Jared Cullum and Zack Rosenberg’s Kaitō ‘84 was a fun riff on Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo for its first two issues, but both struggled with balancing the series’ new players and setting with paying homage to Sakai’s work. At its best, the series has introduced likable, compelling characters who riff on their in-story ancestors while being more than an edo-period samurai who happens to be wearing Air Force 1s. At its shakiest, it has devoted extensive page time to establishing that noble thief Kaitō Usagi and his friends have a great deal in common with their ancestors, rather than giving the new crew space to be their own characters. Kaitō ‘84 #3, however, sees Cullum and Rosenberg use Usagi Yojimbo’s history and their cast’s connection to it to their advantage, resulting in the miniseries’ strongest issue so far.
Where issues #1 and #2 hopped between 1984 Osaka, Kaitō and company’s recent pasts and the distant past of Miyamoto Usagi, issue #3 grounds the past in the present. Kaitō and his crew meet the long-lived demon slayer Sasuké, who brings them some welcome context as to what on earth is going on with the cursed Blood Kintsugi Spear they were blackmailed/commissioned into stealing, how their families are tied together, and the stakes they now face. It’s an elegant piece of scripting on Rosenberg’s part; one backed up by Cullum’s decision to frame Sasuké’s storytelling with a pastiche of traditional Japanese paiting. This both matches Sasuké’s words with images and deepens his character. In the context of Kaitō ’84 the comic, the illustrations are a chance for Cullum to demonstrate his impressive range as an artist. In the context of the world of the comic, they reveal a little about the often-cryptic Sasuké, namely that he’s a talented artist who remembers Miyamoto Usagi and his friends well enough to draw them beautifully even though centuries have passed. In other words, it’s a fine piece of comicscraft.
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The work Rosenberg does with Tomoe and Ishida, two rare honest cops who want to uncover a long-brewing conspiracy as much as the want to catch Kaitō, is similarly skillful. The histories of their counterparts in Usagi Yojimbo offer interesting shading, but their present dynamic is the more gets the focus. Tomoe is a good person who’s coming dangerously close to collapsing into viciousness due to her frustrations with the case. Ishida’s a faithful public servant who cares more about serving the people of Osaka than he does pleasing those in power. On its own, it’s solid work, highlighted by Cullum’s skillful use of Tomoe’s explosive anger and Ishida’s perpetual composure. In the context of Usagi Yojimbo as a whole, it’s a ton of fun to see a relationship that does not have a counterpart in the main comic and yet fits the characters in question like a glove.
Kaitō ‘84’s third issue runs with the strengths of the series so far, and, in its directly linking the past and the present in a continuous narrative, directly addresses the biggest narrative issue of the previous two issues. Cullum’s illustrations are dense, expressive and consistently gorgeous. Rosenberg’s script uses escalating stakes to play with the cast’s shared and individual dynamics, and for the first time the series nails the balance between giving Kaitō and company their own space and tying them to their counterparts in the mainline comic. Moreover, Cullum and Rosenberg’s short making-of comic in the back of the issue is both charming and a welcome look at the team’s creative process, in this case their reasoning for setting Kaitō ’84 in Osaka.
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