Junk - The Record of the Last Hero: Volume 4

Thanks to barnesandnoble.com for the Junk 4 cover.

"Suggested ‘Ages 15+’"

Sullen high school student Hiro is surfing the Net when he discovers a Junk ad.  Junk is a system that acts as a super-suit, giving its wearer super strength, agility, and weapons systems.  Hiro actually manages to get the company to send him one (a dark colored suit), but instead of really getting to know the suit, Hiro uses it to get revenge.  There’s also a second suit, the white Junk.

In Junk: The Record of the Last Hero, Vol. 4, Hiro uses Junk to attack a tabloid rag he believes hurt his cousin Ryoko Harumi (whom Hiro loves).  He brutally assaults some of the paper’s employees and destroys the paper’s office building.  Meanwhile, a third Junk suit makes its appearance, and the new arrival takes right and wrong to extremes.

THE LOWDOWN:  It didn’t take long to realize that Junk was tailor made for me with its mixture of shounen (boys’ comics) and seinen (comics for adult men, generally 18-30) sci-fi/superhero action.  Visually Junk resembles comics like Akira and Batman; in fact, Asamiya even produced the Dark Knight manga, Batman: Child of Dreams.  Junk comes across like visually cutting edge cool – think The Matrix, so while the drama seems obtuse, Junk looks good.

However, the series’ 5” (width) x 7” (height) publishing format/trim size robs Asamiya’s vision of much of its punch.  The influence of big, expensive, and loud American action flicks on Asamiya’s art is obvious, and like those big films, Junk needs a wider, taller format.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  This meal of sci-fi, crime, and superhero that Junk is will appeal to the action/fight comics reader.

B