Trigun Maximum

    (Dark Horse, 2004-2005)
™ and © 1998 Yasuhiro Nightow
Reads right to left; black and white series.

After trying to help the inhabitants of an abandoned planet make contact with the outside world, Vash and his friends must turn their attention back to saving their own lives. His nemesis Knives has marked Vash for death and continues to dispatch his team of assassins (the Gung Ho Guns) to finish the job.

The deceptively youthful Zazie “The Beast” stirs things up by eviscerating the band of Midvalley the Hornfreak and forcing the lethal saxophonist to join the Gun’s mission. Then, Zazie kidnaps the fair insurance adjuster Meryl as bait to lure Vash to battle the rolling wrecking ball known as Hoppered the Gauntlet. Meanwhile, Midvalley unleashes a torrent of terrible tunes upon the cross-bearing Wormwood, who may need to be rescued by Meryl’s partner Millie.

It’s hard to tell the players without a scorecard, as Trigun pitches deeper into murderers’ row. Nightow’s style is to be alternatively light and bruising with a sketchily frenetic penciling style, which can confuse new readers but manages to continue to please the old ones.

— Oliver Chin
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