Black Jack 8

Osamu Tezuka – Vertical – 2009 – 17 volumes

This volume was all about Black Jack taking crap from everyone.  A few stories had a lot of other doctors talking down to Black Jack in them, and Black Jack either ignored them, showed them up smugly, or was weirdly affected by them.  He treats a hysterical patient, who he slaps around a lot and does an almost-pretend-rape.  He gets bit by a rabid dog.  He gets beaten up and robbed.  The police come after him for his lack of license and also for being a murderer.  Kiriko calls him an asshole.  The poor guy just can’t catch a break.

The strangest story in the volume was one of the first, called “A Wrong Diagnosis.”  This features a full-of-himself doctor (the head of a hospital) trash-talking an intern and insulting him in regard to a question about a diagnosis before stepping out to attend a wedding.  At the wedding, he proceeds to berate Black Jack for several pages, then gets called into the hospital to attend to a dying patient, the one the intern had been asking about earlier.  He asks Black Jack to come with him as a second opinion.  Once there, he to majorly botches the surgery and refuses admit he misdiagnosed the patient until Black Jack just… takes over in the OR.  You would think the moral of the story here would be something about swallowing your pride, or being able to admit your wrong, or… something.  No, the actual last page has Black Jack sternly telling the intern not to become a doctor who invites contempt.  What?  WHAT?!

Another memorable story is called “Fits.”  This is the one I mentioned earlier where Black Jack slaps around the patient and rips off her clothes to get both the girl and her mother to realize the girl is physically healthy, but is prone to hysteria, a psychological disease.  He makes some side comment about her mother disciplining her differently (huh?  so she doesn’t seek attention like that?).  The girl was one that Pinoko had recommended in hopes that Black Jack would make enough money to buy the furniture that she picked out and he angrily sent away at the beginning of the story.  The last page wound up being a very sweet moment between the two.  I wouldn’t have expected it in this story, which was a pretty cruel one, nor would I ever have expected to like any sweet moments between the creepy Pinoko and Black Jack.

His fondness for Pinoko is quite touching, as creepy as she is.  Another story, called “A Visit From a Killer” has the good doctor willingly sacrificing his hands during a hold-up as long as he can operate on Pinoko to save her life.  The killer threatening Black Jack is appalled and amazed by Pinoko’s puppet body, and seeing Black Jack so genuinely distraught is also nice.  Not to say he’s totally stoic.  He frequently gets emotional over his patients.  It was different with Pinoko though, since you’re always under the impression he’s looking out for number one in most other stories.

There were some amazing afflictions on display once again.  I mentioned the rabies earlier, and I was wondering when the story would get around to that, but we also get a fossilized fetus, a vein that somehow generates obstructions, a rickets patient, liver cancer, hysteria, bringing patients back to life on the brink of brain death (thanks, Dr. Kiriko), a couple blunt trauma/car wreck patients, and one story involving a vacuum (in the physical sense, not the machine) that was killing everyone in an Alaska town.

The stories are always strange, surreal, puzzling, gripping, and some of the best pulpy entertainment money can buy.  They do have some inappropriately timed jokes, and sometimes the entertainment value hinges on how into the situations you are (ie I would guess it’s easily not for everybody), but Black Jack is still one of my favorite series.  I’ve read it the same day it’s arrived for the last several volumes in a row, and there are very few series that don’t have to wait their turn these days.