Can’t escape that heart of gold.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Osamu Tezuka
What They Say
Black Jack is a mysterious and charismatic young genius surgeon who travels the world performing amazing and impossible medical feats. Though a trained physician, he refuses to accept a medical license due to his hatred and mistrust of the medical community’s hypocrisy and corruption. This leads Black Jack to occasional run-ins with the authorities, as well as from gangsters and criminals who approach him for illegal operations.Black Jack charges exorbitant fees for his services, the proceeds from which he uses to fund environmental projects and to aid victims of crime and corrupt capitalists. But because Black Jack keeps his true motives secret, his ethics are perceived as questionable and he is considered a selfish, uncaring devil.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As is his nature, Black Jack tackles yet another slew of medical peculiarities and finds, as always, that we are ailed more by our prejudices and self-righteousness than by any illness. To summarize a few of the things that Black Jack has to face this time around, he deals with a feral dog, a gang of Yakuza, an egg baby, a bandit, an assassin, and more than one hard-headed surgeon. Of course he finds his own unique way to come out of these situations on top, that goes without saying. But whether or not Black Jack is always right about a situation is more or less beside the point. Just as in previous volumes, in these stories we get to see Black Jack flourishing as one of the best anti-heroes in the medium. In this collection, we see Black Jack viciously attack a woman to prove a diagnosis, not inform the authorities of a pending assassination attempt on a foreign dictator, blackmail a rich couple, and refuse to share his discovery of a treatment as a way to get back at the doctor for not trusting him. Without a doubt, it is all for the common good, but where it is usually left to society to determine if something is acceptable, Black Jack takes it upon himself to be the sole arbiter of justice.
All the good Black Jack hallmarks are here: intricately detailed medical mysteries, emotionally taut situations, savagery, betrayal, redemption, and plots that are never quite what they seem at first. To be quick with it, Black Jack is full of humanity, often at its most raw, and certainly at its most vulnerable. It is difficult to truly judge a volume of Black Jack, even more so in comparison to any other. Essentially a collection of short stories, since there is little overall plot, and since the quality and underlying content seldom errs, the opinions of one collection versus another lies in very small, very subjective details, for if the merits of one story ring true to you, then it is exceedingly likely that all the stories will ring true in largely equal ways. Tezuka is very consistent in his ideas and execution, so it’s difficult to say what keeps this volume from being perfectly rated, though only barely so. I suppose I will simply have to fall back on the fact that I didn’t feel a couple of the stories were as strong as they could have been, particularly “What Lurks the Mountain” and “Random Killer.” I didn’t dislike either of these stories, but neither did they live up to expectation. That said, “A Wrong Diagnosis,” “On the Way,” and “Swapped” are all good enough to carry the book by themselves.
When it comes right down to it, even slightly off Tezuka is head and shoulders above many works that are generally considered of high quality. And when you’ve got a book with only one or two stories that are “slightly off” out of more than a dozen, you know you’ve got a winner. After multiple volumes and dozens of stories, the fact that Tezuka could keep coming up with shorts of such unbelievable quality is yet another testament to his unrelenting genius.
In Summary
There is frame in this volume that, I feel, perfectly epitomizes who Black Jack is as a character. After a young, promising doctor comes to Black Jack and asks to be his assistant, Black Jack slams down his fist and, with sinewy knuckles and one piercing eye, hunched over his table, Black Jack calls out, “Don’t become one who invites contempt!” It’s a striking frame that perfectly shows the toll that living his life has taken on him. He clearly has no regrets and openly invites his station as a pariah, but he won’t let anyone live the way he does or follow his path, his passions, and conflict extremely visible. This is the character that we come to see. Each story explores and builds on this ecstatic turmoil, and this volume doesn’t disappoint. Though a couple of the chapters don’t have the kick I feel they should, Black Jack remains one of the most consistently perfect titles to date.
Content Grade: A-
Art Grade: A
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Vertical
Release Date: November 17th, 2009
MSRP: $16.95
