Tigress Island #5 // Review
He’s leading them back. They don’t know if they can even trust him. They should be getting off the island. So why are they heading straight back into the place they just escaped from? Jaqueline told them that the only way out is back. She would have known. She’d been there for three years. They’re trapped. If they’re going to get out alive, they’re going to have to go through the people who brought them there in Tigress Island #5. Writer Patrick Kindlon and aritst EPHK conclude their retro action thriller in a stylish final issue that mixes comedy with survival horror and whole bunch of engaging personality.
The one in charge of the island is willing to do whatever it takes to bring-in those who have escaped her grasp. She’s mentioning this to all who are in attendance: a bunch of heavily armed guards. She’s in the bathtub when she gets a call from Maximo: the master of the house. Her boss. It’s unclear exactly what’s being said to her, but there’s a bit of a clarification: evidently the escapees must be brought-in alive. Maximo is coming to the island. The woman speaking to him on the phone is going to have to get dressed...
Kindlon ratchets-up the action and speeds it through the final issue. Following the basic pacing of an action serial, everything speeds-up quite a bit in the final issue of the series. There are a few twists. There are a few turns. There is some particularly sharp and clever dialogue. It all ends quite dramatically in a way that feels both satisfying and cinematic. Kindlon and company have something going for the that few big budget action movies are allowed: they don’t have to follow a nauseatingly predictable three-act Hollywood plot structure. The action can follow its own pulse and rhythm. This makes it superior to most Hollywood action movies.
The page layouts are really cool too. The first two pages of the final issue are big two-page spreads that provide a couple of long, sweeping panoramic establishing shots. The action rips across the page in big sweeps as the heroes sternly survey what they have to do in order to survive. The exaggeration of the action hits the page with an impressive intensity that doesn’t really let-up until the last couple of pages. Engaging angles. Dramatic cuts. Quite a visual package.
There isn’t a great deal of thematic depth for the series. It’s all about survival, which is the simplest, most primal conflict in all of human history. So it might not be a lingering or haunting story on a conceptual level, but Tigress Island has been a great deal of fun from beginning to end. The dreamy fugue of the action is compelling n more than one level and the cast DOES have a strong emotional presence on the page that makes for one of the most satisfying mini-series to hit the rack this year.
