Review: Artemis and the Assassin #4
What’s a time travelling tale without killer cowboys, ninjas, and soldiers called? Doctor Who! All joking aside, this book continues with its breakneck speed, with paradox’s and history all there for the taking,
Maya’s time travelling assassin buddies arrive just in time (no pun intended) to ensure the death of Virginia Hall, regardless of her place and duty to history. There are questions around why this particular person is slated for killing and to whom the benefits of her death would fall. It seems that Maya though, despite words to the contrary, has something of a wrench to throw into her bosses plans. What is it that they say about actions and words?
Stephanie Phillips is one of my favourite creator/ writers over the last 8 months or so. Her writing her a flair for the dramatic, with nuances thrown in for good measure. Phillips sat her stall out early doors and it is only now that we are getting to see a glimpse behind the curtain. The timing is perfect; action on top of action can only get you so far, there has to be a reason for it all. This issue starts to see those reasons, from a certain perspective as well as implied reasons which may bear bigger fruit. The dialogue is interesting, though does get a tad expositional, which given the third act, is to be expected. Still the bludgeoning relationship between Maya and Virginia is fun to watch regardless of their intentions.
Francesca Fantini once again provides the art, and once again Norm Breyfogle influences are on display. Breyfogle is one of my Batman artists, so I don’t mind at all. As with the previous issue, the action scenes are well paced across the panels and pages. The thing that makes this different from last issues is that third act. Exposition can be hard for artists; text over art is a hard thing to deal with. Yet Fantini totally buys into the history element, frames the pages brilliantly so that the reader doesn’t feel bogged down, The necessary evil is definitely well managed. Colors are provided byLauren Affe who takes a one color base to a couple of situations. This adds emphasis where needed and indicates that the part of the book not featuring the either Maya or Virginia has importance. A Larger World’s Troy Peteri is the letterer who, to be fair to the third act, certainly deserves a pay rise.
The production values of AfterShock very rarely disappoint, even if their initial “shock’ value has worn out, which has been the case on some books. With that said Phillips has shown herself to be a strong and versatile creator, having worked across the aisles, for a number of different publishers.
Writing – 5 Stars
Art -4.5 Stars
Colors -5 Stars
Overall – 4.5 Stars
Written by; Stephanie Phillips
Art by; Francesca Fantini
Colors by; Lauren Affe
Letters by; A Larger World’s Troy Peteri
Publ;ished by; AfterShock Comics
Author Profile
- I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow
Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network
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