- Title: Usagi Yojimbo #5
- Comic Vine: link
- Writer: Stan Sakai
- Artist: Stan Sakai
Tragedy comes in the conclusion of “The Hero.” True to his word, Miyamoto Usagi helps see Lady Mura back to her father, but there is little comfort the honorable elder can offer. Instead honor insists she return home with her husband, whose sudden appearance does nothing to lessen Usagi’s opinion of the man.
The end of the comic mirrors the opening pages from Mura’s story, just as tragedy befalls the hero in her tale so does it the author who the husband kills on the road back home (blaming the same bandits Usagi fought off earlier in the comic). Usagi doesn’t act on his suspicions, but karma has a role to play in the killer’s future.
Usagi Yojimbo #5 offers a sad, but memorable, tale from our rabbit ronin’s wanderings. There may have been no happy ending for Mura, but her stories did far outshine her husband’s accomplishments. Also worthy of not is a drawing in the historical notes at the end from Stan Sakai’s wife, Julie Fujii-Sakai, which is one of the more glorious things I have ever seen in a comic. Must-read.
[IDW, $3.99]