Appleseed: Promethean Unbound ( Volume 2 )

Functional simplicity, structural complexity: the best life for all. That's the maxim of Olympus, the utopian city that sprung from the ashes of World War III. But Deunan and Bri, a young woman and her cyborg companion just entering the rose-tinted society, find that so long as there are different kinds of people there will be differences among them. Such is the story of Appleseed, the masterwork of manga storyteller Masamune Shirow. Beautiful art and a complex and fully realized future world rank this title among the best comics available.

The plot thickens in Masamune Shirow's epic science fiction comic book as the interaction between different political factions comes to a head. Renegade street soldier Deunan Knute goes from police officer to member of the government strike force ESWAT just in time to help the island utopia of Olympus prevent its own destruction. As members of the National Council bicker over the civil rights of machines and cyborgs (here called bioroids), monstrous gun platforms, which look like 100-foot-tall mechanical spiders, are being introduced into the city--supposedly for protection. The climactic battle reveals the significance of the title Appleseed.