By: Kenichi Sonoda Publisher: Dark Horse Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Dark Horse Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 192 Publication Date: July 11, 2007
Product Description: The long-awaited return of Gunsmith Cats continues with its second exciting volume! Daily, Rally and Minnie run a weapons shop in Chicago... but they have a side business as bounty hunters! Their main task is to hunt down runaway criminals, but they somehow always end up undertaking risky jobs and get themselves into major messes!
Gunsmith Cats Presents ... the Bean Bandit Show! Volume 2 of Gunsmith Cats: Burst, concludes the story line of the previous volume. Rally and friends have to find a bomb that has been wired to a car. This of course ends up with Rally in the car and attempting to drive it to a safe place before it explodes. In true "Speed" fashion if she goes slower than 70 miles per hour the car will explode. Then you get a nice epilogue featuring everyone's favorite cop, Roy Coleman. Seems like he needs to get a new gun and he's gone to Rally for some advice. This nice little one shot is a lot like the first half of "CZ75" from the Bonnie and Clyde story line.
The second half of the book entails the adventures of Bean Bandit aka The Roadbuster. Bean completes a job and the jokers who hired him decide to turn the tables. Well anyone who does that must have a death wish. Now Bean's demanding three times the agreed price or their hides. He wasn't counting on the a deadly sharpshooter named Charlene. She takes out Bean for a count or two - but you can't keep a good Roadbuster down. Now he's after Charlene, her cronies and the band orchestrating the whole deal. Bean is a one man wrecking crew but things are going to get a bit more complicated when an obsessed cop named Percy shows up. He's got one thing on his mind and that's killing Bean.
As far as action and fast paced plot goes, this book is an improvement over the previous one. The conclusion to the convoluted story-line of Volume 1 is well done and the ending is typical Gunsmith Cats. In a way I can see what Sonoda was doing with that first story line. He managed to work all the characters from GSC into the story (even regular minor characters like Ken and Roy). He tried to make the story a bit more complex and he included some good action and plenty of girls.
The second half is straightforward and fun. Bean seems unstoppable, but the bad guys do their best and keep things interesting for the Roadbuster. Charlene seems to have the makings of an interesting villain, with her slinky tough attitude and sharp shooting skills. The resolution is a bit of a let down, and it becomes obvious that Sonoda is using this story to introduce a nemesis for Bean in the shape of Officer Percy.
More great art in this one, especially in the second half with Bean leaving his trail of destruction in his quest for Charlene. My biggest disappointment is that Bean takes center stage in this book. I like the Roadbuster as much as the next guy, but he's always seemed a bit ridiculous to me (not that Gunsmith Cats is the bastion of realism). He's always been a bit more of a comic foil and a muscle-bound plot point. With the story switching to him, it was fun, but seemed like a foregone conclusion how that was gonna end. With Rally and the girls, they always seemed more human and made mistakes, had weaknesses, and ended up in hot water that made you wonder how they were gonna get out of it all (part of why the Goldie stories were so good - Goldie was strong, smart, calculating and ruthless. She seemed like she would always be one step ahead of our heroes). When it comes to Bean you know that there's gonna be destruction, but that he won't be stopped. It's a fun read, but not as engaging as stories featuring the girls. And I won't deny it, Rally is the reason I enjoy Gunsmith Cats. Take her out of the stories and I just won't be as interested. When she appears as a cameo in her own book at the end, it's disappointing.
Like the previous book you get some nice bonus stuff. No character updates (they expect that you wouldn't be buying Volume 2 without having read Volume 1 - especially with the cliffhanger at the end of 1 being played out in 2). The Sonoda specials return, three this time, and each dealing with ammunition. The last page talks about a model of a CZ75, that Sonoda had made for his collection.
All told, I enjoyed this book more than the last one, but the lack of Rally and the girls in the second half pulls the grade down. I hope the regular cast comes back for book three and that Sonoda kicks his plots into high gear. The original GSC series took a little to get running too (it wasn't till Gray showed up that the stories edge really came out). So, Volume 2 is a fun time, but still not as good as the stories from the 90's.
Quick Note: Just who the heck is this Percy guy? Sharp eyed readers of the older stories will find a cop who looks a lot like Percy in the story "Big Game". Bean, Gray and Minnie May (as a hostage) are being chased by Rally and the cops. Someone gets the bright idea to try and barricade the road, and a crazy cop with a shotgun is shouting orders. A Percy cameo? But for a better idea of Percy, check out the one shot OAV "Riding Bean" the first appearance of Sonoda's Bean Bandit character and in animation no less. Percy appears in that movie, just as nutty and determined as ever. In his newest incarnation of Gunsmith Cats: Burst, Percy also looks more than a little like Hoichi's Grandpa in "Cannon God Exaxxion".
Good Stuff More gunsmith cats as you know and love it. Girls, Guns, Cars, and permutations thereof.
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