by Joseph Carlson
Volume 2 in the series basically picks up shortly after the events of volume 1. Ogami Itto and his son, Diagoro, are still on the road killing people for money taking the demon's road. In this issue we find out a little more about Diagoro.
He spends a big part of this volume alone and it's interesting to see that even though he is very young, his father has very much rubbed off on him. There is even on scene when the little three-year old even takes his father's fighting stance to ward off some people.
Ogami Itto however commits more to the demon's road. Even going so fare as to meditate on top of a mountain surrounded by wolves. He kills some of them but in a great scene towards the end of the chapter the wolves come in and stare at him meditating and then decide to leave him alone and follow him out of his mountain retreat.
The most impressive thing about this volume is that Ogami himself kills someone who believes themselves to be the Buddha. Upon meeting the man even tries to tempt fate and tells the Lone Wolf that there is no way that he can be harmed, that any damage that comes to him will be reflected back upon the attacker.
This, at the end of the book, is proved not to be true. Ogami cuts him down and then leaves town with his son. The villagers are so shocked as to what they just say they do not follow him. Truly great stuff here. I have the next set of volumes on my desk ready to go.
Lone Wolf and Cub is available on Amazon and digitally.