Battle Angel Alita Last Order 10 cover image courtesy of barnesandnoble.com.

Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”

In a near future scenario, the world is divided in two: the floating utopian city of Tiphares and the hardscrabble surface known as the Scrapyard.  Revived by a cyber-doctor who found her intact head and torso in the Scrapyard, Alita is an amnesiac female cyborg who becomes a Hunter-Warrior, a kind of bounty hunter.  Her exploits earn her an archenemy, the evil genius Desty Nova.

After defeating Nova, Alita’s body is destroyed, but she is revived and given a new body – the ultimate Imaginos body.  She enters the Zenith of Things Tournament (Z.O.T.T.) to retrieve her friend Lou’s brain.

In Battle Angel Alita: Last Order, Vol. 10, Alita has finally penetrated the center of Melchizedek, the supercomputer holding Lou’s brain hostage.  With victory in her grasp, however, Desty Nova returns, and rather than fight his old nemesis, he makes her a shocking offer – one that harks back to her origins.

THE LOWDOWN:  Coming into the middle of Battle Angel Alita: Last Order is daunting.  This cyberpunk manga is full of battles, squabbles, debates, etc., all of which take place in both the real and virtual world, and it can be confusing.  On the other hand, the art by creator Yukito Kishiro (and his staff) sure is extra beautiful.  American comic book readers fairly familiar with superhero comics will recognize similarities in the art to the work of Jack Kirby, Art Adams, John Romita, Jr., and Moebius.  The drawing style here also bears more than a passing resemblance to the style Frank Miller used for his early 1980s miniseries, Ronin (which was Frank Miller doing his impression of Moebius).  This may be a confusing read for newcomers, but the art is too good to be missed.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Cyberpunk fans and people looking for visually imaginative science fiction comics will like Battle Angel Alita: Last Order.

B+