By: Kenichi Sonoda Publisher: Dark Horse Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Dark Horse Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 192 Publication Date: February 13, 2008
Product Description: The gang is all here, for a road rally on Route 66! Of course we've got Rally, Minnie-May, Bean Bandit and the rest of the crew, but this volume features the return of driving damsel Riff-Raff! When you have this crew going head-to-head against a gaggle of other dagnerous drivers, and you've got yet another tome of lunatic traffic. And what would a volume of Gunsmith Cats be without the requisite gunplay! This time we've even got the classic Russian rocket-propelled grenades!
Let the race begin! I was hoping that there would be some racing action in book 3 of Gunsmith Cats: Burst, and I was not disappointed. We also get a lot more Rally this time out and that's always a good thing. So far, so good. But does this volume finally get the story up to speed, or does it continue to meander along it's merry way?
First things first, we have to get Rally back in the saddle of a new car, and the first story deals with her taking a nice little test drive - so you know something has to go wrong. Next up Rally does a little side job as a shooting instructor at a local shooting gallery. Classic GSC humor as Rally tries to get her pupils to stop shooting the way actors do in movies. The third story starts off the racing story line with "The Money-sucking Car". Rally finds out about a street race that is for classic V8's only. Becky discovers that not only is Bean going to participate, but so is that jerk Percy. Rally knows that this could end up with Percy killing Bean or Bean killing the cop - either way she won't get her money! So she joins the race to keep those two from killing each other.
The race kicks in and there are plenty of surprises - goofy disguises, rocket launchers, and some nasty characters. We also get an appearance from Riff Raff, the female transporter who last appeared in "Home Sweet Home" during the "Kidnapped" story line. This book doesn't really end with a cliff hanger, but there are still some loose ends to tie up. it will be interesting to see where the story goes from here.
As far as the art goes, there is some good stuff in the race, but not as much as I hoped. You get most of the good racing scenes at the beginning but it's not as detailed or intense as much of the earlier stories. In fact the best art appears in the one shot story with Rally teaching the goofy movie obsessed pupils. The art is the same as it's been in the last two books, but not really reaching the detail or energy of older stories.
The race itself ends up being a bit of a let down. It's not what I was hoping for, but I did like the disguises and the appearance of Riff Raff, who always seemed like she should have been a bigger player before. The twist at the end falls flat and in a way it ends up making the whole race feel equally flat.
You get four more Sonoda specials in this issue. The most interesting one was dealing with blanks and how they are used in revolvers vs. automatics.
Based on these three books Gunsmith Cats: Burst feels more like something Sonoda felt obligated to do, and not something he necessarily wanted to do. He seems to be drawn more to Bean's character (Bean is really the focus of the race, even if Rally is chasing him. they end up splitting story time evenly once the race starts). He also seems to be running out of unique ideas and situations to put our heroes in. I'll probably pick up more Gunsmith Cats: Burst, but I'm not feeling the need to rush out and do it (like I did back when the 90's story lines were being released). Fans of the series will enjoy it well enough but want more. People looking into the series for the first time should really go and pick up the Omnibus versions first. As of this writing, they have the best stories and art. These new stories need the burst they claim to have.
The hits keep coming The third issue of Gunsmith Cats Burst is whirl wind of Sonoda's wonderfully detailed car chases. This volume picks up sometime after vol. 2, and centers around an illegal road race where it seems everyone is out for blood. As usual Rally and Minnie Mae are caught in the center of it all. This volume is saturated with the balls to the wall action fans have come to expect from the latest Gunsmith Cats series. so much so it doesn't all fit into this volume, leaving the reader begging for more with a surprise cliff hanger a-la Lost
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