No one can complain that Shi: The Way of the Warrior lacks substance.

Sure, a casual browser of the decade-old storyline might lead one to believe it's just another hot chick with a sharp blade, a skimpy costume and a grudge. And yes, for those who don't like much meat to their comics, Shi provides plenty of fast and violent action and smooth, well-exposed skin.

But Billy Tucci's landmark series has oh so much more.

Shi digs deeply into the lore and history of feudal Japan, unearthing ancient rivalries among the warrior monks who flourished in that culture. One clan, the Nara sohei, survives to modern times, having gained the approval and protection of the Shogun centuries ago, while the other, the Kyoto sohei, having grown too powerful in the past, was decimated and lives on in only a handful of surviving descendants.

One such survivor is Ana Ishikawa, a Japanese-American art dealer by day, an instrument of vengeance by night. As a child, Ana witnessed the brutal murder of her father and young brother as part of this ancient feud; schooled by her grandfather in various martial arts, she now assumes the mantle of the last of her line to take a blood price from the man who slew her kin.

But in the ensuing 20 years, Masahiro Arashi has grown powerful as a member of the Yakuza, Japan's organized criminal hierarchy, and rules his holdings from New York City. To get to him, Ana must first work her way through various levels of the gang in what the general public and New York City police view as a bloody spree. "Shi," after all, means "death" in Japanese.

But Shi is a beautiful tapestry of plotting, with layers of story that weave in and around each other. Ana, representing the Kyoto sohei, is confronted by members of the Nara clan. Rival gangs look for an opening to increase their own power. An old friend surfaces in an unexpected setting. Factions in the police department seek different forms of justice. Even a budding romance doesn't follow the familiar paths you expect in the comics genre.

Perhaps most importantly, Ana finds herself facing the harsh reality of killing when she attends a beautiful, moving memorial for her victims and sees the wives, children and parents they've left behind. Raised in part in her mother's Catholic faith, Ana is plagued by guilt and doubt -- but can she restore her family's honor and avoid killing in the future? We'll see.

The art here is fantastic, taking full advantage of Ana's exotic good looks and her distracting, yet fully functional warrior garb. More impressive is the way Tucci weaves ancient scenes of feudal battle into the modern settings and captures the dance-like moves of Ana and several other finely honed combatants. Similarly, he incorporates significant insight into Japanese philosophy and concepts of honor in his text, showing a degree of research that far exceeds your average comic-book fare. (And he seems to have a pretty fair idea of the way the katana, naginata and other traditional Japanese weapons are properly wielded.)

The Way of the Warrior collects the 12-issue Shi miniseries. It also includes the four-issue Tomoe mini; Tomoe, Ana's childhood friend and a warrior from the Nara clan, has a different perspective on some of the same events and a different idea of what best serves the concept of justice, and her book overlaps neatly over the midsection of Ana's tale.

The Definitive Shi has recently been released but, even though it promises to collect all Shi stories in a series of four phonebook-sized volumes, it reduces the glorious and colorful art to black and white, robbing the book of much of its visual potency. Skip it and seek out copies of the original series. It's well worth the effort.

by Tom Knapp
Rambles.NET
20 January 2007