Samurai Legend #1-4

Written by Jean-Francois Di Giorgio
Art by Frédéric Genêt

My, but the French make some good comics.  Samurai Legend is one of the recent Marvel imports from the French Soleil line.  It reminded me a lot of the Okko stories being published by Archaia, in that it focused on a wandering samurai, and had a slightly mystical bent to the storytellling.

In Samurai Legend, the hero is Takeo, a samurai who is trying to find his long-missing brother.  Along the way, he meets a Korean family who is being harassed by some local strongmen, and he protects them.  Shortly after that, the young girl in the family is able to solve a puzzle in a roadside restaurant, which apparently satisfies some kind of prophecy concerning a long-dead figure, needed by a local lord to attack the Emperor.  Really, the plot is just a foil to allow for a reason to pit Takeo against this lord's forces.

The usual French interpretation of Japanese samurai movies ensues.  They tramp around the country, gathering allies, and fighting people.  I'm being glib, but the story is told very well, and held my interest throughout.  The true strength of this book is the incredible artwork of Genêt.  The pages are lushly coloured and highly detailed.  This is a beautiful comic.

It seems that this story's ending suggests the possibility of a sequel.  It's too bad that Marvel seems to have discontinued their Soleil line, as I would gladly read more from these creators, but my French is not exactly up to the task of reading them in the original.