- Title: Usagi Yojimbo: The Crow #4 (of 5)
- Comic Vine: link
- Writer: Stan Sakai
- Artist: Stan Sakai
With the kidnapping of Yukichi the focus of the issue, we get the young boy Isamu getting a meal and payment from Miyamoto Usagi and then agreeing to lead Usagi, Gen, and Stray Dog to their missing friend. The bandits have their own issues to deal with long before the heroes get there as one of their number, believing Inuyoshi isn’t ruthless enough to lead them, attempts a coup. Thanks to Yukichi’s warning, the former samurai survives now further in debt to Usagi’s family.
The comic ends with the rescue attempt. Even with the freed Yukichi, our heroes are still vastly outnumbered by the bounty hunters and refuse to yield. However, after discovering their mutual target has forces in greater number than realized, Inuyoshi makes a bargain with Usagi and his friends, dispatches the traitor in his midst and gives Usagi back a sword setting up the whole group working together in the final issue.
[Dark Horse, $4.99]