I Am A Hero Omnibus vol. 7

The first few chapters in this volume are set in Belgium and are veeeeeery foreshadow-y.  Specifically in regards to what the endgame of this virus might be, and I hope it’s not as much like “The Human Centipede” as it’s made out to be here.  Then things finally shift back to Hideo, Oda, and the awakened-and-recovered Hiromi as they work out what to do next. While Oda determines their primary goal to be delivering Hiromi to someone who can examine her and possibly fashion a cure for the ZQN outbreak, they’ve got more immediate concerns.  Such as finding more food, getting more ammo for Hideo’s gun, and finding a bath because everyone is really starting to reek after all this time. All of their interests converge in the town of Hakone-Yumoto which has both a gun shop and hot springs! It also has plenty of ZQNs lurking about, but it’s nothing our heroes can’t handle at this point.  Especially after Hiromi starts talking about the sense of togetherness she felt with them while she was infected and the sympathy she shows towards a burned-up lurker. Nothing to be worried about there.

I liked the shift in gears for the volume’s first half, which is focused on giving our heroes a moment to catch their breath and recover.  Even if the end of the world is upon them, it makes sense that not every minute of their existence would be spent scraping for survival, and that they’d have times like this as well.  It also helps set up the back third of the volume, which is one of the most relentlessly suspenseful action sequences of the volume to date. There really is a feeling of impending doom to these chapters, which keeps the scenes with Oda and Hiromi in a hot spring from feeling too fanservice-y.  This could be the very last thing they do on Earth after all. While that’s going on we get a moment with Hideo that’s a genuine game-changer, only not for the reasons it immediately appears to be. At this very point, “I Am A Hero” goes full werido in order to give us a better understanding of how the virus works.  It’s an insane sequence in a particularly insane part of the series and one that leaves the reader hanging on in pure anticipation as it takes a literal and figurative leap into the unknown.