Review of One-Punch Man Volume 01 Punch 8

This chapter continues where the previous, A Mysterious Attack, left off, with Armored Gorilla facing off against Genos as Saitama was pulled down into the ground by a creature we find out is called Ground Dragon.

Issue: One-Punch Man Volume 01 Punch 8

Name: This Guy?

Published: 2014 by Viz.

Blurb:

Creators:

Writer: One
Artist: Yasuke Murata

Characters:

The Good: Saitama, Genos
The Bad: Armored Gorilla, Beast King, Ground Dragon, Slugerous, Frog Man

My Reading:

Armored Gorilla begins the episode fighting Genos but not because he’s after the cyborg. Rather, the simian is trying to get to Saitama but Genos intercepted the attack as his master is currently sunk up to his neck in the ground. Regardless, Genos is intrigued at seeing another cyborg and I’m thinking he might be wondering if this is the villain who assaulted his home when he was younger. As Genos and Armored Gorilla face off, Beast King shows up and is headed to Saitama.

The fighting between Genos and the Gorilla continues as the Beast King approaches Saitama only to be enraged that he is yawning…apparently the ground is comfortable for Saitama. Pissed off, the Beast King threatens to poke out our hero’s eyes and Saitama simply climbs outta the ground which infuriates Beast King even more. He’s had enough and loses control in a series of vicious attacks on Saitama. The Beast King launches a volley of Lion Slash attacks that look like it would take down most opponents but Siatama deftly evades each strike forcing the King to step up to his ultimate attack…the Lion Slash: Meteor Power Shower! But even that is dodged by our hero. But Saitama is done with this fight. He unleashes a flurry of Consecutive Normal Punches at the Beast King and there’s nothing left of him but an eyeball.

Seeing his boss defeated, Ground Dragon tries to dig underground to escape but Saitama finds him and launches him into the sky with a punch and then our hero turns to see that Genos has bested Armored Gorilla as well. Even defeated though, Armored Gorilla refuses to give up information about the House of Evolution until he sees Saitama holding the eyeball that used to be part of the Beast King.

What did I learn:

• Armored Gorilla is a creation of The House of Evolution.
• The Beast King didn’t care about the fact that he killed two of his minions…Slugerous and Frog Man in his efforts to get Saitama.
• The Beast King is/was House of Evolution’s 2nd strongest champion.
• Armored Gorilla is House of Evolution’s 3rd strongest champion.
• The House of Evolution looks like it’ll be a continuing opponent for Saitama and Genos as we move into the next volume.
• It looks like the title for this chapter was You Mean This Guy? before it was collected into the volume.

My Thoughts:

This was a pretty good issue and a good fight. The Beast King was obviously expecting Saitama to cower when confronted but the yawn was great. Saitama didn’t even think this boss was worth his effort…and it turned out he wasn’t. Along with the yawn, I loved the vocalization Saitama gives for his attack – Consecutive Normal Punches. This really highlights the absurdity I’ve seen in some manga and anime that try to come up with grandiose sounding attack moves that characters have to yell before or while they’re preforming them. Sure, it’s a stylistic thing for these genres but I really think these things are hilarious.

This pretty much finishes up the first volume of One-Punch Man but I see there’s a bonus story that seems to take a look at Saitama’s earlier life. I’ll take a look at that next time before I move on. I haven’t decided if I’ll read the next volume right away or try something else out yet but I’ll figure that out soon enough.

My Rating: B

This comic can be found on Comixology or at your local comic book shop.

Daily Ramble 262.3 | Comics – Manga Monday – One-Punch Man Volume 01 Punch 8