How about instead of focusing on the new guy we know nothing about (and immediately start saying it's Sabo like people do with every obscured character that shows up) we focus instead on how awesome the Strawhats were this chapter?
Franky was just overwhelming, even against two of Donfla's crewmembers, which is actually surprising. I expected him to beat one, or at least have a very hard time beating both but I never expected him to just bash them around so easily. It was awesome how he adapted the Gaon Cannon, a cannon that can propel a large ship through the air through a long distance, into his Shogun effectively making it into a deadly weapon.
The guys vs the girls reactions to the Shogun was a priceless moment for me xD
Both Nami and Usopp's cowardice reached the peak, though they did display their skill really well.
Nami's attack looked strong but it didn't have much going on for it in terms of being cool for me. Yea, she made a large thundercloud and redirected lightning, it looks and is strong but it's still just a large cloud throwing down lightning at the enemy. If only she gave some sort of special shape to the cloud or something, that would be neat.
Usopp on the other hand had a very fun display this chapter. The fact that his weapon seems to also be a plant was surprising (Gonna miss the dials but still) and that it can eat and shoot out everything in one go was really cool (I just wonder where the seastone cuffs came from but still...cool). I'm really loving Usopp's use of plants.
But the highlight of the chapter (barely passing by the everyone's reactions to Shogun) was simply the rape face everyone put on when Law said they were enemies just...just look at it!
Tell me everyone doesn't look awesome in this once panel?
Overall great start to 2013, never would have expected that the new One Piece year would start with Franky, Nami and Usopp being badasses xD