Writer, Artist & Letterer: Stan Sakai
Colorist: Hi-Fi Colour Design
Cover Artists: Stan Sakai & Emi Fujii; Derek Chew; Mitsuhiro Arita
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Price: $4.99
Release Date: July 17, 2024
Inuyoshi captured Yukichi. The vicious leader doesn’t want competition from Gen, Stray Dog, and Usagi as his bounty hunters track the bandit Jimmu. Inuyoshi demands that Usagi and his friends leave town or he will kill Usagi’s cousin. Will Usagi, Gen, and Stray Dog do Inuyoshi’s bidding? Let's grab our katanas, charge into Usagi Yojimbo: The Crow #4 and find out!
Story
While Gen drinks, the boy eats. Isamu lives on the streets, and can rarely afford seconds, let alone thirds. But Gen calls a halt to Isamu’s feasting and demands Yukichi’s location. Isamu wonders why Yukichi matters to them. Usagi explains that Yukichi is his cousin. The boy is envious, as no one looks out for a street urchin.
In Usagi Yojimbo: The Crow #4, the latter includes the bounty hunter, Nobu, who asked Isamu to help capture Yukichi, then refused to pay the orphan. Nobu’s boss, Inuyoshi, waits to hear if Usagi, Gen, and Stray Dog have left the area. But Nobu insists it would be easier to kill Yukichi than wait to learn if Usagi and his friends have left them area. While Inuyoshi is dour and ruthless, Nobu believes the world owes him. So when a situation arises that would help him advance, he grabs it, regardless of the cost to others.
Like Inuyoshi, Usagi knows what it’s like to lose his clan. He wanders the land as a ronin, without a place or a people to call his own. Yukichi was an unexpected blessing: someone to share the journey with. So, while he worries about Yukichi, he empathizes with Isamu’s plight.
Stan Sakai fills his story with ruminations on family, loyalty, and honor, as Usagi takes another person under his wing. When imprisoned, Yukichi looks out for his adversaries. While bounty hunters fight over money and position, the bandit leader Jimmu attacks merchant caravan. Like Nobu, Jimmu is a harsh and brutal pragmatist. Inuyoshi is bitter over how his lord dismissed him. But in Usagi Yojimbo: The Crow #4, the grim bounty hunter who has lost the joy of living must choose between the pragmatism that helped him survive and sacrificing his wealth and position to protect another’s interests. Or worse, a skull in a dialogue balloon hovering over his still body.
Art
Isamu smiles wide and his eyes drift closed as he eats. Usagi shares the boy’s smiles and offers gentle nudges. Amid this warmth and bonding, Gen acts as the strict taskmaster. The boy’s eyes bulge when Usagi hands the boy a gold Ryo. But it’s Usagi’s friend who makes sure the boy earns his reward in Usagi Yojimbo: The Crow #4.
Hi-Fi Colour Design showcases brightly colored characters against brow, tan, beige, and gray as Usagi, Gen, and Stray Dog question Isamu in the North Inn. Even though he’s seated on the floor in the abandoned temple, Yukichi looks intense and driven as he makes his assertions. Nobu frowns as he argues. Dressed in orange and gray-blue, he clenches his fist as he grumbles. Despite not paying Isamu the money he owed him, and snitching Yukichi’s hefty purse, he’s unhappy that his leader, dressed in warm maroon and gray-blue, kneels before Yukichi.
In addition to his appealing characters and settings, Stan Sakai rewards readers with generously sized letters in white dialogue balloons. Raised voices swell and darken words, while colored question and exclamation marks join a skull in dialogue balloons. Amid the grunts, groans, and gasps, Sakai fills the air with the Pows and Wops that made the 1960s Batman TV show so much fun. And then there’s the immense samurai cries as Usagi and his friends crash the party in Usagi Yojimbo: The Crow #4. Thanks to Dark Horse for providing a copy for review.
Final Thoughts
Stan Sakai muses on the importance of family, society’s need to care for orphans, and the link between money and happiness in Usagi Yojimbo: The Crow #4.
Rating 9.6/10
To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.
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