Katana #8, by Ann Nocenti (writer), Cliff Richards (artist), Matt Yackey (colorist), Taylor Esposito (letterer) - That's a nice action-packed cover, but the characters are almost too active. It's like Katana and Coil are each trying three different attacks at the seam time. You've got a kick, maybe an elbow strike, plus whatever they're trying to manage with their swords. Can you put any sort of force into an attack when the body is trying to do that much stuff all at once?Katana's still trying to get into the Sword Clans, and one of the trials is beating a master with his own weapon. Thus, the fight against Coil with one of those whip swords. It's a bit of back and forth, Katana dealing with his greater experience, his mouth, and her own emotions, but she comes out on top eventually. Still, there are other trials, and one of them is to track down the young girl that escaped from her sword and took Shun's foot. The spirit in question, Mona Shard, is busy possessing a little bully and training her body in to a weapon that can drag her old Dagger Clan to the top. Katana receives some helpful advice from the fellow with the Falcon, though whether it's more applicable to dealing with her sword, or the Sword Clans, I'm not sure. Either way, she has doubts about whether she really needs to kill Mona. I'm not sure myself. She seems vicious, but anymore so than Coil, and Katana spared him, so who knows.
Cliff Richards handles the art chores for the entire issue, so I consider this a real step up from the previous issues. He doesn't do anything spectacular, but he knows how to keep everything clear. When he wants to give one panel a lot of space for a cool moment, he still leaves enough room for the other panels on the page. The action looks good, and I like the panel of Katana and Shun walking through town together. They look so relaxed and confident, each wearing the marks Coil tried carving into them, not giving a damn who sees them.
It fits nicely with what I think is one of the themes Nocenti's been working with in this title, the whole aspect of men trying to keep women down, to dictate what they can and can't do. Coil's a perfect example because he spends the entire fight running down Tatsu, criticizing her for getting emotional, laughing about things her husband (allegedly, though I wouldn't doubt it, Maseo seems like kind of a hypocritical dick) said about her behind her back. When he tries to tell her that she's accomplished nothing with all her scrambling about, she takes control of the fight, rebuffs his argument, and says she's enjoyed every minute of it, regardless of whether it got her anywhere. Then he tries to undercut that by claiming she's "sick", but she blows him off, and leaves, head high, Shun at her side.
I also don't think it was a coincidence the billboard the two fought in front of was showing some ad for women's perfume, and emphasizing what I'd guess were the sort of traditional limitations we impose on women. Look pretty, smell nice, wear heels so a guy will want to kiss you, because otherwise there wouldn't be any point, right? And Katana's rejecting all that, she'll decide what she enjoys, why and for what she fights, and anyone who tries to dictate her life without her asking them to first, is going to learn just how bad an idea that is. Shun's a part of this, since she didn't choose to be covered in these tattoos, they were put there on the orders on 'officials', who I would guess were guys, and given that, it really makes me question the one about Katana. A prophecy that says if a woman takes power, it will ruin everything. Gee, what a shock. I think that's part of why Tatsu's unsure about killing Mona. She recognizes Mona probably isn't any worse that Coil or Sickle, so why does Mona have to die. Besides the part where she's already dead, but you don't see the boys telling her to go after Maseo, the samurai, or the Creeper. Possibly because none of them have demonstrated their intent to upset the current status among the different clans.
See, this book makes me think in a way a lot of the other titles don't. I'm gonna miss that when it's gone. That being said, I did think that during the fight between Katana and Coil, things turned awfully quickly. Some thoughts balloons allowing us to track Tatsu's thoughts might have helped. The way it played out, I think Coil's attempt to deride her efforts at cleaning up the Outsiders, triggered a realization, or helped coalesce her thoughts, and that gave her a clarity that let her turn the tables, start mocking Coil, rather than let his taunts goad her. But with no peer inside her mind, it just looks like she decided to start fighting better all of the sudden. I do miss thought bubbles, but everybody loves those caption boxes now, assuming you even get that.
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