Bastard Samurai takes place in present-day Manhattan and focuses on Jiro, a killer at the top of his class at the Kozu sword school. The underground training camp in midtown takes in orphans and twists them into Bushido warriors. The Yakuza stage death matches across the city rooftops where Japanese businessmen gamble heavily on the always-fatal outcome. The story is produced and overseen by Powers co-creator Michael Avon Oeming, who introduces newcomers Miles Gunter (Vertigo''s Weird War Tales) and animator Kelsey Shannon, who worked on Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. Each issue includes a five-page backup drawn fully by Oeming. This Issue: Jiro''s status allows him the best that Manhattan offers, but he is forever on the tight leash of his superiors: always followed, always watched. The killing life is all he has ever known, but a rendezvous with fate is about to change all that. With graduation in sight, Jiro experiences a vision while meditating that sets a sequence of events in motion that will take him beyond his own limits- and change him forever.