Graphic Novels Challenge: Samurai: Heaven and Earth, Vol. 2

Continuing the story of Shiro and Yoshiko begun in Volume 1, Samurai: Heaven and Earth's second collected volume follows the samurai pursuing Yoshiko from France to the Mahgreb and then across North Africa to Egypt after she is abducted - yet again - this time by a Spanish nobleman.

It's hard to escape the feeling that the whole purpose of this exercise is nothing more than an excuse to illustrate Yoshiko in a French gown and a harim girl's outfit, continuing the Japan-o-philia of the first volume, and indeed the artwork continues to be magnificent. I found myself struggling to remain interested - in the story, in the characters - particulaly while navigating the gaping plot holes. I mean, it's not like I was expecting With Fire and Sword here, but is it really asking too much for characters who are more than skillfully rendered cardboard cut-outs? I honestly had no stake in finding out if Shiro and Yoshiko would manage to be together in the end, and the last score of pages was a wearying plod to the end.

This seems to me like another lost opportunity. If Ron Marz was so desperate to tell the story of a samurai in Early Modern Europe, how 'bout using Hasekura Tsunenaga as a starting point, instead of this brutally contrived and ultimately unengaging attempt?

Graphic Novels Challenge: Samurai: Heaven and Earth, Vol. 1

As I've mentioned a number of times, my initial inspiration for running a swashbuckling campaign wasn't The Three Musketeers or Captain Blood - it was REH's "The Shadow of the Vulture," a short story set at the siege of Vienna in 1529. "TSofV" is perhaps best known as the first - and only - appearance of Red Sonya of Rogatino, a flame-haired swashbuckler who provided the inspiration for the Roy Thomas and Barry Smith's Red Sonja character in Marvel's Conan the Barbarian, but it's only one of REH's 'Oriental' historical fiction stories.

I've been an 'Orientalist' - in the traditional, pre-Edward Said sense of the word - since I was a boy, beginning with my fascination with the Arabian Nights tales, but I didn't discover REH's stories until about eight years ago, thanks to the Bison Books collection. That led me Harold Lamb's amazing Khlit the Cossack tales, which take place across with the breadth of Central Asia, in turn. So it should be no surprise that a graphic novel about a samurai at the court of Louis XIV was right in my wheelhouse.

Collected into graphic novel form in 2006, Samurai: Heaven and Hell is the story of Shiro, the eponymous samurai, and his love, Yoshiko, who's captured by Chinese invaders in 1704 and carried away, setting in motion a series of events which lead Shiro to the Sun King's court in pursuit of his love.

The artwork by Luke Ross and Jason Keith is beautifully rendered, but Ron Marz's story is flatter than a pancake. The journey from the Chinese warlord's palace to Louis' France may as well have involved teleportation, reduced to a couple of 'we need a MONTAGE!' pages of action. The nature of Shiro's quest means that character development is nearly nil - figures come and go, often dispatched at the end of Shiro's katana, without the reader knowing, or particularly caring, who they are. Things get only marginally better once the action shifts to France, where Shiro predictably battles the King's Musketeers, 'cause, y'know, one of the purposes of this whole exercise was clearly to show how a katana-swinging samurai is a match for any number of broadsword-wielding musketeers.

Yes, the story falls into the familiar and predictable trope of venerating the cult of the samurai and his katana. While not wallowing in excess - Shiro doesn't, say, cut a carriage in half or deflect bullets with his sword, thank goodness - it's still a depressing exercise in round-eye otaku.

Shiro's quest continues in volume 2 . . . to be continued . . .