One-Punch Man: Volume 7 manga review

Manga
One-Punch Man: Volume 7 manga review
By Leroy Douresseaux
August 7, 2016 - 15:21

Viz Media
Writer(s): ONE, Yusuke Murata, John Werry
Penciller(s): Yusuke Murata
Letterer(s): James Gaubatz
ISBN: 978-1-4215-8528-4
$9.99 U.S., $12.99 CAN, £6.99 U.K., 216pp B&W, paperback
Rating: T (Teen)

One-Punch Man Volume 7 cover image

Rated “T” for “Teen”

Saitama starts training to become a superhero when he is 22-years-old and becomes one 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,the young cyborg, Genos (who really needs no training).

As One-Punch Man, Vol. 7 (entitled The Fight; Chapters 35 to 37) opens, the interstellar bandits known as “Dark Matter” continue their invasion of Earth. The seer, “Madame Shibabawa,” predicted the invasion just before she passed. Now, Saitama takes on Dark Matter's leader, the supremely powerful Boros, in a fierce battle aboard a massive alien ship.

[This volume includes three bonus stories, “Big Construction,” “A Top Pupil's Reminiscence,” and “Pork Cutlet Bowl.”]

THE LOWDOWN: I kept waiting for the One-Punch Man manga to fall apart. It seemed too good to be true, this fantastic superhero fight comic, but it is too true that this is too good. Now, I am a firm believer thanks to...

One-Punch Man Volume 7 is one of the best superhero comic books that I have read in a long time. Artist Yusuke Murata unleashes a suite of 12 consecutive double-page spreads – a symphony of superhero/alien invader fisticuffs that would make the late Jack Kirby gasp. This is pure pop comics in a cosmic vein of Marvel Comics that Marvel has long abandoned. That vein, however, still has some juice; Marvel just isn't interested in the kind of graphical and visual comics language that ONE and Murata still love.

I'm punch-drunk in love with One-Punch Man. It's a knockout.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE: Fans of shonen battle manga and superhero comic books will love One-Punch Man.

A+