Review by Frank Plowright

This is the final volume of I Am A Hero, or to be more correct, the final English language volume combining the final two Japanese volumes of Kengo Hanazawa’s zombie saga. As of Omnibus 10 Hideo and Hiromi, the people we’ve followed for so long, are now separated, and given what’s happening, there’s a good chance they won’t be reunited.

Although Hideo has had run-ins with the zombies before, he’s generally kept away from large groups, and when that couldn’t be avoided he was accompanied by people with greater survival skills. This time he’s on his own and there’s a massive amount of zombies on his tail, one of whom is exceptionally persistent. There’s a clever reason, but that’s an exception in a conclusion low on emotional content, low on answers and Asada, the manipulative would-be deity who’s planned for his immortality proves to be a washout.

Unfortunately, the longer this completion continues, the more apparent it becomes that so much is going to remain unanswered, which is how things would be if actually experienced by Hideo, but you may feel a writer of fiction should supply those answers. If you’re okay with just seeing how things play out for some of the secondary characters, then there will be no disappointment in what’s a well-plotted action thriller. Well, until the final chapters anyway, when it seems Hanazawa’s just wants an end to the entire project. Much of the volume occurs in a single location, the emotional undertones are sketchy and the usual astonishingly good artwork doesn’t compensate.

There may not be any answers, but Hanazawa provides a great final chapter. This volume is dedicated to his recently deceased father, and there are obviously echoes of the creator in Hideo wandering clueless in the world that remains. It’s wonderfully bleak.

I Am A Hero is a great series, but this ending is a disappointment with only the astonishing art raising it above average.