Almost five months later, let’s try to remember what this is about.
Creative Staff:
Story: Kevin Panetta
Art: Paulina Ganucheau
What They Say:
It’s the final showdown between the Zodiac Starforces and the demon Pavos! The US and UK teams must set aside their differences to defeat the demon, but a surprise attack leaves them reeling . . . and one member down.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Cries of the Fire Prince series comes to a close with this issue and the same problems we had with the last issue – which came out in January – hold true here. That gap between issues is killer and just does the book in, no matter how much fun the story from Kevin Panetta is as it plays to the magical girl concept in a lot of fun ways with some blending from superhero comes. This issue looks just as great as the previous issues did as well as I really enjoy what Paulina Ganucheau has produced here (and her works elsewhere when done in more traditional superhero modes) and that’s been a big plus in that continuity of quality is evident here.
What this issue wants to do to some degree is to have fun with the way some of the girls are falling for others, on their own team and elsewhere, while also discovering what happened to Diana and the panic that can ensue from that. With the first few pages seemingly going in this direction with a big reveal and confrontation, it instead cuts to the sudden and almost comical arrival of Pavos on the airship as he comes crashing through with a car. That also brings Alice and Nicole on board so the chaos gets underway pretty quickly, particularly with Pavos just slamming people about while sending the girls off on their own missions. Pavos was interesting early on in the run but time and lack of things to do have minimized what kind of potential sexy and powerful threat that he was.
What’s a bit more interesting is seeing how some of the main Starforce group try to do their best to get Alice and Nicole to let them help them. They’ve been twisted pretty badly by what Pavos has done in giving them power and assignment so there’s a natural desire to help and to get them to see what they’ve fallen in with. Which makes for some decent fight material here and there alongside the larger and more sprawling fight with Pavos. This works very well because it is as chaotic as it is and I imagine reads even better in eventual trade form simply because the reader will remember who everyone is. Ganucheau does a great job of making everyone distinct in their similar abilities and the flow of the battle is a whole lot of fun, especially with the color design throughout it. Everything feels like it could leap off the page and the screen if it got an actual anime adaptation.
In Summary:
As a big action packed finale, Zodiac Starforce delivers well in this area. There’s a lot going on with the team-ups and configurations across the different Starforce teams and that plays well. The series is one that I continue to like a lot but if there’s going to be more I think the editors need to make some real decisions about the production side. This should be done as a full on original graphic novel right out of the gate and the first two should be republished in black and white and shelved with the manga to draw fans from there as well. The single issue format just isn’t going to work because so much of what drives a series like this is absolutely lost by the fact that it took nearly a year to get four issues out.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: May 2nd, 2018
MSRP: $3.99
