Creative Staff:
Story: Ryan Parrott
Art: Milos Slavkovic
Colors: Leonardo Paciarotti
Letterer: Charles Pritchett
What They Say:
The dethroned King of the Fairies’ sordid past is revealed as Oberon comes face-to-face with his former servant – PUCK. But is he friend…or foe?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Oberon series draws to a close with this installment, though it’s more the ending of an opening chapter of a larger work. One that I do hope Ryan Parrott is able to get back to at some point as his interpretation of Oberon was fun and the kind of lightness and whimsy mixed in with the serious worked well for me here. He’s able to bring some plot points to a close while leaving more than enough to work with in the future, which works well for me. Milos Slavkovic has been strong on this book since the start as I really liked his designs and how he made the character of the fey expressive in their own way, particularly combined with their style of dress. It wasn’t a modernized take or anything but had touches of the old and things that the long-lived would hold onto because it ended up defining them and they liked it.
The initial piece to this is having Puck going up against Oberon at Titania’s demand and it’s just a delight to watch. The two have a lot of history, even if it’s been a while, but even Oberon is realizing how serious Puck is here. The callbacks to their past is nice and it plays well into how Oberon moved on to Nicholas. Nicholas, for his part, is entertaining and keeping Bonnie occupied but even that doesn’t go smoothly as the Nevermen have found them. Though only Bonnie is able to see them, it ratchets things up to just how badly things can still get, and that has Nicholas whisking her off to Oberon – who is mid-fight. The best of this, however, is that the whole thing sets Bonnie off and she reveals that she really is the Lovett – even though Oberon really believed that she wasn’t in the end.
It’s a change in the balance of things and sets Titania more on edge, especially with Puck, but post-battle it has Bonnie simply wanting to return home and to try and live a normal life. You know Oberon won’t give her up even though he says he will and it’s just a matter of watching his trick play out. The situation he manipulates works just perfect to being able to toy with Bonnie as he needs to in order to truly alter her course in life from the meek girl to one seeking revenge. It fits perfectly in Oberon’s wheelhouse with how he acts and there’s a natural aspect to it that you both admire and hate. Bonnie, for her part, comes across authentic here in how she feels and you can see the way she’s now bonded more to Oberon, though it’s more about what she wants than what he wants, but he’s able to take advantage of that.
In Summary:
You can never be too sure how long an AfterShock series will run though I do like that they seem to average between five to six issues. There are some that could go on longer and I do think Oberon is one whose story I’d love to see explored more and to go bigger with. There isn’t a real sense of finality here but you can see it as a good closure point with Parrott taking us to a place where Bonnie has to make a real choice about what she wants, even if it’s made through lies by others, and to move forward in earnest. We get that done well and get to see plenty of how Oberon manipulates situations to his advantage. I’ll hope for more eventually but will also be content with what we got.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: AfterShock Comics
Release Date: July 10th, 2019
MSRP: $3.99