Appleseed, Vol. 1: The Promethean Challenge

Appleseed, Vol. 1: The Promethean Challenge by Masamune Shirow
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In the aftermath of a world war, Deunan and her cyborg companion Briareos are living in a deserted, ruined city until Hitomi, a woman from Olympus, brings them to her city on behalf of the Central Management Bureau. Olympus is a utopia at first glance but there's a power struggle brewing in the shadows and Deunan and Briareos are about to be dragged into the middle of it...

Manga was really hard to come by in those hazy times before the internet. I read a few issues of Appleseed back in the day but lost track of it. Mail order was a bitch. Anyway, Dark Horse reprinted Appleseed a few years ago so I figured it was time to catch up.

Utopia isn't all its cracked up to be is the central message of Appleseed. Deunan and Briareos come to Olympus and find maybe the wastelands weren't so bad. There aren't a lot of jobs for people from the badlands and Hitomi, their host, is clearly up to something. The cyborgs running the city have their own game going, as does Athena, one of the brass from the Central Management Bureau.

That's what I gather, anyway. I have to think some things were lost in translation.

Anyway, the art is great. The backgrounds are hyper detailed at times, as are the landmates, the mecha of the series. Briareos, with his rabbit ears, had to be part of the inspiration for the Commissioner Gordon Batman during Scott Snyder's run.

Shirow has a knack for drawing action, although it was a little unclear at times which landmate was which, partly due to the gray tones. I realize manga aren't usually in color but some color would have cleared things up a bit.

I found Deunan and Briareos to be sympathetic characters, finally having arrived at paradise but finding out they don't really fit in there. By the time shit hit the fan, I was pretty attached to them. It was somewhat cathartic when Deunan climbed into her landmate and started kicking ass.

While I wasn't sure what was going on some of the time, The Promethean Challenge was very enjoyable experience. I'm glad I have the other three volumes on deck. Four out of five stars.

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