Terrorwar #4 // Review
Representative Ronali has given Muhammad Cho an offer that he won’t refuse. The only question is: why? He and his terror fighters don’t really have any choice but to do what Ronali is requesting. The best she can tell them is that the terror is getting worse in Blue City. Cho and his crew have dangerous work set-up for themselves in Terrorwar #4. Writer Saladin Ahmed continues his cyberpunk horror action serial with penciler Dave Acosta, inker Jay Leisten, and colorist Walter Pereyra. The tension increases as the mystery of the Blue City terrors begins to intensify.
The terrors are substantially worse than they were a decade ago. If it continues its rate of increase, there won’t be a safe spot left in the city in a month or more. The obvious question is: how are they spawning so quickly? Actually...they’re not spawning. They’re being...reborn. Every time the terrors die, they come back to life. Not a single group of terror fighters managed to make a dent in the terror population of Blue City except one: Muhammad Cho’s. Naturally, Representative Ronali is going to want to procure the services of the one group that’s making a difference...even if THEY don’t know why.
Though he’s working in very well-traveled territory for sci-fi, Ahmed manages to construct a thoroughly engrossing action drama with a bit of compelling mystery thrown in around the edges. The pre-action tension is maintained throughout the entire first part of the issue. Once the action gets going, the dialogue tends to feel a little silly. That being said, it's a solidly well-executed action that has more than enough narrative moving parts to hold the reader’s attention straight through until the big cliffhanger ending. It’s a fun adventure.
The art team has a few really cool moments in and around the edges of the action. Shots of Blue City are very immersive, particularly when there is a scene out of a window here and there. Acosta also does a really good job of keeping each character in the ensemble very distinct. This can be very difficult in squad-based action dramas. It’s particularly difficult to pull off visually with a series where everybody's basically wearing the same uniform. Acosta does an excellent job of working with different postures and dispositions on the page to make for a remarkably immersive action story.
By the fourth issue, the series has finally met its stride. Ghostbusters has fully met Escape from New York, and the two distinct ends of action are working together quite well. Hopefully, the story can find a more distinct voice as the issues progress. Ahmed is tackling a story that is beginning to look like something new and interesting, but it’s had to crawl through the muck of a whole lot of world-building to get there. The artwork feels well-rendered. The squad-based drama feels like it’s running on all cylinders. The series can really start to go places in the fifth issue.
