One-Punch Man: Volume 6 manga review

Manga
One-Punch Man: Volume 6 manga review
By Leroy Douresseaux
May 2, 2016 - 13:47

Viz Media
Writer(s): ONE, Yusuke Murata, John Werry
Penciller(s): Yusuke Murata
Letterer(s): James Gaubatz
ISBN: 978-1-4215-8527-7
$9.99 U.S., $12.99 CAN, £6.99 U.K., 216pp B&W, paperback
Rating: T (Teen)

One-Punch Man Volume 6 cover image

Rated “T” for “Teen”

Saitama starts training to become a superhero when he is 22-years-old. Saitama becomes a superhero when he is 25. He simply does not look like a superhero, with his lifeless facial expression, bald head, and unimpressive physique. But he beats the snot out of supervillains with one punch, and he even has his own disciple, Genos, the young cyborg (who really needs no training).

As One-Punch Man, Vol. 6 (entitled The Big Prediction; Chapters 30 to 34) opens, Saitama and Genos are at the dojo of S-ranked hero, Silverfang, when an emergency summons of Class-S heroes comes from the Hero Association. What's the emergency? The seer known as “Madame Shibabawa” has died, but before she passed, she issued the most dire prophecy.

Earth is in danger – sometime in the next six months. Say what?!

[This volume includes the bonus story, “Salmon.”]

THE LOWDOWN: I keep waiting for the One-Punch Man manga to fall apart. It is an entertaining superhero comic that does not take itself seriously. Its droll, off-handed depiction of violence can't still work, even after 30+ chapters?! But it does. So once again...

Maybe some readers are lucky enough to have found out if the series has fallen apart. Vols. 1-7 of the One-Punch Man manga is available to digital manga readers via VIZManga.com and the VIZ MANGA App for the iPad®, iPhone® and iPod® touch, Android-powered smart phones and tablets. Those same volumes can also be purchased through the Nook, Kindle, Kobo, comiXology, iBooks and GooglePlay stores.

As of this week, all we Luddite-Americans have is One-Punch Man Volume 6, and things are still glorious in one-punch world. I was watching the ABC television special about the 75-year history of Marvel Comics' character, Captain America. Lots of praise, reminiscing, and lip-service was spoken about one of Captain America's co-creators, the late Jack Kirby, who brought the patriotic character to life with his partner, Joe Simon. One-Punch Man creators, ONE and Yusuke Murata, are doing manga with the crackling power of Jack Kirby.

It seems the graphical and visual language spoken by Kirby's pen is an international language, and the best superhero comic books don't come just from the U.S. and the U.K. One-Punch Man knocks that notion right off the page. I'm punch-drunk in love with One-Punch Man.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE: Fans of shonen battle manga and superhero comic books will be knocked out by One-Punch Man.

A+

Rating: A+/10