Terra Formars Volume 8 - The Mighty King Crab
Analysis by Nova Sentinel
The wait is finally over! Volume 8 has arrived thanks to display; none and it is another fantastic installment in the series. Did you also know that Terra Formars is getting an anime?
Oh yeah, it's going down.
Spoiler Alert: This blog contains spoilers. If you do not want spoilers please CTRL+F to "My Thoughts," for a basic overview of the volume.
Not much action here to start things off with. We are on earth and we get to see some background on what Ichiro and his family have been up to on Earth the entire time Shokichi is laying the smackdown on Mars. We see a cool shot of Mars Ranking #1 and then he disappears again for the rest of the Volume (get hype for absence.) Back to the fight between humans on Mars (Big surprise, humans fighting each other while larger threats loom in the distance.) It's Russia vs. China in a heavyweight match-up that can only be dreamt of from Japan. Chapter 64 ends with a vicious uppercut from the Crab.
 |
| Good luck with that fly swatter. |
I love the character bio's at the start of every chapter. And the random facts about bugs that may or may not be true but also will be if I use my imagination.
Anyway, the battle finally gets underway in
Chapter 65 between Asimov and Liwu, as they can be seen exchanging blows at high speed, (think Dragonball Z high-jacked Animal Planet and sent it to Mars) Fantastic art in this chapter. I really like the way the manga artist doesn't get lazy when showing you the action sequences so that you're able to understand what is actually going on (F.U. Fairy Tail). Team China seems pretty confident that they can take out the other squads without issue, wonder what those guys are hiding? Chapter ends with Chinese Leader getting cocky on Russia. I don't think that's a good idea bro.
 |
| I told you it wasn't a good idea. |
The fight intensifies in Chapter 66 between Russian and Chinese forces, we see Scorpion and her buddy get completely bodied by the Man in the Gas-Mask, meanwhile Tasmanian Crab gets cornered by Squishy the Octopus and takes off his fucking arms to land a counter-attack. This chapter is straight Man/10, Asimov maneuvering his way into manga bad-assness for all eternity. Chapter ends with an awkward beetle making threats with missiles (Did I mention this manga is amazing?)
 |
| Beetle-Man Pls! ;_; |
Chapter 67 is Beetleborg threatening the Chinese until they get angry and flip his car. We see a little more of the fight between Russia and China until the reason these guys came to Mars in the first place shows back up.
 |
| OH GOD, WHY?! |
That's right The MonSTARS have returned. Just kidding, it's vicious man-hating cockroaches that want to destroy you and your family. Dragonfly-Cockroachman is here and he brought all of his buddies to the party (What an asshole!). I really enjoyed how the author made sure you can tell what parts were coming out of the humans as they were torn to pieces. I also really enjoy how this manga isn't afraid to kill off their characters in gruesome, but amazing fashions. Chapter ends with roaches developing at an absurd rate of speed and spills over into the next chapter.
 |
| Why didn't I think of that? Birds. |
In Chapter 69 our heroes have their backs to the wall, except for the Chinese, who are not our heroes at all and we hope they die horrible deaths! Things are looking bad until Birdwoman shows up and Dragonfly freaks out because Dragonfly's are more afraid of birds than cockroaches are. Chapter seemingless transitions over into Chapter 70, with more of the same happening until....
 |
| Hey! That was mine! |
The roaches have swarmed the spaceship. Abandon ship! Don't be afraid! The cockroaches weakness is a pair of nice boobies! Wait, what? A half-naked woman has appeared on top of the ship and we see cockroaches falling one right after another (Like a YouTube model's comment page) to their doom. Russia begins to make their retreat after figuring out that the half-naked woman is not using succubi powers on the cockroaches and is in fact a bacteria type. This is the part in the story where we learn that base surgeries can take more than plant and animal form and has fallen over into biological warfare status. At this point the author still managed to catch me off-guard as I couldn't conceive a bacteria type but it is a truly terrifying thought after they explain it.
 |
| KANE IS ON MARS?!? |
Chapter 72 begins with a BANG! As we see a mysterious explosion on the Annex as Team China: Mars Police, attempt to resume their sinister plans. As a new challenger has entered the ring, Alex has snuck aboard the annex and using his strange beetle form which does next to nothing for his physical attack, launches a sneak attack on Team China's squad. We also see a backstory that would make any human feel for this character whom we barely we knew at the beginning of the volume.
 |
| That's not a knife. This a KNIFE. |
Alex is about to destroy the bacteria woman and save Mars from Team China's ace in the hole but gets counterattacked by Wolverine who has brought the rest of the X-Men with him. Alex beats some down before getting surprise attacked by Kitty Pryde who removes the use of his other arm. Being a true beast, Alex injects himself with all the formula and turns into an actual beetle. He gets his left arm back and grabs Kitty by the neck, bacteria woman begs for mercy but Beetle-god will show none on this day. It is later revealed that Beetle-god died before he could do any serious damage. It is also then revealed that he actually did manage to cause some pretty serious damage. Thanks Alex. Alex's death concludes Chapter 73.
 |
| Roach God halts us from continuing our journey on Mars. |
Chapter 74 is what's left of the Russian squad reuniting with Komachi and company as they speed away from the Annex in a giant Mars space bike. It's important to note that Team China figured out that Alex didn't destroy their missile and it was another spy (Doh! Alex!) Also, Giant Roach will not let us continue the story as he grabs the space bike and halts our progress.
My Thoughts
The art is fantastic as usual, I love the informational's that fill you in on characters you may have forgotten about. Most of this volume is pure action and features one of the best fights in the entire series. People die. Sacrifices are given and like any good battle manga, bad-asses were born. This series may not be full of science fact but it is great science fiction if you can let your imagination fill the spots where science is void.
Thoughts? Opinions? Tweet me @Novaspencersent
No comments:
Post a Comment