Heaven and Earth

by Kazuo Koike

Dark Horse Comics is proud to present one of the authentic landmarks in graphic fiction, Lone Wolf and Cub, to be published in its entirety for the first time. Lone Wolf and Cub is an epic samurai adventure of staggering proportions -- a 17th century story of a disgraced Shogun's executioner wandering the country as an assassin.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1569715947
• ISBN13: 9781569715949
• Release Date: June 2002
• Publisher: Dark Horse Manga
• Length: 282 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.3" x 6.3"
• Age Range: 16 years and up

Customer Reviews

Once again Ogami Itto and Retsudo Yagyu cross swords

By the time you get this far into the 28 volume manga epic from Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima, you expect your expectations to be violated. When I started "Heaven and Earth," Volume 22 in the Lone Wolf & Cub series, the stage was clearly being set for the final, fatal confrontation between Ogami Itto and Retsudo Yagyu, while Abe-no-Kaii tries to find a way to bring them both down. Therefore I knew that something would stop this from happening and that whatever this something was, it was going to be unexpected and significant. Of course, the fact there are six more volumes to go suggests it is too early for the end to be nigh. "Heaven and Earth" offers up the next four installments of the Lone Wolf & Cub saga:(108) "The Last Fistful" focuses on Abe-no-Kaii and the master poisoner's desperate attempts to find a way out of the whole he has dug for himself. Getting the better of Retsudo Yagyu proves to be just as impossible as besting Ogami Itto was for Kaii. But then he sees a one in a million chance to still win the big power struggle. (109) "Totekirai" offers another significant surprise in our story. In the previous volume we finally learned what happened to all of the gold Ogami Itto has been accumulating on his bloody journey along the Assassin's Road. There have been a few guesses as to what he wanted all of that gold for, but, of course, those guesses were not even close to the truth that is revealed in this story. (110) "Heaven and Earth" has to be the title for this volume because once again Ogami Itto and Retsudo Yagyu stand upon the field of battle facing each other with their swords. But before that happens Daigoro has to save his father from the feared Yagyu wheel However, that fool Kaii does something that makes the final confrontation seem rather insignificant. Of course, it is raining throughout these fights, which is not at all surprising knowing the reverence Kojima has for Akira Kurosawa (show me a climatic battle in the rain, such as "The Two Towers," and I immediately think the end of "Seven Samurai"). (111) "Fire on the River of Blood" starts off as a Daigoro story and then becomes, well, something that can only be described as a story you never would have thought you would read (i..e, no way am I going to spoil this one for anybody who has gotten this far into the saga).The final volume in Lone Wolf & Cub should be out soon, which means that my decision to start reading these comics one story a day (111 days ago) was a monumentally fortuitous example of timing. I have read more than my fair share of comic books and I have never read anything that was this good for this long. It has also been a long time since I have approached the end of an epic like this with so much regret. "Lone Wolf & Cub" is a classic comic book series, albeit, one for a mature audience.