Record of Ragnarok Volume Two concludes the battle between Thor and Lu Bu, and the second battle of Ragnarok begins.

Record of Ragnarok Volume Two
Written by: Shinya Umemura and Takumi Fukui
Publisher: COAMIX, Inc.
English Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: April 19, 2022
The first two chapters focus on the ongoing battle between Thor and Lu Bu. Right at first, each time that it looks like Thor is going to win, something happens that allows Lu Bu to continue. Overall, these first two chapters are a rather quick read due to all of the action associated with the battle. Lu Bu has a very impressive final move, and I appreciated getting to see a flashback of how he developed his weapon in order to come up with his final move. Unfortunately, though, it’s just not quite enough to keep Lu Bu in the fight. But considering he was a human up against a god like Thor, he actually did a lot better than the gods (or anyone else, really) thought he could. Unfortunately, this was still a loss, so it’s not a great start for trying to save the existence of the human race. I will give a brief content warning for this battle and say that the depiction of Lu Bu’s defeat is on the gory side.
It’s up to Brunhilde to choose the next fighter for Ragnarok. The person she picks is a bit of a surprise at first, but after she explains her choice and we see the actual battle, it makes sense. Her choice: Adam (the first man). Out of all the people on the human fighter list, he would be the one who would have the most reason to hate gods. But when Adam makes his appearance in the ring, though, I almost laughed. In this series, Adam is given a “bishonen” look, and all he’s wearing is a strategically placed leaf. You can’t blame the gods for wondering why this scrawny guy who doesn’t look terribly strong has been called to fight.
Adam was supposed to battle the Hindu god, Shiva. However, there’s a change in plans with Zeus interferes and forces his way into the battle. Wow, Zeus is…… something else. He’s an old man who tries to make a “flashy” entrance into the ring, and he comes across as an old guy who’s “trying too hard to be hip.” That had to be kind of embarrassing for the gods to witness. And I can’t blame Brunhilde for getting pissed that Zeus went out into the battle, especially with that display he put on.
But this means that the second battle turns out to be against the father of man and the father of the gods. Before their fight begins, Adam merges with Reginleif, the seventh Valkyrie sister, and this gives him brass knuckles for his weapon. It turns out Zeus is going to fight bare handed, so this ends up being a better weapon for Adam than anyone initially expected. Their fight goes for the remainder of the volume, but it turns out it’s not going to be as easy for Zeus and he expects, because Adam has an ability that no one is aware of, and it’s actually pretty impressive. I don’t want to spoil the explanation, so all I will say is that when you read the explanation, it makes perfect sense. It appears the winner of this battle is decided at the end of Volume Two, but there’s always the chance that the one who’s down may not necessarily stay down when the action in Volume Three commences.
Overall, I enjoyed reading Record of Ragnarok Volume Two, although I still can’t get over the design choice for Adam. To be honest, I hadn’t expected him to be portrayed with a “bishonen” look. I wasn’t expecting a buff guy or anything, but I was expecting him to be a little more… “average.”
The ending of the Thor and Lu Bu fight was the realistic way to conclude it. While I was cheering for Lu Bu, I knew deep down that there was no way that he could possibly win against Thor. There were a lot of action panels included throughout this volume for both of the fights, but there was also just enough character development and explanations included to balance out the action.
If you’ve read and enjoyed the first volume of Record of Ragnarok, then I think you will be satisfied with how the story continues in Volume Two.
The reviewer was provided a review copy by VIZ Media
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