- Title: Usagi Yojimbo: Wanderer’s Road #5
- Comic Vine: link
- Writer: Stan Sakai
- Artist: Stan Sakai
Reprinting the story from Usagi Yojimbo #11, “The Tea Cup” offers a team-up of Miyamoto Usagi and Murakami Gennosuke who the rabbit ronin runs into on the road. Gen has accepted a job to deliver a valuable tea cup, but there are those who don’t wish him make that delivery. With nothing else to do, Usagi decides to accompany his friend as the two fight and bicker along the way.
The story, reprinted in color, offers a good example of the Usagi/Gen dynamic. There’s plenty of action for the duo on the road, and they even decide to help a pair of lost orphans (and despite Gen’s objections he takes far more care with the pair than Usagi would have ever guessed). We also see Gen isn’t above taking advantage of his friend by using him as a decoy to make the escape (and making Usagi believe the cup was destroyed).
For those who have never read the classic 80s story, or for those interested in seeing it printed in color, Usagi Yojimbo: Wanderer’s Road #5 is worth seeking out.
[IDW, $3.99]