In the first Samurai: Heaven & Earth mini-series, the year is 1704, and the samurai Asukai Shiro travels across Asia to Europe to retrieve his beloved, Lady Yoshiko, who was kidnapped and sold into slavery.  After foiling an assassination plot against King Louis XIV of France with the King’s Musketeers, Shiro finds and loses Yoshiko again.

It’s now 1705, and Samurai: Heaven & Earth Vol. II #3 finds Shiro and Safwah Ibn Badr al Din, the slave trader who originally sold Yoshiko, in Tripoli following the trail of Yoshiko and her captor, the disgraced Spanish nobleman Don Miguel Ratera Aguilar.  Yoshiko and Aguilar were aboard a Spanish ship by ransacked by Barbary pirates (also known as Turkish corsairs).  Yoshiko is now a slave in the harem of Ali Faraj Pasha.

THE LOWDOWN:  Continuing series have lulls in which several issues or even several years are filled with mediocre tales.  What’s even worse is when a mini-series starts strong and then, falls apart.  That isn’t the case with Samurai: Heaven and Earth, Vol. II.  This highly-entertaining historical adventure is consistently good – each page as integral and excellent as the ones before and after it.  Ron Marz rapidly moves his series from one exotic and colorful locale to the next, and his cast of characters is a diverse and engaging bunch.  Artist Luke Ross and colorist Rob Schwager provide the vibrant visuals that so richly bring Marz’s old-fashioned romantic epic to life.

FOR READERS OF:  There is a reason Marz and Ross are a fan favorite team.  They deliver, and this historical adventure with pulp fiction roots is a sweet package.

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