STORY
Well, for starters, the story arc from the previous volume wrapped up. It ended sort of inconclusively, with Doctor Miami leaving a cryptic note for Koko before going off to chase more butterflies and Valmet letting Karen live to fight another day. I can tell that that's going to be a story that doesn't go away anytime soon, which is fine with me, 'cause I'm always up for learning a bit more about Valmet since we didn't really learn much from this arc.
Then the second half gave us a story arc that actually started and finished in this volume. What a surprise! This arc gave us an interesting story in that there was hardly any violence. It was all about business and negotiations. Pretty interesting stuff, really. The only problem with it was that it was all a bit confusing. Maybe I just didn't take my time reading it enough. I got the gist of what was going on, but it seemed like someone with knowledge on the subject probably would've enjoyed it a little more.
ART & PRESENTATION
Same old, same old. The art is okay. Unfortunately, since there was hardly any action during this volume, there wasn't much room for cool art, and there was a lot of talking heads. Still, there were enough cool bits for me to put some below.
Viz's presentation shines again. I like how the colors from the cover wrap around to the spine. It creates a really neat look.
CHARACTERS
Again, lots of characters we'll probably never see again in this volume, but we got some info on more of the crew. It seems like each character that's on the front with Koko is probably going to get a little bit of a focus in that volume, since that's been the pattern so far.
On the cover of this volume is Lutz. He's sort of a dork, but he's an expert sniper. We learn that he, while a great sniper, has moral trouble of just offing someone who happens to be in his sights. It adds some nice depth to Koko's crew, knowing that they aren't all just crazy mercenaries.
FINAL VERDICT
The fourth volume of Jormungand wasn't my favorite volume so far. As much as I enjoy characters talking out their conflicts in an educated manner, in the case of Jormungand, more action is better. Plus/minus below!
+ More character moments are always appreciated
+ Action scenes are cool
- But sparse
- Second arc was a little confusing (for me, at least)
C+ - BORROW IT
Jormungand is still worth your time, but I'd still recommend you borrow a volume or two before you go out and spend money on it.
(I don't own Jormungand. All rights go to the author, Keitaro Takahashi, and the licensing company, Viz Media).
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