It’s over! But I hope it isn’t, and that this series is expanded at some point, because it feels like Horton and Dialynas actually set out to hold some details back from us in this concluding issue. Don’t worry, things do get tied up fairly well, and there’s an entirely brutal mother-daughter swordfight in there for good measure. But if there’s one criticism to be leveled against this series, it’s that there isn’t enough of it yet.
Written by Steve Horton
Illustrated by Michael DialynasMaster assassin Amala uncovers Prince Markos’ plan to reignite civil war between Modifiers and Purifiers! Can she stem the tides of war? What is the deadly secret her mother carries? And will Amala face her long-lost destiny?
Newly saddled up with a purple cyberpunk dragon (and why the hell not), Amala’s all set to mediate a conflict between the Modifiers and Purifiers. But not only is she denied her Big Moment and epic hero’s speech; a surprising revelation about her role in Naamaron’s politics awaits her there. So far as revelations go, this one is devastating, vitally undermining Amala’s principles as we have come to understand them and casting a new light on the role Amala’s ghosts have played in her adventures so far.
The right sort of stuff for a concluding chapter, right? The trouble is – apart from a vengeful little coda on the last page – we don’t find out very much about what’s next for Amala and her crew. This is very much a baiting-for-an-ongoing – or at least another miniseries – sort of issue, and while there’s plenty of dramatic payoff as it is, the richness of this world as it has been fleshed out so far practically begs for another story to explore it.
Speaking of dramatic payoff, though, the betrayal that happens near the end of this issue is beautifully executed, seeming to come straight of out nowhere but playing into some of the revelations in a sinister and surprising way. For all of Amala’s pragmatism, this event pushes past her moral limits, and forces her into a new way of being. It all feels a bit sped-up (this is the conclusion to a miniseries); but ultimately, it’s the kind of crisis which casts all the other moral dilemmas into relief, making for a thoughtful and complex conclusion.
With all the carnage and mayhem going on in this issue, one aspect of Dialynas’s art which pushes itself again and again to the forefront is the prevailing lightheartedness of it, and the way this both emphasizes and intensifies the violence. Dialynas always manages to inject a little humour into a panel, without sacrificing the immediacy of the action, and this makes the conflict that comes at the end of this issue all the more arresting. It’s a delicate balance for sure, but Dialynas pulls off blood spatter after blood spatter without edging into campiness or irony.
Similarly, Dialynas’ portrayal of Amala has been an exercise in balancing likeable and unlikeable traits. Her ruthlessness and bravado is always present in her facial expressions, but the underlying insecurity comes out at all the right moments, all without making us dislike her. Far from the Mary Sue-ish caricature of the ass-kicking lady that we’re all familiar with, this is a deeply flawed character, negotiating a brightly coloured but quite treacherous universe.
This series has been a wonderful ride, and viewed as a capped-off, no-more-to-see-here-ma’am sort of enterprise, it’s still fabulous. There’s scale, there’s imagination, there’s humour, there’s humanity. Horton and Dialynas have built a beautiful world up, then challenged it, populating it with flinty characters and all kind of moral ambiguities. But the more you look at it, the more potent and full of unrealized potential is all looks. There are so many great stories left to tell here.
Final Verdict: 8.8 – This will be a gorgeous trade.
