Books: Monster Vol. #5

“You and your bookworm theories,” the killer growls to the forensic psychologist. “I’m telling you a real monster exists.” That monster’s name is Johan, and while he doesn’t appear once in the pages Monster Volume 5, he casts a shadow that stretches through all of the events that unfold throughout the book. That shadow lands most darkly on Dr. Tenma, the surgeon who saved Johan’s life as a boy all those years ago and has now watched him grow into a figure of such diabolical evil that few people would even credit him with existing. But exist he does, and now Tenma has fled into the underground of Germany to find Johan himself and kill him.

I’m starting to sense a pattern with the Monster books, but not a bad one — it’s a pattern that has been devised to complement the storytelling Naoki Urasawa employs for this dark epic. In each volume Tenma encounters someone with a history — a person who has a bit of their own darkness, much as we all do. Sometimes Johan got there first and was able to exploit that darkness for his own sake; sometimes it’s just something that spills out of the closet and onto the floor.

Article originally written for AMN. Click here to read full text.