By Marini and Desberg
Publisher: Cinebook
ISBN: 9781849180467
I've said before now how much I'm enjoying The Scorpion series and I think this is largely down to Marini and Desberg's talent and hard work manifesting itself with such spirit and intelligence upon the page. The approach to comics on the continent means they're not pumped out at the rate in the UK and US, so the creators are able to realise a much richer world. I've read too many stories over the years where a great script is ruined by rushed or ineffective artwork, which is always baffling when it's very much what defines the medium, but works such as The Scorpion, Blacksad, Aldebaran and countless more besides show why it's worth waiting a little longer for your comic fix.
This is very much in evidence in this fourth Scorpion book, which sees various factions clamouring to be the first to retrieve St Peter's cross. Like the Indiana Jones movies, the script blends action and adventure with archaeology, history and a good dash of religious hokum to create an intelligent and genuinely entertaining story. Characters are allowed to develop and grow, and in this volume we get a softer side of Mejai, a little more depth to Hussar and the brutal back story of Trebaldi's viscous enforcer, Rochnan.
There's an active engagement with the reader to understand and question the roots of the three main faiths that share so much in common, but not to ridicule but instead to look past the trappings and the men of power to see how they came to be what they are – or even could be. There are heroes and villains on every side, and through it all is a man trying to understand his place in a new, uncertain world, and by the end of this book he at least gets a hint of a new direction.
Beyond that I'm reluctant to give too much of the plot away. The only other thing you need to know is that the artwork is simply beautiful, and much praise must be heaped upon Marini for his efforts to illustrate the pages with such finesse. This certainly isn't a book you'd want to rush.
And if you liked that: Take a look at Largo Winch
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