Tokyo Ghost #10
Written by Rick Remender
Drawn by Sean Murphy
Colord by Matthew Hollingsworth
Lettered by Rus Wooton
Review by Matthew Iung
**Warning: spoilers ahead for Tokyo Ghost.** 
When it began Tokyo Ghost was about addiction, abuse, codependency and saving the ones you love by any means necessary. After Debbie had everything taken from her she became stronger and decided that it had to be about more than just herself. That brings us here to the final standoff that’s not only a physical conflict but a myriad of moral and emotional choices that Debbie must make.
Rick Remender makes the most of everything that he has been building up over the course of the last nine issues providing story payoffs as well as satisfying dialogue between characters. He has Debbie acknowledge the hypocrisy of her world saving actions and lets her at the end of the book leave with a little uncertainty about depending on herself after all that’s she’s been through. Remender also shows that letting go is hard, even letting go of the idea of someone can be extremely difficult and even after you do it takes time to heal and grow as a person again. This sentiment is best conveyed when Debbie says “The greatest challenge any of us face is change”. While there have been hundreds of stories written about and set in times of change spanning across all genres and mediums. It’s always nice to find one that’s not only relatable but was made in the medium that you call home. It’s made even more valuable when it takes advantage of how its made. Tokyo Ghost as a comic really takes advantage of what it is and delivers a well told story in both the words that we read and and the art we see.
As a series Tokyo Ghost has provided opportunity for artists to flex their creative muscles. The settings have ranged from lush green natural places to cold neon covered cities. Sean Murphy and Matt Hollingsworth brought their best work to every issues and that without question includes the finally. The four slash pages that can be found throughout the book alone exhibit that. The colors are brilliant and the change in the final pages is a wonderful in fusion of what has come before and what’s new. Like Hollingsworth if you know Murphy’s work than you can have faith that being let down is not a concern. The pages are laid out brilliantly, the character design is as strong as ever and Hollingsworth’s vibrant colors have a way of pulling everything together. The two of them are phenomenal visual storytellers and powerhouse of an art team that will hopefully collaborate again soon.
Tokyo Ghost is a well-written and beautifully drawn series that dealt with issues faced in day to day lives through characters that could be us in a place not hard to imagine. There are undercurrents of addiction and questions about who you are with and without the ones closest to us that still remained even in this last issue. To top it all off a beautiful love story that can be described as a greek tragedy with a twist. With all that and gorgeous art to boot it’s not hard to believe that this book will be missed, but like Remender says on the letters page, “Who knows, maybe one day we will return.”
Verdict
Buy. Now as easy as it is for me to tell you to go buy this issue, I can not in good conscience just recommend issue ten regardless of how stunning and beautiful it is. So as a further recommendation, the first trade is available on line and hopefully where ever you buy comics and the second one will be out in October so if you like what you read you won’t have long to wait for more.
