I came across this very positive Review of Book 19 fathers & sons on this comic book website so I figured I'd share the link and review.
There doesnt appear to be any major spoliers in the review.
I'm not quite sure If I'm allowed to post the entire thing but I've seen similar things posted before so heres the link & entire review:
http://www.newsarama.com/forums/showthr ... adid=47343
To the board administrators: If I am in error please remove, thanks!
Usagi Yojimbo: Fathers and Sons
From Dark Horse
Written & Illustrated by Stan Sakai
Reviewed by Michael C Lorah
Nineteen books into the series and Usagi Yojimbo remains as fresh as it's ever been. This serial is, hands down, the best adventure-based comic book series of the past two decades.
Usagi is the pinnacle of what all-ages comics should be. It's fast-paced and action-filled, yet still emotionally engaging and constantly challenging. Whether you are 7 or 47, Stan Sakai is giving you something to chew on.
The research that Sakai puts into the series pays off in spades, creating a powerfully believable world (and his endnotes in this volume support how even the little details are grounded in the reality of the time period).
In this particular volume, we follow our hero, Miyamoto Usagi, a ronin warrior, and Jotaro during their travels together. Almost all Usagi volumes are extremely accessible to new readers - and an intelligent reader could figure out everything that s/he needs to know if they picked up this book, but Fathers and Sons does pick up after a fairly dramatic cliffhanger in the previous volume, Travels With Jotaro. I say this only in the interests of full disclosure. (I've had at least one person tell me that he started reading the series during these stories and immediately understood everything that he needed to understand.) Read this book, and I promise that you too will understand everything that you need to know about Usagi's relationship with, for example, Tomoe, by simply reading the hitch in her dialogue when she discovers that Usagi has a son.
Yes. Usagi's son, Jotaro. Father and son, traveling together, except there is a catch. Jotaro does not know that Usagi is his father (the why and how is revealed in a prior volume, but again, Sakai gets new readers up to date without bogging old readers down in clumsy or heavy exposition). Our ronin rabbit is left with the heavy, heavy question weighing on his soul - should he reveal his son's true parentage and potentially ruin the boy's relationship with his adopted father, a good man in his own right?
Before Usagi can make a decision, he gets to see the dynamics of family played out in several different ways. From a meeting with the deadly but honorable assassin, Lone Goat and Kid (a homage to the brilliant Japanese series, Lone Wolf and Cub) to an encounter with a spiritually broken samurai with a child of his own, Usagi sees the power of the bond between father and son. The young Lord Noriyuki and his faithful retainer, Tomoe, also stop by for a dramatic and traumatic look at the bonds of honor and duty, echoing the familial ties of Usagi and Jotaro.
And, just to bring it all to a head with generational conflict, Usagi, Jotaro and Usagi's sensei Katsuichi run afoul of a family of assassins. Not too many comic book fights give me a total geek thrill, but Usagi and Katsuichi BOTH gave me spine-chilling moments during the final battle.
Include an excellent flashback showing a young Katsuichi's lost love and a charming introduction to this volume by Matt Wagner, and you've got a book that hits a home run on any level.
Sakai's cartooning is beyond reproach. He is an excellent storyteller, moving the camera around in consistently engaging fashion, and his pacing and lettering set the mood for every page. Stan Sakai's been setting a very high standard for a very long time now. And somehow, someway, he seems to actually raise the bar with each new book.
The reviewer hits the nail on the head with so many things! Especially the last paragraph!
Enjoy!
