Books: Golgo 13 Vol. #13: Flagburner

Perhaps it’s a little unwieldy to start talking about a series just as it’s concluding its U.S. print run — but in Golgo 13's case, this last volume isn’t really the “end” anyway. It’s just the closing of a window that might someday reopen in the future.
Golgo 13 is as iconic a manga as you could ask for. Since Takao Saito created the character and the series in 1968, he and it have become cultural staples with something of the same heft and breadth in Japan as James Bond. A hitman-for-hire who never misses and only needs one shot to take out his target, Golgo’s identity and origins were cocooned in mystery: he did his work and went. Cross him and you’d take a bullet, too, one aimed with the same deadly perfection.

As the series progressed, Golgo receded further and further into the background of the story, becoming more like Sadako or Shonen Bat — aforce that blazes out in a moment of crisis — than an actual protagonist who drives events. The books themselves have gone on to sell a staggering 200 million copies in 142 volumes, making the series eligible to sit in the same Neverending Story Hall of Fame as Guin Saga (120 volumes and counting) and Kochi-Kame (131+), whose own hero bears a weird resemblance to a cheerier-looking Golgo.

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