Books: Banya: The Explosive Delivery Man Vol. #4

For its first three or so volumes, Banya: The Explosive Delivery Man had set up a good, regular groove, and seemed to be thriving in it. The premise was nifty and creative: Postal worker in grim, vaguely post-apocalyptic setting braves all manner of challenges — human, natural and supernatural — to deliver his cargo on-time and on-budget. Then at the end of Volume 3 (something that I could really only talk about now in the context of Volume 4), author and artist Kim Young-Oh sprung a twist on us — something meant to widen the scope of his story a bit and dig into the past of his main character.

At the end of the last volume, Banya and his young sidekick postman-in-training Kong were charged with delivering a young girl (wanted by the authorities for her magical powers) to safety. After being cornered by a gang of assorted plug-uglies, something inside Banya snaps and he turns into a one-man slaughter machine. And right before his enemies are torn in half, they realize they’ve seen this man before. That’s right — before Banya was a postman, he was a “Slayer,” one of a group of elite government assassins, but apparently went rogue, butchered the rest of his company, and then (conveniently) lost his memory. It takes another gang of goons going after Banya to bring this information to the surface — and this time, when faced with the prospect of death, Banya provokes himself into unleashing the demon within.

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