Hirohiko Araki starts the second volume of the Phantom Blood storyline with the long-delayed fight between JoJo and Dio. Oh they had skirmishes in the first volume—fights over a girl, fights over a dog and a particularly brutal game of rugby. Those fights were all a preamble to the massive 80+ page fight that opens volume two. The reader finally gets to see Dio using the stone mask at full power. That’s good because the first volume had such laser focus on the sibling rivalry between JoJo and Dio, that the mask for all its power almost seemed like an afterthought.

The battle is well worth waiting for as JoJo figures out how up close and personal he will have to get to kill Dio. After all, if Dio could be killed by ordinary bullets he would not be the embodiment of supernatural evil. As the battle rages, both JoJo and Dio are beaten, bled and burnt. God are they burnt! Araki Sensei draws fire so scary you can almost smell the Joestar Manor's smoke! Although JoJo is at a severe disadvantage because of Dio's incredible strength and healing ability, he has one thing every underpowered shonen manga hero's got—ingenuity and determination!  

After the thrilling fight, JoJo and his newfound friend Speedwagon meet Baron Will Anthonio Zeppeli. The baron is a great character design. He’s the guru every good fighting manga needs, but between his mustache and ringmaster outfit every visual cue says “evil" in Western comics. Pretty much anything to do with the circus is evil on this side of the ocean. The mystery deepens when Baron Zeppeli tells JoJo that Dio can’t be killed with just muscle. Readers may or may not be surprised by that, but they will wonder how the Baron Zeppeli knows. Sorry, no spoilers!

It is not a spoiler to say the Baron gives JoJo the quasi-magical training that he needs to have any hope of winning against a stone mask enhanced Dio. What little we learn of the training JoJo gets is very interesting. The Hamon, (which given all the music puns in this series sounds like a play on Harmony, although it's most likely just a translation coincidence) is based on the motion of blood pumping though the body. Blood is the perfect substance to base your made-up manga martial art around, because blood is important in both scientific and magical modes of thought. To me the Hamon feels very British. Blood is one of the four humors that makes me think of Shakespeare.

While JoJo is doing something that feels sort of British to me, Dio is busy doing the most British thing you can imagine! No Spoilers, but Dio brings in something that shows up in every Victorian fantasy story. It’s not Sherlock Holmes, it’s not Peter Pan, and his name rhymes with "Quack the Zipper." But d on’t worry, it’s not an Alan Moore “graphic novel,” it’s a fight manga, and a very inventive one at that! So the presence of history’s most famous serial killer naturally leads to a very inventive fight. Things are used as weapons and defended against in equally novel ways.  

Hirohiko Araki delves deeper into Victorian fantasy when he inserts a fantastic element into the life of Queen Elizabeth that is so convincing I googled the names of fictional knights! Their backstories really seemed like some authentic Elizabethan folklore I'd never heard about. This kind of stuff hits a sweet spot in my brain that makes me really want to read more. 

That's my only problem with this edition, it ends too soon! Which is kind of funny to say, considering it's actually over 300 pages. And although it's available digitally now, I'd wait until May 5th when it comes out in print. The print version is deluxe and will look gorgeous on your bookshelf. It's hardbound with a shiny cover, has some color pages and fancy end papers. It really is nice and worth the extra money. Manga rarely gets this kind of classy treatment. 

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Vol. 2 is available digitally now and print soon right here! 

by Rob McCarthy