Written & Illustrated by Koichi Tokita
Published in the west by Tokyopop, $9.99 (US), available from www.amazon.com or www.amazon.co.uk and any other suppliers of Gundam books.

Overview

The second volume of this Wing sidestory contains the next four chapters of young Odin Bernett's story of seemingly hopeless resistance and more unique Mobile Suits than you can shake a stick at. The requisite mysterious masked man (who, let's be honest, is about as mysterious as the Clark Kent/Superman thing) frolics around with OZ Prize in their new Gundam, whilst Odin rapidly comes to terms with his role as defender of MO-V and learns how to actually kick some ass. Like a Bandai exec's wet dream, this volume is full of more new mobile suits. The fight for MO-V continues, with people once again switching sides here and there. The psychotic looking Valder Farkill enters the fray and nobody knows who's fighting for what anymore. It ends with the stage set for a battle royale in the final volume and the sides somewhat reshuffled (as is so often the tradition in Gundam).

Opinion

The art in this volume is great, very dynamic in the action scenes (and there are a lot of those) and very nicely styled when showing off the characters. The overall presentation is still working well despite the small size, which is something that had seemed a potential problem to me. American mainstream comics often have quite wild panel layouts and they'd be unreadable at this size. The print quality is still good, despite everyone's bias against Tokyopop. If you're a fan of the "Go For It Domon! Gundam Party" strips in the back of the first volume (like me) then you'll love the incredible number of them present here. There are literally dozens of them (which explains why, at the time of writing, I have yet to scan them all!) and they're all amusing to some degree, if a little more hit and miss compared to those in volume one.

When I read this volume something clicked with the whole series. I enjoyed the first volume but it wasn't until after I'd finished this one that I really appreciated G-UNIT. It's very much a work of pulp storytelling. This volume more so than the first as it's full of side-changing characters, desperate fights, constantly bettered mobile weapons and a heart warming, if rather unsurprising, event towards the end. It all feels wonderfully clichéd, to an extent, and really rolls along with enthusiasm that you can't help but be caught up with. It's still aimed at the younger reader, as I pointed out with the first volume, but this time it felt more like something I'd have picked up anyway. At the end of the previous book I didn't feel like I would have bought it were I not curious, this time I'm very glad I did. Perhaps most importantly, this book left me really wanting to find out how the story concludes and it took me on a fun, juvenile, rollercoaster ride to get there. If you were unsure about picking up the series then I think you should, and be pleasantly surprised. If you bought part one and didn't plan on buying this one then I urge you to reconsider.

Written to The Bloodhound Gang - The Ballad Of Chasey Lain