When someone has asked me my opinion of Lone Wolf 2100, my response is generally "it's a beautiful book." I'm a story over art guy in general, but Francisco Ruiz Velasco is a fantastic artist, and his imagery for this series, a combination of post-apocalypse, tribal and feudal Japanese elements, aided by Studio F's gorgeous colors, is breathtaking. There's a visceral appeal to this book that appeals just by flipping through the pages. However, while the art is the primary draw, I must say that I've become quite taken with Kennedy's story as well, especially in this volume as he begins to explore other artificial forms of life beyond lead android Itto and tells some effective stories revolving around the difficult choices that honor forces Itto into as well as exploring what makes Itto different from the strictly programming-driven androids like him.
There's a wonderful variety of setting in the stories of the second volume of Lone Wolf 2100. The stories take place in environments that range from a frosty, abandoned city to the standard post-apocalyptic desert to an enormous sub-industrial pipe and wire infrastructure to a Blade Runner-esque futuristic city. And Velasco and Studio F never, ever disappoint in regards to those settings. The spooky, hollow feel of Kowloon, devastated by the initial attack of the War Spore virus, comes through especially clearly thanks to the choice to do that story silently. But the immense, hostile environment of the sewers and electric hub are brought to vivid life as well, partially thanks to Velasco's sense of scale and partially due to the green and red colors that feel so unforgiving.
Kennedy is telling a story of corruption, loyalty and corporate intrigue, but it's also a story of action. The opening chapters of this book, featuring Itto defending Daisy from hunter-killer androids in abandoned Kowloon and fighting an equally honorable warrior for unfortunate reasons, are definitely the strongest in terms of action, but there are also some pretty spectacularly violent actions by a robot on Daisy's trail in the latter half of the book. At any rate, the fact that most of the villains are robotic allows Kennedy and Velasco to cut loose without making the book overly gory, and Velasco does a great job of showing the flow and speed of the action and the skill that Itto brings to bear.
Leaving aside the obvious attraction of gorgeous artwork and strong action, though, Kennedy is telling an interesting tale of rebuilding and politics in a post-disaster world. The revelation made to Prescott, the sympathetic antagonist of the book, in the last few pages of the book, won't surprise any readers, but they do point the way to an expansion of Itto's allies and a broadening of his quest as the story goes on. While it's interesting to see Itto continually battle androids sent against him, I'm more interested in seeing him play a larger role in the rebuilding of the world from its virus-ridden state, something that Daisy was obviously meant for by her father.
Lone Wolf 2100 is inspired by the manga series Lone Wolf and Cub, but it's not a case of Dark Horse simply riding on the popularity of that reprint series. Honestly, I don't know that the primary target audience for this would be those who were engaged by Koike & Kojima's story of wandering samurai, but instead this strikes me as something that would appeal to the science-fiction fans. The story reminds me in broad strokes of Matt Wagner's Grendel or the film Blade Runner as much as it does Lone Wolf and Cub, and it's made for an interesting read so far.
