I'm enjoying the Kuma flashback. Pretty neat and fitting given Bonney's relevance to Egghead and by proxy, Kuma's importance. He'll likely arrive soon and at least have a final goodbye to Bonney and get to see the Sun God Nika in action.
As we get more info, it honestly seems like Iva was Dragon's former number 2. I assumed it was Kuma off of his apparent closeness to Dragon since he knew Luffy was his son and while that still holds up, Iva was straight-up his first comrade it seems (and even called a pillar to the group before Kuma joined) then Kuma and Ginny followed. They're the original trio that formed the Revolutionary Army but perhaps I've been overestimating Kuma's relationship to Dragon in comparison to Iva's, regardless Kuma and Iva were Dragon's first two major subordinates. That aside, I hope we see much more of Dragon and Iva soon.
Kuma's pretty boss. Taking a whole village's pain regularly and being up in time to do it again. Really kind of him and Oda's done well to establish him as a previously cheerful and caring person. His interactions with Ginny seem nice like him being hesitant to marry her in feiar that something bad could come of it.
Dragon being a former Marine is pretty amazing. Interesting that Garp managed to have him on that path at least initially (or that he himself thought it would be a good idea) before he found out for himself that they're a flawed group that is restricted in the amount of good they can do. I'd love to hear Dragon's thoughts on Fujitora. At this point I've stopped expecting Fuji to go all out against an ally of Luffy's once the final war goes down considering he's courageous enough to help slaves while stationed with Aramaki at Mariejois.
Hopefully when the time comes, we get a detailed Dragon backstory like this showing us his time in the Navy, what moment made him call it quits, his meeting with Ivankov, Luffy's mom and his relationship with Garp. I look forward to Luffy and Dragon's meeting (so does Dragon based on his words for his son whenever he comments on him, like when he saw him at Log Town or after his bounty increase). The Revolutionary Army will probably end up pretty good allies with the Straw Hats given Luffy's actions and role as a liberator (plus Sun God role might end up as decent propaganda like Flame Emperor though I guess more credible).
[automerge]1698839653[/automerge]
I wouldn't mind another chapter or two of this flashback, depending on how many pages the next ones are. The action at Egghead isn't going anywhere. Saturn's a huge threat, Kizaru may still pose a problem, Lucci still has to be cut down and there are all those Vice Admirals. It's shaping up to be a pretty good climax though hopefully Oda does the fights justice.