Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Part 1: Phantom Blood #1-16

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Part 1: Phantom Blood #1-16

Originally released in 1987

Written by Hirohiko Araki

Art by Hirohiko Araki

Much like Dragon Ball, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure had some very unusual beginnings compared to what the series would become.  Long before psychic manifestations of fighting spirit or solar-powered martial arts became the norm, the series was... a Victorian era inheritance squabble?

On his deathbed, alcoholic lowlife Dario Brando tells his son Dio that a nobleman, George Joestar, owes him a favour, and that he plans to have George adopt the boy so that Dio can live a life of luxury.  When George was caught in a carriage crash years ago, Dario went to rob the carriage, and George thought that Dario was there to save him.  George Joestar is a phenomenally bad judge of character.

Dio isn't grateful towards this, spitting on his father's grave, but he does follow along with it.  Dio desires power, and getting the Joestar family fortune all to himself will give him that. Upon his arrival at the Joestar family mansion, he meets George's son Jonathan, starting a rivalry that will span generations.

Dio makes his character known immediately by kicking Jonathan's dog in the face for no reason whatsoever. He plans to ruin Jonathan's life, isolate him from everyone else, and take his place as the heir.  George, continuing to be an awful judge of character, brushes off Dio attacking the dog.

Throughout his childhood, George blatantly favours Dio - his harshness towards Jonathan is an attempt to make him into a proper nobleman, but he remains ignorant of Dio's actions, even when Dio spreads baseless rumours about Jonathan, kisses the girl that Jonathan loves, and kills the family dog.

Eventually, Dio goes too far, prompting Jonathan to beat Dio up to the point where he starts crying, which is satisfying after all of the crap that he's put Jonathan through in the first few chapters. After this, Dio claims to have turned over a new leaf, becoming more friendly with Jonathan over the next seven years.

Jonathan's not entirely convinced, though he's busy with his archaeology studies and his father's illness to worry about it. While studying an Aztec stone mask that his mother bought before she died, Jonathan discovers a letter that Dario Brando had sent George Joestar where Dario describes his illness - symptoms which sound identical to what his father is going through.

Refusing to let anyone but a hired team of doctors look after his father, Jonathan sets out for London to see if he can find an antidote. Not wanting word to get out about his dirty deeds that were done dirt cheap, Dio plots to have Jonathan murdered.  A knife or a gun could be traced back to Dio, but Jonathan's studies of the stone mask showed that if blood touches it, it causes spikes to extend from the back of it, so anyone who sees Jonathan's notes will figure that he died as a result of his studies.

Dio decides to test the mask out on a pair of lowlives who badmouth him, only to discover that it's not a murder weapon at all.  Rather, it gives the victim enhanced strength and durability, an insatiable thirst for blood, and an extreme weakness to sunlight. In short, it makes them into vampires.

Meanwhile, Jonathan's search for an antidote takes him to Ogre Street where he encounters a gang of thugs led by Robert E.O. Speedwagon, one of a long line of characters or abilities named after musicians and/or songs. 

Speedwagon grows to respect Jonathan, seeing his willingness to sacrifice his body if it means that his father will survive, and takes him to the one person who could have produced the poison.

This part of the story reaches its climax in the Joestar mansion, where Jonathan gets the antidote to his father and provides evidence to the police that Dio was the culprit. Cornered and with his plans for obtaining wealth dashed beyond repair, Dio does the equivalent of flipping over the chess board as he's about to lose.

He puts the mask on himself, and using George Joestar's blood, Dio Brando becomes a vampire.  As George dies from his wounds, Dio makes short work of the police who came to round him up, as they had no way of preparing for this.

It all comes down to Jonathan, who burns down his family home in an attempt to defeat Dio and keep his vampirism from spreading to the rest of England, if not the world.

Araki's earliest artwork for this series holds up (though it can be hard to tell how old characters are supposed to be at times), and the series's tendency towards gruesome or skin-crawling violence is evident from early on.  Dio's not a particularly subtle villain at this point, which makes it all the more frustrating when George and Jonathan keep giving him second, third, and fourth chances, though his efforts at isolating Jonathan are realistic enough. (Up until the point where he turns himself into a vampire, anyway)

Jonathan was a more fleshed out character than I remember him being - his development from impulsive child to a mature gentleman feels natural, even if a lot of it takes place during a time-skip.  I've only seen this part in the anime before, and it was a while ago, but it seems like a pretty faithful adaptation of this from what I recall.  Compared to the leads of the other parts, Jonathan still feels extremely forgettable by comparison, though that speaks more to the strength and development of the other Jojos that I've seen rather than any problems with his character.