Genetic engineering can be hit or miss. Sometimes you get freaks and sometimes you get people with badass powers.
Creative Staff
Writer/Artist: Shirow Miwa
Translation: Alexis Kirsch
What They Say
Badou’s in trouble again. He’s found some of the “Lost Children,” rare genetic experiments left from the past–but so has the mafia. It’s up to Heine to bail him out, but the Stray Dog has his own problems now that the enigmatic Giovanni is back on the scene. Meanwhile, Naoto comes to the Underground searching for the killer who wields the same strange black sword as hers. And so their paths begin to converge in the dark and dangerous heart of the city.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
I can’t tell if Badou has bad luck or if he is just an idiot. Considering he is supposed to have really good luck, I guess that makes him an idiot. Then again, being an information broker in a world of thugs and con artists is probably going to catch up to you sooner than later. This time it takes some intervention on Heine’s part to pull Badou out of his bad situation.
Heine busts in with his guns blazing, wasting thugs left and right. I have to say, attaching your gun to a wallet chain and then strangling a guy with the chain is just as badass as it gets. That aside, Heine once again displays his ability to survive gunshot wounds. It’s a cool power and certainly comes in handy, but he has an inner animal that might cause him grief he loses control of it. I’m not sure exactly how it works other than he has some strange implant in his back and he was some kind of experiment that escaped from a level below the city. Then again, Badou and Mihai don’t know much about Heine’s past either.
The whole reason the guys were messing with these thugs was to rescue some ‘Lost Children’, or fetish mutants. Girls genetically engineered to have animal traits; horns, tails, wings, etc. The whole thing is a great example of how people can abuse knowledge. I understand why Badou and Heine rescue Lost Children whenever they can, I just don’t know how the Lost Children are connected to their past.
Since rescuing the Lost Child with angel wings, Heine has given her to the care of a local church and its blind priest. The irony of a winged girl living at a church isn’t lost on me, but I don’t think the people in this world are very religious. As a ‘winged type’, the girl is worth a lot of money on the human slave market and Heine may end up dealing with a lot of grief to keep her safe. However, being able to heal quickly means he can deal with any gang of thugs. What really gives him fits is a single man named Giovanni.
Giovanni seems to have come from the same lab that gave Heine his powers, only Giovanni never ran away. Giovanni proves he is one tough dude as he kicks the crap out Heine in an attempt to drag him back to the lab. A seriously long gun battle ensues, but Heine can never get the upper hand. Can he defeat Giovanni without releasing his inner animal and losing control? Whom are the creepy twins running around with Giovanni? Will Mihai get a bigger role in the next volume?
In Summary:
First, don’t forget that this volume one isn’t actually the first book in this series. There is ‘Dogs: Prelude’ volume 0, which introduces the four main characters in a shoot ‘em up thrill ride. Therefore, you want to make sure you start with that book. Speaking of, after reviewing the Prelude volume 0, I was optimistic for this series. Unfortunately, volume one spends too much time following battles and too little developing the characters. Granted, Prelude did it’s job and sucked me into the ‘Dogs’ world, I just hope volume two reveals a little more or brings the other characters into the story more as this volume one was very Heine centered.
If you are a fan of John Woo style gunfights, then this book is for you. Heine never disappoints when his guns come out. Add to that his long kickass fight with Giovanni and this volume packs a punch. The action is all there, just a little lacking on the character development side. Nevertheless, with color pages and a large format, ‘Dogs’ is still a decent purchase.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: August 11th, 2009
MSRP: $12.99
