And there’s a detour I didn’t expect.
Creative Staff:
Story: Marc Guggenheim
Art: Andrea Mutti
Colors: Chris Sotomayor
Letterer: Taylor Esposito
What They Say:
The Swashbucklers race against the clock to stop an invading fleet before it destroys a planet close to Raader’s heart—EARTH! Will they be able to save the planet? Will they find old friends who they thought they had lost?!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With one more issue left in this miniseries, the continuation of the Swashbucklers saga takes us to an interesting place – Earth. It’s been forever and a day since I read the original work to the point where I barely remember any of it so I’m enjoying the way Marc Guggenheim is reconnecting me with it in these kinds of crazy ways. It’s also continuing to be fun with Andrea Mutti’s artwork as there’s a kind of anything goes approach to it and just the enjoyment of the motley crew that he gets to work with in putting into these wild situations. Events have been ramping up significantly since the start of the run and it’s in a place now where it’s finally something that really feels personal for Raader.
The reveal that the Sidari was a threat that the Colonizers were actively working against shifted perceptions of them, though not their cruelty, and the knowledge that they’re now heading for Earth has Raader on a tear. It’s fun watching the way she works her crew that aren’t exactly up on things to figure out a way to go after them since they’re using transdimensional drives that will let them break past the cloudwall. Of course, Raader goes for what seems like a logical approach that’ based more on hope than anything else in taking control of one of the Sidari ships after ramming it and going through. It’s a fun boarding party mission that unfolds, especially with some less than subtextual sexual moments thrown in that kind of leaves me wishing Dynamite had a full on adult line to explore things with.
Where the book lost me simply in my lack of memory of much ado about Earth, we spend about half the book there with Domino and the other dimensional sibling of Dodger along with Captain Kidd. Domino is in full on superhero mode here with powers as she and Kidd deal with a bank robbery just before the Sidari arrive and throw everything off. The problem is that there’s just not enough time to really establish them here as it should have been a page or two in each issue prior to seed more of this so that when we got here it works. It’s an interesting segment overall in seeing what it is that Domino is capable of and just how instrumental she may be when we get the Sidari here in full and the threat revealed for what it is. Right now it’s just craziness piled on top of craziness going into the finale.
In Summary:
Swashbucklers always had a kind of classic anything goes approach sensibility about it that came from a lot of indie books in the 80’s and Guggenheim captures a lot of that in the scripts here, for better and for worse. It’s something that does feel out of place in the here and now but there’s appeal in that as well for people like me. This issue goes for a couple of different weird and unexpected twists and it’s something that Andrea Mutti keeps up with easily, shifting from tone and place to new tone and place all while keeping it consistent as a part of the bigger picture. I wish the new subplot had been seeded earlier so that it didn’t feel quite so left field, especially with the distance between series, but I’m curious to see how they’re going to try and wrap it all up in one more issue.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: July 18th, 2018
MSRP: $3.99
