Enter Tiger Lilly! I honestly didn’t see the series going this direction since we had already spent time with Tiger Lilly and Julian. It completely makes sense once you start reading the story though. What’s particularly impressive about the beginning of this story arc is that Wiebe approaches the narrative from a different style yet again. I’m seriously impressed that he’s switched it up with each new story arc because it makes it pretty impossible for you to guess how the arc is going to progress or end. Also if you thought the story was done dealing with the events of the last arc just because we switched characters… think again. Now I’m sure you’re wondering how the narration switches up. Well in some cases the aged character has narrated their memories to our traveling author going bit by bit through their memories. In the case of the last arc certain items were used to bring forth key moments in the characters life. In this arc that follows Tiger Lilly she’s declined to tell her story, but has instead given her journals of the events to the writer. The arc is called “The Hunt” and it’s about Lilly hunting down the Nazi Hunters that are responsible for killing her father. The story opens following one of the men on a date and Lilly sniping him in broad daylight in a café.
As I said we see how the rest of the lost boys made it out of the complex and it comes with a sacrifice. Peter knows that the Hunters aren’t allowed to kill him since that’s a privilege reserved for Hook alone. He orders them all to flee out the back while he rushes them through the front and distracts them long enough to get free. Peter puts up a great fight, but he’s captured. Ultimately this removes him from the story for a time, but hopefully we’ll get to him sooner than later. He felt particularly absent in the last arc and while I don’t see him appearing much during Lilly’s hunt, I would like to spend time with his character since he’s a big drawl of the story. Every character mentions him, but we continue to draw away from him as the reader.
I’m actually going to talk about the art to start with. Jenkins has grown exponentially over the course of this series. His opening page captures a villa that is clearly beaten down, but still trying to maintain some semblance of normalcy. It’s bright and cheerful looking which makes the head shot that the hunter takes all the more shocking and awesome. For the scenes that happen just after our last arc he takes a different approach and uses shades of blue to clearly show that they happened in the past. It’s very different them previous issues because when the story has traveled to the past it stays there and we see it all play out in real-time. This time it felt and looked like a memory which was very different. I enjoyed everything the art work did in this issue as it was all very powerful and moving.
Story wise, it’s a solid issue. It’s not as bold and crazy as other issues, but it’s definitely a better start than some previous arcs. Wiebe’s approach to the narrative may change, but the structure is usually the same. He starts small and builds from there. Granted there are two pretty powerful and important scenes in this issue, but considering what they come after they’re less impactful. It’s still a good issue and a solid start to what looks to be another great story arc.
The last story arc set the bar very high for this series so even though this was one of the better comics to release this week, it still fell a bit short for me. I’m not worried though because it won me over a long time ago, but if you’re new to the series this is actually a great place to jump on. You get just enough of the back story to get the general idea of the premise and you’re along for the “Hunt.” This is still one of the best comics Image is publishing so check it out.
Score: 4/5
Writer: Kurtis Wiebe Artist: Tyler Jenkins Publishing: Image/Shadowline Comics Price: $3.50 Release Date: 1/15/14