Genre Action
Age Rating 13+
Price $18.95
Publisher's summary of volume from the back cover: After heeding the Heavenly Umbrella Elder's advice, Jian finds the Heavenly Umbrella to uncover the secrets hidden within it, and learns several new mysterious techniques. However, Jian's arrongance leads to the death of someone close to him... Meanwhile, Wu Yuan has arrived in Shafe Town to find Lohan's friends, Luna and Lupin. But shortly after their introductions, Lupin is kidnapped by a mysterious vampire, who is one of the Q level Face Card Assassins!
After a certain point of immersing yourself with Chinese Hero, the series is starting to look brilliant. Yes, it's campy in its own way but it's in this volume that events start coming to a close and one gets to see some resolution with all the character relationships. Even Hero's son, Jian, starts becoming a sympathetic character, and the plot leaves you curious about what happens next.
Ma's art is a bit rough compared to modern standards but it's certainly there especially when it comes to the fight scenes. As far as I can tell, my only real complaints with the art is Ma's genders. There have been two instances where I've mistaken female characters as men. Maybe Ma simply can't draw ugly women and so he resorts to modeling them after males.
Storywise, there's some unbelievable events that are simply cool for martial arts fans. One of the most memorable scenes for example is one of the characters fending off five female assailants by a lake atop a mountain (!) and all the while, the five femme fatales are slowly stripping as they make their attacks (alas, while four are gorgeously drawn, their leader is one of those women-mistaken-as-men complaints I was talking about). And then we find out it's all a puzzle, which leads to some interesting twist and turns.
As far as the plot is concerned, Ma starts to wrap things up and secondary characters are thrust into the forefront. In fact, Hero himself only has a short scene in this volume as the rest are devoted to everyone else. But you know what, I didn't mind as they're compelling and their development is certainly headed in the right direction. The author seems brilliant as loose connections are suddenly linked and we readers finally glimpse the impending tragedies and dramatic tensions.
Chinese Hero continues to eerily fascinate me and makes me curious as what'll happen in the next volume. This is one of those comics where the more you're exposed to it, the more you start to appreciate the nuances and the tropes and techniques of the author aren't easily dismissed.
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