Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Writers: Greg Rucka
Artists: Toni Fejzula
Release Date: 15th October 2014

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Hrm, and hrm indeed. I’ve been wanting to like this series since it started – Fejzula’s terrific, dream-like artwork alone is enough to sell it, but its had its moments of brilliance in the dialog and story-telling too, even if come issue 3 it felt like they’re cramming 10 issues-worth of story into a mere 5. Sadly, whilst this issue does take the time to wrap things, the story that’s come before derails its attempt somewhat, and come the final page, you’re left a little cold, unsure whether to cast the book aside in frustration, or to write to Dark Horse themselves demanding more.

To give it the credit that it’s due, the art remains impeccable – treading just the right line between abstract and realistic to give the story a dream-like quality, and Tomić’s colour work serves only to accentuate this point.

The story does take a redemptive sort of turn, and it’s at least interestingly exposed through Rucka’s pretty close to unrivalled ability to generate authentic sounding dialogue. Unfortunately, it ends all too abruptly, and perhaps a little too neatly – uppances do indeed come, redemptions are indeed had, knights in shining armour arrive and do indeed pontificate whilst shedding blood; it’s all as wearily predictable as it is lovely to look at.

At the end of it all, this series is passable at best, but you can’t help but feel that given more space, writer and artist both could’ve had a lot more fun with it. There’s still some kicks to be had from the terrific art, and there’s a couple of neat concepts going on here and there, particular when it comes to the prominence of the rats, but overall, whilst it’s certainly interesting, and by ‘eck, the artwork is exceptional, it’s just not fully satisfying, and it does feel like a trick was missed somewhere along the line.

Rating: 3/5.

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The Writer of this piece was: Ross Sweeney
Ross tweets from @Rostopher24

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