MANGA TITLE: Gangsta: Cursed. Ep_Marco Adriano Vol. 4
STORY BY: KOHSKE
ART BY: Syuhei Kamo
PUBLISHED IN USA BY: Viz Signature
RELEASE DATE: May 15, 2018
In the city of Ergastulum, the area is full of thieves, whores and murderers. And as for the police, they are corrupted and chaos is king.
This is the setting for the manga series known as “Gangsta.”, written and illustrated by female mangaka KOHSKE. And while KOHSKE is currently working on “Gangsta.”, the mangaka has given artist and assistant Syuhei Kamo a chance to work on a manga and that is to tell an origin story of Marco Adriano and his affiliation with the Hunters who hunt and murder Twilights.
But how did Marco Adriano (then known as “Spas”) become a high-ranking member of the Cristiano Family? Why is he so powerful? How did he get his scar? And who is this deadly killer named Marie?
So, many questions, but with vol. 4 of “Gangsta: Cursed.Ep_Marco Adriano”, we learn how Adriano decided to leave the Hunters.
What is “Gangsta.”?
“Gangsta.” begins with a prostitute being assaulted outside a building. Meanwhile, inside a building are two owners of the business known as “Handymen”, Nic and Worick, two men paid to take on assassination or difficult jobs that police or big business can’t handle.
As Nic and Worick are completing a job with the elder businesswoman inside the building, they see the beaten prostitute going inside the building.
The Handymen are then called for business with the police department and are sent to go after a gang leader named Barry Abbot (the man seen beating on the prostitute in the opening pages). Both Nick and Worick are hired by the inspector to eliminate him and his gang (including his prostitutes) as they are doing business in the restricted zone. They work out a deal that they can take whatever they can in return for killing them.
As Nic and Worick go after the gang and eliminated everyone including the gang leader known as Barry. They run into the prostitute and give her the opportunity to escape. But instead, the prostitute named Alex comes back and instead of killing her, they decide to take her (as in agreement with the inspector) and make her as part of the Handymen as one of their employees.
Meanwhile, as Alex continues to work for the Handymen, she tries to figure both Nic and Worick out. Is Nic an ex-mercenary, does he talk at all? Why does Worick wear an eyepatch?
One day, Alex sees a newspaper article about a massacre of the Arcangelo family 20-years-ago, all were killed except a 13-year-old boy who was 13 at the time. And the perpetrator, said to be a boy hired as a mercenary by the family. And Alex begins to wonder, can the two boys be Worick and Nic? Is Worick the missing boy that was never found?
With the release of “Gangsta: Cursed. Ep_Marco Adriano”, the past of Marco Adriano is fully explored.
Reminiscent of Frank Miller’s “Sin City”, where the world has gone corrupt and in the city of Ergastulum, a city overrun by thugs, gangs, mafia, whores and murderers, the police are just as bad and to make matters worse, Twilights, those with special powers are being massacred by a group known as the Destroyers.
Long ago, a massacre took place in Ergastalum and with “Gangsta: Cursed. Ep_Marco Adriano”, this series along with the current “Gangsta” manga series from KOHSKE helps build the storyline surrounding Marco Adriano and other families including characters but also how deadly his former teammates of the Hunters are.
With “Gangsta: Cursed. Ep_Marco Adriano”, this is a big reveal that Marco Adriano was once part of the Hunters and was involved with the massacre of Twilights, but the question is how he broke away from that group and who sent the Destroyers to massacre Twilights and how that massacre ended? But also, how did Marco and Worrick become partners?
These are all questions that “Gangsta: Cursed” will probably answer, as “Gangsta.” has a complex storyline that needs a lot of questions to be answered. And those answers are rooted in the past and so I like how this latest manga explores Marco Adriano and also other characters and their position way back then.
In “Gangsta” issue #7, the manga left off with a shocking massacre courtesy of Marie.
What KOHSKE and Syuhei Kamo did right after issue #7 is take a break from the manga series back in the summer of 2015. This gave him the time needed to focus on “Gangsta: Cured. Ep_Marco Adriano”, slowly sewing the threads to understand the background of Marco Adriano, where he worked before and how it connects to vol. 7.
Where most manga series would go on a tangent for an issue or so, to introduce the origin of a character, KOHSKE is going back years earlier and establishing Marco but also other characters and showing how dangerous things were in Ergastalum.
And as for the Destroyers, we get to see them in action, taking on the best of these gangster families and how cold and calculating they are, not caring who they kill, young or old, parents, babies, etc.
This is no doubt an action-packed, violence-ladened manga volume but the series goes to great length to show us how evil and f’d up the Hunters really are. In fact, this volume 4 is probably the most violence yet as we get to see more of Marie and see how she is a sadistic killer.
It’s also important to note that earlier this month, the long awaited 8th volume of “Gangsta” was released in Japan, as well as a simultaneous release of “Gangsta: Curse. Ep_Marco Adriano” vol. 5. So, hopefully we see both volumes released in the US in the very near future.
KOHSKE’s storyline and Syuhei Kamo’s artwork is well-done and Kamo compliments KOHSKE’s “Gangsta.” artwork, so there is no major change of how characters look, aside that they are much younger in this graphic novel.
Overall, if you are reading KOHSKE’s “Gangsta.”, then “Gangsta: Cursed. Ep_Marco Adriano” vol. 4 is a no-brainer and this storyline are necessary to understand some of that backstory that the regular “Gangsta” is unable to explore.
Violent, action-packed and an origin story worth reading!