By Cat Wyatt

The Silencer #4 continues Honor’s epic quest to be free of Leviathan and all of its enemies. In the last issue we saw her survive against all odds, but it’s incredibly likely that the others will figure out she’s still alive sooner rather than later. She’s going to have to figure out a longer term plan if she wants to keep her life intact and her family safe.

The issue starts off looking back into the past. It’s the first time Honor brought up the idea of leaving Leviathan to have a life, to start a family and do all the things she can’t do while part of an organization such as this. Talia seems okay with the idea, but as per usual asks her for one more thing before she goes.

What’s really surprising is the fact that Talia is considering letting Honor leave. Leviathan is infamous for never letting anyone leave. Perhaps Talia thinks she couldn’t stop Honor is she was really determined, and feels it’s better to just let her go? Or does she think she could pull Honor back in when needed, and thus the illusion of freedom would work effectively? I hate to say it, but I’m personally leaning towards the latter. I mean, look at the current events in Honor’s life.

Anyway, the last mission Honor has to do for her freedom…it’s unseemly, which for a league of assassins (no affiliation) is saying something. Honor has been tasked with killing one of their own. Something they’re never supposed to do. However, this man, Guile, is supposedly leaving the organization and giving away all of their intel in the process.

If this is true then Guile would be putting the entire organization at risk. I’m not entirely sure I believe everything Honor has been told, but I can understand why she does (she actually does like and trust Talia, so it likely never occurred to her that the woman would lie to her like that).

Granted, Guile’s high quality guard probably gives more proof that it’s true…it’s not like just anybody could afford a guy like Deathstroke. He believes that her killing Guile would start a war within Leviathan, and to be honest, he probably isn’t wrong. Once the trust in an organization like that is broken it’d probably turn into a bloodbath in no time. It’s just odd hearing Deathstroke be reasonable like that. Though perhaps I’m being unfair. Anyway, you can probably guess how the fight ends, if nothing else than basing it off of the events in the present.

Meanwhile in the present Honor is trying to find a way to keep her two lives separate and safe. This is likely the reason why she never wanted to settle down while in Leviathan. She has so much more to lose now. Plus she’s got secrets she needs to keep from those she loves most, and that would be incredibly difficult.

I will say that while seeing little parts of Honor’s calmer present can be jarring in comparison to her past, her husband is pretty cute. In one scene we see him politely telling their neighbor off for being upset about the idea of Honor getting a job. I mean, seriously? Who does that neighbor think she is, to tell him he should be keeping Honor at home taking care of the house? I don’t think I’ve ever met anybody that thought they could say that shit to me. And they better hope I never meet them too, because I would not be a polite at he was! Though his way of handling it was pretty cute…so there’s that.

As always, the past comes back to haunt us. Honor does not have a clean past, and some part of her must have always known that would come up again, no matter how hard she pretended to be a normal civilian. I’m just surprised it took this long.

This was an interesting issue – I was surprised to see Deathstroke included in it, but I guess I shouldn’t be. I can actually easily see him getting wrapped up in a war like this, so in a messed up way it does make sense. I do feel that this issue was a lot of backstory and building up, so hopefully the next issue will be a bit more climatic.

I still can’t stand the way armor is drawn in this series. At first I thought it was just Honor’s armor, but Deathstroke doesn’t look right either. They both look like they’re wearing fluffy winter coats. It’s almost hilarious how silly they look. Other than the armor everything else looks okay, thankfully.

Score: 3/5

Silencer #4
DC Comics