One Punch Man (2022)

[ワンパンマン]

Volume 25

Author: ONE
Artist: Yusuke Murata
Publisher: Jump Comics

Synopsis:
While chasing Nyaan, Puripuri Prisoner stumbles upon Garou.

Story/Characters:
We open with Puripuri Prisoner finding a chained-up Garou, who promptly breaks free and starts smacking him down. We then have Saitama run across Flash. Flash, like most people, grossly underestimates Saitama, which leads to some funny stuff as he tries to get rid of our boy. Up on the surface, Nyaan appears and starts to wreak havoc on support Heroes. In the spirit of Mumen Rider, they show a lot of heart trying to hold off a vastly superior foe and protect Waganma while they're at it. It takes the appearance of Drive Knight to turn things around, but even then there's a decent fight to be had. The cold thing about it was that he was sitting back and gathering intel before stepping in, sacrificing all the support Heroes to give him a better chance of success. The logic is sound, but it won't win him any friends. While Drive Knight is relaying the intel he's been gathering to Sekingar, he accuses Dr. Bofoi (i.e. Metal Knight) to be a traitor, which is rather disastrous as he provides a significant portion of the Hero Association's security. Drive Knight requests the aid of the #1 S-Class Hero Blast, but apparently he's more or less retired. Before Sekingar can contact HQ, he gets his hand blasted off by a rickety G5, who then transforms into its true form. Things look pretty dire, but then the cavalry shows up in the form of Genos. (There's a cute moment where Sekingar is relieved that it's his right hand that was lost because it means his wedding ring is still safe.)

During Nyaan's rampage, Waganma was passed off to Futoshi, who managed to get away when Drive Knight entered the fray. He's at his limit, having burned through his fat reserves, but then Genos shows up to toss him onto this big pile of wounded Heroes that Genos is carrying to safety. As the main priority is the rescue of Waganma, Sekingar requests Genos assist with the escort, but Futoshi steps up and asks him to send Genos back in the field to help the Heroes still fighting the Monster Association. Realizing the danger of losses among the S-Class, Sekingar takes the chance of sending Genos out while giving him the intel Drive Knight collected on the Monster Association lieutenants.

Meanwhile, Puripuri Prisoner has his tail thoroughly handed to him, but luckily for him, the wall he smashes through leaves him right at the feet of Kurobikari. We then check in of Child Emperor, who finds Iaian, Okamaitachi and Bushidrill all beaten up. The opponent is a critter called Evil Natural Water. Being mostly water, it's highly resistant to physical attacks, but this is the Child Emperor we're talking about, so he's got more than a few tricks up his sleeve.

Art:
There's a nice full-page shot of Garou when he starts attacking Puripuri Prisoner. The contrast of Saitama and Flash is pretty funny. Nyaan vs. the support Heroes is pretty rough, but props to Gearsper for his big show of power. The Drive Knight vs. Nyaan fight is pretty good and the first part of Child Emperor vs. Evil Natural Water isn't bad either.

Other:
We get a bonus comic of Saitama back in his training days, right when he was starting to go bald. He tries to break the laws of physics to check the back of his head when he only has one mirror in the house.

Conclusion:
We get some pretty good action set pieces here and I do like how the support Heroes stand up to Nyaan. It's a solid entry that should satisfy most fans, but it's not quite on the level of a must-have. Give it a read at least.

Rating:
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