A jumbled and chaotic appropriate ending.
Creative Staff:
Story: Anthony Del Col
Art: Werther Dell’Edera
Colors: Stefano Simeone
Letterer: Simon Bowland
What They Say:
Does blood run thicker than water? In this thrilling climax of the hugely acclaimed first arc, the murderer of Fenton Hardy is revealed… but do Nancy Drew and the Hardy brothers believe it? In order to find out where the truth actually may lie they must return to a place from their pasts and risk their lives.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With a hopeful promise of more to come, this miniseries draws to a close and gives us a good bit of closure in regards to the arcs that it began. While there’s the bigger picture that can be explored with more, and I hope it will, Del Col and Dell’Edera put together a great work here that ties up most of the loose ends and leaves you feeling like there’s a good sense of closure about it. If you find yourself wanting more the opening is there but if you feel complete with it you have that as well, which is definitely a great feeling. And this is the kind of work where having the six-issue run out now it makes a lot of sense to re-read it and see how it all holds up and comes together now that you know the truths.
The last issue certainly set up the tension for this one with Nancy’s father showing up at the meeting place and revealing himself to being involved in everything. Nancy naturally panicked over that but it was the gunshot that pushed her further out. That drives a lot of things here as he ends up in the hospital in critical condition while she confronts her fears that he may really be involved in Fenton’s death. The narration by her this time around has a good personal tone to it as she struggles with this as well as Collig questioning her and pressuring her with fishing style questions about what’s going on. She’s intent on finding the truth as she still can’t believe her father would be involved in this and seeing her wriggle through things in order to get out there on her own again is quite enjoyable.
The back half works through some nice nods to the kids own pasts with the secret of where the gun involved was hidden and that makes for a lot of tension in a dark cave along the beach with Nancy being hunted down. It’s here that Dell’Edera really shines even more. Especially with Simeone’s color choices, as it’s stark and intense with how the layouts are setup and the panic coming from Nancy. It is admittedly familiar end of arc material in a lot of ways that goes through certain motions, but it connects well and brings closure to much of what’s gone on. And the epilogue hits a certain sweet spot as well with some reunions hitting but also a lot of uncertainty as to the bigger picture with the focus shifting more to the syndicate next, if we do get another series.
In Summary:
I’ve enjoyed the heck out of this series overall as it worked a solid modern day approach to characters that I grew up with. It’s a property that’s easy in a way to massage into relevance because the core of it is strong and timeless in a lot of ways, it’s just the trappings that changed. Bringing the two well-known properties together in this form hit a really good sweet spot with the way that the creative team put it together and made it feel so seamless and easy. It’s definitely been a great trip every month (or so) in single issue form and I suspect it’s going to be an even stronger read when done up in a full collection, one that certainly warrants a strong hardcover presentation. Definitely recommended as a whole.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: September 6th, 2017
MSRP: $3.99
