What do you think?
Rate this book
Golgo 13 (VIZ - 13 Volumes) #2
Golgo 13, Vol. 2: Hydra
A world class hit man, the ultimate Professional fulfills contracts under the alias of "GOLGO13". Without allegiance to any group, cause, or nation, he follows his own personal code when choosing "jobs". And once he accepts a contract, it is always honored.
?A true professional, GOLGO13 is an expert marksman familiar with most of the world's military hardware and master of several of the more lethal Oriental matial arts. Fluent in at least thirteen languages, GOLGO13 is able to slip in and out of even hostile nations without detection.
Victims, they never know what hit them.
208 pages, Paperback
First published April 18, 2006
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
not-gonna-read
August 7, 2025I honestly have no idea on how I feel about this book. This manga didn't keep me interested because there wasn't much there. So this review will be very short.
What to say about this manga . . . Well, it was okay at best. It wasn’t horrible or anything like that but it wasn’t interesting enough for me to be to want to finish this manga series.
In a nutshell, this is basically James Bond but manga style. The main character is mysterious, a powerful assassin, a ladies man, and a kickass strategist. There’s not much to this guy really. He’s badass and there’s little known about him . . . and that’s about it.
The other characters, they’re not interesting either. I’m not sure you can even all them characters really. They just appear, serve their purpose and that’s it. So as you can see, the character cast is very tiny.
There’s not much to the story either. It’s just the main character taking jobs while also having this mysterious past that no one seems to know. But I do admit that he’s very creative and resourceful on how he gets his job done. Just looking at the strategies he uses is always fun and I do enjoy those parts. The other scenes, not so much.
I can’t find anything else to say about it. It wasn’t bad, you either find it enjoyable or you don’t. For me, I just didn’t find it that interesting.
What to say about this manga . . . Well, it was okay at best. It wasn’t horrible or anything like that but it wasn’t interesting enough for me to be to want to finish this manga series.
In a nutshell, this is basically James Bond but manga style. The main character is mysterious, a powerful assassin, a ladies man, and a kickass strategist. There’s not much to this guy really. He’s badass and there’s little known about him . . . and that’s about it.
The other characters, they’re not interesting either. I’m not sure you can even all them characters really. They just appear, serve their purpose and that’s it. So as you can see, the character cast is very tiny.
There’s not much to the story either. It’s just the main character taking jobs while also having this mysterious past that no one seems to know. But I do admit that he’s very creative and resourceful on how he gets his job done. Just looking at the strategies he uses is always fun and I do enjoy those parts. The other scenes, not so much.
I can’t find anything else to say about it. It wasn’t bad, you either find it enjoyable or you don’t. For me, I just didn’t find it that interesting.
February 4, 2025
I'm really digging this. Each mission is a pulpy action thriller with some connection to current events from the time of writing (so like the Tienanmen Square massacre). World renowned assassin Golgo 13 invariably shows up and shoots someone in the head near the end, but he's less present than I expected. Each story is really more of a political or crime thriller, with Golgo 13 being the tool that one of the other characters uses to resolve the final conflict. This lets Saito pontificate a little about what these conflicts represent to the people involved, while still sticking to a formula that he knows works.
The formula is not perfect though. Golgo's stoicism works well for the assassination portion of each story, but it makes the obligatory sex scenes he's in really stupid. Women pull him aside moments after meeting him to bone, even though he barely talks and the only expression he ever shows is a scowl (even during sex). The rest of it works really well though, and four or five pages of stupid isn't that much to ignore in a 200 page comic that is otherwise very good. I'm glad I checked this out.
The formula is not perfect though. Golgo's stoicism works well for the assassination portion of each story, but it makes the obligatory sex scenes he's in really stupid. Women pull him aside moments after meeting him to bone, even though he barely talks and the only expression he ever shows is a scowl (even during sex). The rest of it works really well though, and four or five pages of stupid isn't that much to ignore in a 200 page comic that is otherwise very good. I'm glad I checked this out.
May 27, 2023
Two 90 pages stories.
The first, a political drama involving Tibet, Tiananmen Square, and Buddhism. Once again Golgo is a ghost haunting his own book, barely making an appearance. The conclusion is clever enough, emphasizing Golgo’s amoral and ruthless nature, as well as commenting on Buddhism, but it takes way too long to get there and all the political details are pointless. 2 stars.
The second story is a classic, and for the first time Golgo gets to star in it. Considering he’s the only character with any type of personality that’s a big plus. He’s hired to infiltrate a French heroin cartel and take out its top chemist, a mysterious figure known as “z.” What follows are car chases, gun fights, fisticuffs, subterfuge, and a little detective work. Everything for which you’d read a Golgo 13 story. It moves quickly and builds to a satisfying conclusion. 4 stars.
The first, a political drama involving Tibet, Tiananmen Square, and Buddhism. Once again Golgo is a ghost haunting his own book, barely making an appearance. The conclusion is clever enough, emphasizing Golgo’s amoral and ruthless nature, as well as commenting on Buddhism, but it takes way too long to get there and all the political details are pointless. 2 stars.
The second story is a classic, and for the first time Golgo gets to star in it. Considering he’s the only character with any type of personality that’s a big plus. He’s hired to infiltrate a French heroin cartel and take out its top chemist, a mysterious figure known as “z.” What follows are car chases, gun fights, fisticuffs, subterfuge, and a little detective work. Everything for which you’d read a Golgo 13 story. It moves quickly and builds to a satisfying conclusion. 4 stars.
September 7, 2024
I like the stories, but I'm still not sure how the stories were chosen as they jump all around in the series. Thankfully the stories are stand alone, but it's still odd how you'll read a story from the 90s then one from the seventies. It's also interesting how you see real people and their likenesses in the stories such as Bill Clinton, Hussein, Nelson Mandela and many others.
This volume features an odd story based around China and the Tiananmen Square incident set in 1990, as well as a story dealing with heroin dealing in the 70s. There's also some rather peculiar information given in Golgo 13 files about his dress style, including his underwear.
There's sexual content in the stories that seems a little forced, and the art isn't really what you'd call sexy.
This is still a very well done manga series, even with the idiosyncrasies.
This volume features an odd story based around China and the Tiananmen Square incident set in 1990, as well as a story dealing with heroin dealing in the 70s. There's also some rather peculiar information given in Golgo 13 files about his dress style, including his underwear.
There's sexual content in the stories that seems a little forced, and the art isn't really what you'd call sexy.
This is still a very well done manga series, even with the idiosyncrasies.
August 6, 2021
These collections are weird and seem to jump around time and tone. The to here are interesting. The first one takes place during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests with lots of background and historical table-setting but ultimately our favourite assassin Golgo 13 doesn't really have a prominent role in the book other than to do his thing and shoot gun a few times. I still really like the style and while the stories aren't the most engrossing, I think that it's worth reading these volumes since the number of translated stories is quite limited relative to the run this series has had.
February 14, 2020
I really like Golgo 13, but these collections don't really seem to have a rhyme or reason to them. Just some individual stories. I will say, that the author does a really good job at research, to ensure that the stories stay within a realm of reality.
Check it out if you are a Golgo 13, James Bond, or spy novel fan.
Check it out if you are a Golgo 13, James Bond, or spy novel fan.
August 16, 2024
Things Are Not Always What They Seem…
So, the Buddhist holy man hires G13 whack a certain demonstrator cuz the old man fears he might do something violent and crazy. In Hydra, G13 came to France to learn contract to be made on a certain Doctor Z of the Corsican gangsters smuggling purified heroin. The last part is info on the character of Golgo 13. Still fun to read.
So, the Buddhist holy man hires G13 whack a certain demonstrator cuz the old man fears he might do something violent and crazy. In Hydra, G13 came to France to learn contract to be made on a certain Doctor Z of the Corsican gangsters smuggling purified heroin. The last part is info on the character of Golgo 13. Still fun to read.
March 18, 2020
Not as good as the first one
November 28, 2023
one could say it's a little tasteless to centre a golgo 13 story around tiananmen square but it's precisely these breaches of politesse that one enjoys in his stories really.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews