Review – Tokyo Ghost #6 (Image Comics)

Publisher: Image Comics
Story: Rick Remender
Art: Sean Gordon Murphy
Release Date: 20th April 2016

Welp, Tokyo Ghost is most certainly back! After a short hiatus, the series returns in style, with the story shifting in a slightly different direction. While the first arc centred on society’s obsession with technology and how it has shaped our generation, the second arc seems to be more focused on highlighting the inherent flaws of what could be seen as a parallel of our own government.

We open with the personification of “history is written by the winners”, those winners being some of the more colourful inhabitants of the TG universe. It’s here that Sean Gordon Murphy and Matt Hollingsworth go balls-to-the-wall, and my God, it looks amazing. Taking literary nursery rhyme characters and making them freedom fighters is a touch of class, and the art team hold nothing back. Murphy brings his ‘A’ game here, and his instantly recognisable style infuses each page with a vibrant, crackling energy. In tandem with Hollingsworth’s visceral colour palette, the duo succeed in creating something disturbingly beautiful, especially in the opening scene.

Remender has created a monster with Flak. While he might not be representative of anyone in government at the moment, his political leanings and manner of dealing with the general populous, parallel certain nefarious real-life figures. The series has always been highly sexualised, but in this issue things become even more gratuitous. I think *that* scene is one that people are going to be talking about for a while, taking the often used idea that the government regularly fuck the media ever-so-slightly literally.

Yes, it’s shock value, but it’s shock value with meaning. The TG team manage to have the book being very adult, with very adult themes, but it’s all there to convey a message. Whether or not that message is understood, or simply swept under the rug and written off as entertainment remains to be seen. However, when you look back at previous attempts to do similar (I instantly think of Transmetropolitan, Ex Machina, and Pride of Bagdad), each are still widely regarded as well written, thought-provoking, highly-charged books, and for me, Tokyo Ghost is right up there with the best of them.

The title all makes sense now, and I fucking love it.

Rating: A very easy 5/5.

The writer of this piece was: Chris Bennett
Article: And Now For Something Completely Different
You can also find Chris on Twitter.