the rogue organization out of the shadows.

But what follows instead is a comedy of errors. Unknown to the CIA, Suzan has no way of contacting CATRIG (and probably wouldn't want to do it in the first place since the past few times she's worked for them it was under duress). However, CATRIG finds her when her handler, Orion, shows up at the police station after she's finished giving her statement about the kidnapping. Orion, identifying himself as a French government official, takes Suzan "into custody". But Suzan's movements are being observed by Ralph Ellington, the CIA operative who she previously befriended in book one (and who took the fall for her theft of a file from the Turkish ambassador's safe in that volume). Ralph believes Orion actually is with the government, and knocks him over in a fender bender, taking him out of action.

LADY S. VOLUME 1 & VOLUME 2

HERE'S TO SUZIE | LATITUDE 59 DEGREES NORTH
Drawing and Color Work: Philippe Aymond | Script: Jean Van Hamme

LADY S is a European comic series which began in 2004 and follows the exploits of Suzan Fitzroy, the adopted daughter of a roving United States ambassador, who finds herself working a side gig as an unwilling agent of a top-secret European peacekeeping organization under the leadership of Colonel Orion.

The first book in the series, HERE'S TO SUZIE, was published in 2004, and lays out our heroine's backstory through a series of out-of-sequence flashbacks. I have to admit that as I read the story, I was slightly dreading the fact that when I finished it, I would need to sort through those sometimes-convoluted flashbacks and piece together Suzan's history for a summary paragraph here. So imagine my relief when I got to book 2 and found a nice recap page leading things off, which filled everything in quite succinctly! Thus, rather than try to stumble my way through resummarizing it, here's a brief history of Lady S from the horse's mouth, for your edification:

LADY S

As mentioned in December's Unboxing, late last year I picked up the first five volumes of a European series called LADY S. I'm not sure exactly what prompted me to get it, other than a bargain price and some intriguing covers. It looked like a political spy series of some sort, and I liked the art style, so I went for it.

And now the time has come to read it! Beginning Monday, at a pace of two books per week, we'll check out those five installments (and if I like them enough, I'll probably buy the sixth and final volume as well to cover that in the final post).

...and usually I have more to say in these announcements, but since I have literally no idea what to expect from this series, that's all I got. See you on Monday for LADY S vol. 1: HERE'S TO SUZIE and vol. 2: LATITUDE 59 DEGREES NORTH!

DRAGON BALL: THAT TIME I GOT REINCARNATED AS YAMCHA

Based on Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama
Story and Art by dragongarow LEE

This goofball manga was published in Japan in 2017 and received an English-language release from Viz in 2018. I read it via "scanlations" when it was first released, and liked it so much that I bought Viz's digital edition. It's the story of a Japanese teenager, who happens to be a huge DRAGON BALL fan, and who is accidentally killed when he falls down a flight of stairs -- only to wake up in the DRAGON BALL world, reincarnated in the body of Yamcha, circa the end of the initial DB story arc, the "Pilaf Saga".

Our protagonist pretty quickly adjusts to his life, and what follows is a three-chapter storyline in which he uses his meta-knowledge of future events to his own advantage. The story skips straight past all of DRAGON BALL (after establishing that Yamcha is going to train with Master Roshi alongside Goku rather than travel to the Western Capitol with Bulma), and jumps to the Saiyan Saga. We learn that Yamcha has climbed Korin's tower and trained there, and has even borrowed Piccolo's spaceship to fly to planet Namek, where the Great Elder of Namek unlocked his hidden power and he trained with the warrior, Nail. Because of all this, Yamcha is able to fight alongside Goku and defeat Vegeta.

DRAGON BALL SUPER VOLUME 6

Story by: Akira Toriyama | Art by: Toyotarou

The battle royale between all the Gods of Destruction of the twelve universes comes to a premature conclusion as volume 6 opens, when the two Zenos declare that the destroyers are moving too fast and are hard to watch. It is decided that gods will not be allowed to participate in the upcoming all-universe tournament -- but to prove that the tournament is still viable, the only two mortals present at the gathering, Goku and Universe 11's Top (called Toppo in Viz's translation, but I like Top better) are instructed to stage a quick exhibition match. And quick it is, as Top defeats Goku fairly easily even when the latter transforms into his Super Saiyan Blue form.

Let's pause for a moment here to discuss Top. He's presented quite differently in the manga than in the TV series. In the show, Top doesn't like Goku from the get-go, believing he's an evil scumbag for championing the tournament -- but in the manga, he seems more indifferent toward Goku, acknowledging that he's a decent fighter and telling him that he's a strange guy. Top also has a startling secret in the anime, revealed late in the tournament, as we learn that he's in training to become Universe 11's next God of Destruction! But that surprise, which was a genuinely exciting and shocking moment in the TV version, is neutered here as we're told up front about Top's destiny.

(I suspected that perhaps the manga revealed this early on because the anime had already spoiled it, but some quick release date research reveals that the episode with the revelation aired in January of 2018 in Japan, while the manga chapter that mentioned it was released in September of 2017... so I really have no idea why Toriyama and/or Toyotarou chose to do it this way.)

THE UNBOXING - FEBRUARY 2020

Just one single, solitary book this month, if you can believe it -- and it's not even digital for a change! Hot on the heels of last month's X-MEN: SHATTERSHOT, it's another hardcover starring Marvel's mighty mutants, from much later in the 1990s: the X-MEN VS. APOCALYPSE: THE TWELVE OMNIBUS. This volume is basically a compilation of several paperbacks that were released nigh-on a decade or more ago: X-MEN: THE SHATTERING, X-MEN VS. APOCALYPSE vol. 1, X-MEN VS. APOCALYPSE vol. 2, and X-MEN: POWERLESS. I never picked those books up at the time, however (though I do own them in digital format), so rather than an upgrade, this one is a new purchase for me.

And what a purchase it is! Though I haven't had much cause to talk about it here, I don't think I've made any secret of the fact that this era was one of my favorites for the X-Men. This book covers the majority of the period when Alan Davis served as plotter on both X-MEN and UNCANNY X-MEN throughout 1999. It was a period which brought back several plot points from earlier in the nineties (and even tied some of them up), but also felt somehow like a bit of a throwback to an earlier era. 1999 was probably the closest the X-Men of the nineties ever got to feeling like the X-Men of the late seventies, which was a great thing in my opinion.

So this is one I'm pleased to have on my shelf. I can't wait to read it, when Gentlemen of Leisure's X-aminations series gets to this era in a few more years. (And I know I say this a lot with no results to show for it, but I really do want to get my photo-reviews of the X-Men collected editions going again. I have no idea when it'll be, but it's still something on my to-do list!)

DRAGON BALL SUPER VOLUME 5

Story by: Akira Toriyama | Art by: Toyotarou

Continuing the precedent set in the previous volume, DRAGON BALL SUPER book 5 wraps up the Future Trunks/Goku Black storyline, but does so in a vastly different fashion that the TV show. In the anime, after Goku and Vegeta have both battled the merged Zamas, Trunks steps in to deal a crippling blow, slicing Zamas in half. The villain then begins to merge with the entire universe, and Goku summons the Lord of Everything, Zeno (more on that below), to finally wipe out Zamas. Zeno does so, destroying the entire universe in the process.

The manga follows the same basic outline, but instead of the halved Zamas somehow merging with the universe, he is reborn as two full version of himself. From that point forward, any time he's injured, the pieces re-spawn into a full-fledged Zamas. It's really creepy and, for me at least, sells the hopelessness of the situation better than the anime setup.

The manga and anime re-unify after Zamas is beaten -- Goku and Trunks bring Zeno home with them, then Whis suggests that Trunks and Mai use the time machine to return to the future to a point before Zamas attacked, where they enlist the aid of Beerus to kill him. The couple agrees, even though it means they will now co-exist alongside other version of themselves in the revised timeline. With that, Trunks and Mai depart and the saga ends.