Fullmetal Alchemist (2007)

[鋼の錬金術師]

Volume 17

Author/Artist: Hiromu Arakawa
Publisher: Gangan Comics

Synopsis:
A homunculus breaks through the basement of Fort Briggs, prompting the garrison to counterattack.

Story/Characters:
Enter Sloth, and not the one from The Goonies either. We get to see the garrison throw what they've got against an unkillable monster and they come up with a rather clever solution to neutralize him. We then work on figuring out what exactly he was up to and the big picture starts to come together. And then General Raven shows up to ratchet things up a bit. I like General Armstrong's chess game she plays. We intercut with a flashback about Hohenheim that gets the ball rolling for his arc. We then close on quite the monkey wrench.

Art:
The fight against Sloth is pretty good and the terror underground will leave an impression.

Other:
We get two one-page bonus comics, a "Corral Diary" and three 4-koma.

Conclusion:
We're building things up nicely. The Hohenheim flashback was particularly nice for fleshing out the backstory. Give this one a read.

Rating:
Read It