MANGA REVIEW | "Moriarty the Patriot" - Volume Nineteen
Don’t let Moriarty the Patriot’s nineteenth volume fool you. This isn’t the end of the manga. In fact, this whole first part can be seen as something of a prelude to what comes next. After all, with just about all of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes works adapted, who knows where writer Ryosuke Takeuchi and artist Hikaru Miyoshi will take us next? But at the very least, this end to Act One of Moriarty the Patriot certainly ends on a bang. Many, in fact!
We continue with the flashback involving Moriarty, Holmes, and Billy the Kid. In the town of Vermissa, the trio gets the town ready to face off against McGinty, the man who killed Pat Garrett. The plan’s in motion, and things seem to go too well in the beginning. That’s when McGinty initiates his own plan, and chaos runs amok in Vermissa.
From there, we get many a brutal gunfight amongst hero and villain. Explosions, gunslinging, and the occasional spooked horse mixed together to make for something you’d see in a Western’s third act. Having Moriarty run in on horseback and showing the level of fight he has in him doesn’t exactly scream “Sir Arthur Conan Doyle”, but it’s nevertheless fun to watch. In the end, the heroes are triumphant, and Billy learns the importance of justice being far greater than vengeance.
After that, Moriarty the Patriot returns to the present day. We find out about what everyone has been up to, and where they will go from here. And then…peace in London. The very thing William James Moriarty has been working hard to achieve seems to have come to fruition. Well, for now, at least. (Again, this is only Part One of the story Takeuchi and Miyoshi hope to tell.)
For me, this is the best way to end this part of Moriarty the Patriot. After all of the crimes, chaos, and atrocities committed in order to make London a city of equal opportunity, it’s nice seeing our anti-hero spend a playing chess with Holmes, eating scones, and reading nary a disturbing story in the newspaper. An unachievable ideal? Perhaps. Then again, that’s the wonder of fantasy writing, where the concept of peace can actually happen.
As a whole, this manga series did a terrific job adapting Sir Doyle’s original works. Although I was worried that it’d be in the same vein as BBC’s Sherlock, CBS’s Elementary, or even the Robert Downey Jr. films, I’m glad it wound up being its own thing. Having the story focus on Holmes’s greatest arch-nemesis may have been a gamble, but Takeuchi and Miyoshi successfully turned him into a sympathetic and philosophical character. (With that being said, don’t commit crimes, kids!)
Part One of Moriarty the Patriot gave us many highs and very few lows. Adding other classic figures from real life and fiction also slid in some cool twists on the Sherlock Holmes tales, ranging from James Bond to even Batman. One now has to wonder where Takeuchi and Miyoshi will go from here, now that there’s nothing else to adapt. However, with a little imagination, I’m certain that Part Two — whenever that comes — will be just as delightful and elegant, so long as they don’t go too crazy with the storytelling.
Other than that, what else can be said, except, “Case closed.”
VOL. 19 RATING:
PART ONE RATING:
Promotional consideration provided by Chantelle Sturt of VIZ Media.
