Thundercats: Lost #4 // Review
Pumyra has her hands raised. She’s at gunpoint. In the middle of the desert. On a strange planet. Not exactly a good position from which to negotiate. She’s going to try to do so anyway, though. She’s telling the one with the gun that she’d gladly give him her life if he lets her friends go. So why is it that he’s actually considering it? And...IS he actually considering it? Survival is a bit of a question in Thundercats: Lost #4. Writer Ed Brisson continues a dangerous adventure into Third Earth with artist Rapga Lobosco and colorist Roshan Kurichiyil.
Pumyra actually seems to be getting a promise out of the one holding the gun on her. It’s a huge, Liefeld-esque thing that looks like it could vaporize her with a twitch, but she’s calm about the whole thing. And there’s reason to believe that the individual in question can’t exactly be trusted. So she’s not going to trust him. She’s going to act quickly and decisively to end the stand-off even though she’s clearly in over her head and completely outgunned. It’s going to be a quick matter of a bit of quick work, but the danger is still very real for Pumyra and her allies.
Brisson keeps the action through yet another issue. Though there are specifics that have a great deal to do with the mythology of a franchise that goes back. Several decades, the central heart of the story is really easy for anyone to follow for anyone with even a passing familiarity with western-inspired sci-fi action drama. There's a hell of a lot going on in the background, but none of it really matters. The basic need for survival in a predator and sort of a situation primal and it's fun seeing a layout with familiar iconography.
Any action based stories going to rely where you become heavily on the art that is bringing it to the page. Labosco has a solid mastery of tension and explosion as it alternates across the page. The sudden bursts of a violent aggression or nearly perfectly modulated against the dramatic intensity of the danger involved. The fact that these characters are only somewhat related to the central characters of the franchise means that is entirely possible that Brisson might have some desire to really work against the well-being of one of the heroes. No one is safe in a book like this. Which makes it all the more fun.
Brisson and Labosco make a case for an expansion whole franchise. There seems to be quite a lot going on, expand on the central themes at the heart of the main part of the franchise there's a lot to explore in and around Third Earth. And it could be a lot of fun to see a layout in various directions. The issue is that this isn't as much of a departure from the central action that's going on in the franchise. So I just feels kind of like an echo. It's a really appealing echo, though. And the characters seem really interesting.
