One Punch Man (2023)

[ワンパンマン]

Volume 28

Author: ONE
Artist: Yusuke Murata
Publisher: Jump Comics

Synopsis:
Genos comes to Tatsumaki's aid in the fight against the Psychos-Orochi fusion.

Story/Characters:
Genos bursts in on the scene with some beam spam to buy Tatsumaki time to get the Heroes clear of the danger zone. Once they're out of the way, Genos is spent, but he's done what he needed to do. Now Tatsumaki has nothing holding her back, and if you thought you'd seen the full scope of her power, you ain't seen nothing yet. She proceeds to take the entirety of Z City and wring it out like an old washrag. The sheer scale is staggering, but with all the massive blood fountains she's making of the whole Monster Association, she ends up conjuring up a blood fountain of her own as she's taxing her body to its limits. The thing about her, though, is that every time it looks like she's hit her ceiling, she reaches even greater heights. Psychos takes advantage of the momentary opening to break off from the main body and try to escape, but that moment is all the time she has before Tatsumaki raises a barrier that encompasses the whole area of the city, trapping her inside. The idea is not just to trap Psychos in the overall barrier but to create another layer to further limit her freedom of movement. Psychos thinks that maintaining the barrier is taking all of Tatsumaki's strength and so she uses the deflective property of the barrier to launch an attack, only Tatsumaki still has tricks up her sleeve and the body Psychos ran through was just a decoy. Drive Knight joins the fight, giving Genos time enough to bring the other S-Class Heroes up to speed before returning to Tatsumaki's aid.

We spend some time with the S-Class Heroes getting back in sorts. Oh, yeah. Amai Mask is there too. Needless to say, his massive ego can't handle the thrashing he's taken and he takes out his frustrations on Kurobikari, who's still frozen in terror after his defeat at the hands of Garou. Surprisingly, Amai Mask's approach actually helps Kurobikari pull himself together as the heroes regroup. Tanktop Master joins them, followed by Fubuki with Bang and Bomb. The gang's all together and ready to help Tatsumaki put an end to the fight.

Genos is covering Tatsumaki as she overexerts herself to the point of passing out (while still using her powers). She flashes back to her days as a test subject. One day, a monster gets loose in the lab and all the staff evacuate, leaving her behind. Just when it looks like the monster's going to eat her, she's saved by Blast. (Interestingly, he describes heroing as a hobby, much as Saitama did at the start of the series.) She'd been suppressing her powers in a bid to be abandoned as a test subject and had pretty much given up on life (as she considers herself to have been sold out by her parents). Blast reminds her of her sister, that she has someone worth protecting and he gives her some advice, that someone with great power must never believe that there will be someone else to save them when it counts. Back in the present, Fubuki contacts Tatsumaki telepathically and tells her they're coming to save her. She simply smirks at being underestimated and she digs deeper still to summon more power to stop the fleeing Psychos. Genos and Drive Knight are pursuing and giving Psychos a lot of trouble, and just when she thinks she's managed to shake them, she starts getting pelleted by rubble from Tanktop Master, giving Genos and Drive Knight the chance to fuse for a combined attack, that kicks off an Ultra Combo of all the S-Class heroes. Just when the job almost looks done, Tatsumaki comes in with the finisher, tearing out the spire of earth she made and turning it into a giant spear of light to finish off the remnant of Orochi (as Psychos appears to have been split apart from it between Kurobikari and Bang and Bomb's attacks). The one problem is that Saitama, Flash and Manako are inside this earth spire. While Saitama and Flash are squabbling over Flash's broken sword, Manako tries to slip out, only to stumble upon some giant dark figure curled up in the core of the spire.

Art:
Murata never fails to impress. Tatsumaki is a beast who just won't go down, taking a ridiculous amount of punishment while delivering even more. The nightmare imagery of Garou fully coming into his monster nature is quite effective as well. And of course the grand Ultra Combo is ridiculously hype. With a visual feast on this level, I can live with only two volumes coming out in a year.

Other:
We get a short bonus comic of Bankenman defending Q City.

Conclusion:
You seriously wonder if there's a ceiling to the escalation here. If there is, we haven't found it yet. Tatsumaki keeps upping the scale over and over and over again. It makes for some stunning visuals, but it's not just nonstop action. We actually do get some good character moments with Tatsumaki's past and Kurobikari working through the terror of his defeat. Speaking of scale, it's interesting to see Garou being set up as the ultimate evil in the making (and his own vision of being an equal despair to offset the unequal justice of the world). This has all the stuff an OPM fan is looking for, so it's an easy recommendation for your collection.

Rating:
Own It