by Koike & Kojima
(£6-50 Dark Horse)
Welcome back to brutal, feudal Japan, and in particular to the world of LONE WOLF & CUB where honour is all, but rarely exists. Before his fatal duel with Itto Ogami (and indeed before Koike & Kojima had created Lone Wolf), Kubikiri Asa (otherwise known as Decapitator Asaemon) was the titular Samurai Executioner. His job entailed testing swords for the shogun, looking stern, and chopping people's heads off. If you like to see people having their heads chopped off, you'll have no cause for complaint here.
And if you enjoy brutality towards women - and there's an awful lot of it here - you'll also get your own sick version of a kick out of this. Most of the tales involve dilemmas for the executioner to sort out all Solomon-style based on codes of conduct slightly more obscure than which way one should pass the port (don't ask me...), but in the end it's usually resolved in a manner which makes 'cut the baby in two' look positively restrained. Feudal Japan: wouldn't want to live there, wouldn't want to visit.
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