Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Part 2 - Battle Tendency Volume 2

Manga
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Part 2 - Battle Tendency Volume 2
By Leroy Douresseaux
February 27, 2016 - 23:23

Viz Media
Writer(s): Hirohiko Araki, Evan Galloway
Penciller(s): Hirohiko Araki
Letterer(s): Mark McMurray
ISBN: 978-1-4215-7883-5
$19.99 U.S., $22.99 CAN, £12.99 U.K., 370pp, B&W with some color, paperback
Rating: T+ (Teen Plus)

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency Volume 2 cover image

Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is available in English for the first time. VIZ Media is publishing the legendary Shonen Jump manga as a series of deluxe edition, hardcover, graphic novels with color pages and new cover art. Created by Hirohiko Araki, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is a multi-generational tale that centers on the heroic Joestar family and their never-ending battle against evil.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure begins with the “Phantom Blood” arc. Now, the series moves on to the “ Battle Tendency” story arc, which is set in 1938.

As JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Part 2 – Battle Tendency, Vol. 2 (Chapters 19 to 36) opens, our hero Joseph “JoJo” Joestar is in Rome. He finds himself at odds with Caesar Anthonio Zeppeli who is supposed to help him with his mission, which is to find the immortal Pillar Man. However, the two men despise each other, and it is made worse by the fact that Caesar is much more skilled than JoJo in the use of the power known as Hamon.

In the ruins beneath Rome, not one, but three Pillar Men arise. The arrival of Wamuu, Esidisi, and Kars could mean extinction for mankind. Now, JoJo will have to learn how to better use his Hamon, and his new master is the mysterious Lisa Lisa, who has something the Pillar Men want.

THE LOWDOWN: The JoJo's Bizarre Adventure manga, first published in 1986 in Weekly Shonen Jump, is something to behold. Many times while reading it, I wonder how I will explain this mutant of a historical adventure and dark fantasy manga to readers.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Part 2 – Battle Tendency, Volume 2 is like other volumes; read it and you will want to read more. From Hirohiko Araki's meaty figure drawings to his elastic compositions, this series is a visual wonder. I guess that I was a little ambivalent about the first volume, but after the events depicted in Vol. 2, I want more now. This series attacks the possibilities that the medium of comics offers with gusto, and the result is a series worth reading.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE: Fans of weird shonen manga will want to try the Shonen Jump Advanced series, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Part 2 – Battle Tendency.

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