Gundam Wing – Ground Zero
By: Espadon
Yes, this review does contain spoilers, but I doubt many of you will be buying this once you read what I’ve got to say. The story starts with Heero getting an e-mail saying that his Gundam has been stolen and that he must go to a certain place at specific coordinates to retrieve it. Not a bad start, but nothing really new. It does hint at the other Gundam pilots pulling this off, since they have the skill required, but does not really go much further than this. Once he reaches the coordinates, he finds Duo there, and Duo says he was sent an e-mail too. Things start to happen and things pick up a little bit, and there is on moment I like where hero uses and explosion to propel him through space without dying, but around this area the manga is, well, ok. Nothing I found spectacular, but nothing I dis-liked a whole lot.
Then you hit the spot. You find out who the people who did this were. I wasn’t all that surpised by it, but it wasn’t really the first thing on my mind as to who did this. Then they ask the Question. Why did you upgrade your Wing Zero to Custom? When I read this I thought, here it is. The moment where it is answered. And BOOM! He says he did it because he had a good idea for an upgrade. That was it. No special Gundams that could beat Wing Zero unless he had the upgrade. No scientist stealing it to experiment on it to improve, or something like that. It’s just cause Heero wanted to. This was a huge disappointment to me. I mean, it could have been so much better, but it wasn’t. Now, from here, the story doesn’t get any better. Unfunny comedy appears from here on. Pretty much all that happens is Heero and other Gundam pilots visit Relena. Then the book finishes off with Relena asleep next to the treaty she was to sign the next day, or a little later on.
Overall, the story was a big disappointment. It went along ok, nothing
special, but ok until they really drop the bomb on you in what seems to be a poor, poor
attempt at humor. I mean, would you really expect Heero to customize his Gundam because he
has a good idea? It really takes his character and rips it to shreds. Then after this they
pull out the gags. I really don’t think this is the kind of thing that should be in
Gundam. After seeing many episodes in the series and the Endless Waltz movie I think that
this is somewhat of a mockery. I could go on forever about the problems I have with this,
but I don’t think you want to read that, so I’ll just say that the story is NOT
anything I would read more than once, and if I knew it was this bad, would probably have
never read it at all.
This book was a big waist of money, and now sits on my shelf collecting
dust until I can find some stupid little 10 year old Gundam fan to buy it off of me. It’s
definetly not worth the $20 Canadian (12.95 U.S.) that I paid for it. The best thing about
this book? The Gundam artwork in the back. I fear that many won’t see this review and
will buy this and waist their money, when they could have bought a better manga. Now, I
may seem totally negative on this manga, but it was ok up until Heero started acting out
of character. Hey, maybe some of you will like it, and maybe some of you won’t. But
my bet is that most of you will dislike it just like I did.
