Publisher: 2000AD
Writer: Robbie Morrison
Artists: Colin Macneil, Simon Fraser, Duke Mighten, Robert McCallum, and Cyril Julien
Editor: Matt Smith
Out: 27 May 2015
Price: £9.99

Former Senior Judge, now ronin (a master less samurai), Shimura brings down a shed load of vengeance on the denizens of Hondo-City, the far-eastern megalopolis, and all that remains of the nation of Japan, following the Atomic Wars.

This volume kicks off with Outcast, where the Shimura invades a yakuza stronghold and kills the incumbent Oyabun. Previously thought to be dead, Shimura’s one-man crusade on Hondo-City’s gangland, paints a bulls-eye Shimura’s back. Which means a crack team of Judges, with shoot to kill orders, are deployed to hunt the Shimura down. So, to avoid capture and certain death, Shimura goes on the run with Michiko the daughter of the deceased Oyabun. Throw in Oni-Demons, a love triangle, an interfamilial bloodbath and, oh yes, par for the course, a traitorous Judge. And that’s just for starters. All depicted in glorious black and white.

The second offering, Fearful Symmetry, promises more of the same. You can buy anything in the Wakayama Market District and it’s definitely no place for a nice girl. Fortunately Nanae is not a nice girl and when she makes Shimura an offer he can’t refuse you just know trouble will follow. Along with her twin sister, Mariko, the Chiaka Twins want to test their skill with Laser-Shuriken against an acknowledged master. Three guesses who that might be! Basically an excuse for an all-out slugfest, this is short, violent and classy with a nice line in black humour.

The next instalment, Chambara, involves terrorists who take over the Kurosawa Hov-In and demand Shimura’s death. Seems our hero still isn’t going to win any popularity contests because the powers that be seem to think this is a perfectly reasonable demand! Cue more martial arts mayhem with a killer last line. This piece sticks with the colour artwork and eschews the eye dazzling primary brightness of most comic books, to give colour that seems a little washed out and serves to rob the strip of much of its stark, visual energy.

In The Transcendental Assassin, Yoshida Zengo is a sensei preaching extreme violence and, naturally, wants to test his theory against everyone’s favourite ronin. Outnumbered, (like that matters) Shimura cuts a swathe through the acolytes until he faces Yoshida Zengo himself. I’ll leave you to guess how it ends!

There are several other offerings here of various lengths including a Shane homage and the obligatory meeting with Judge Dredd during which Shimura gets to kick our favourite lawman in the helmet and get away with it – how’s that for street cred! My advice is seek out the longer monochrome instalments. The shorter versions tend to be predictable, a devious and ever more bizarre villain goes after our hero’s head only to get their own head handed to back to them.

Shimura is a multi-layered, complex character, but all too often creators take the path of least resistance and serve up sleaze and violence. Nothing wrong with that but the strip only really excels when it goes the extra mile and gets under the skin of the characters.

Reviewer: Gary Orchard
Review Editor: Steve Hooker