“Terror and Truth”
Creative Staff:
Story: Steve Orlando
Art: Patrick Piazzalunga
Colors: Carlos Lopez
Letterer: Thomas Mauer
What They Say:
The rebirth of the Patron might’ve been fake…but the return of his worst enemy is all too real!
Now, the Patron’s two greatest enemies have returned to ransom the Patron’s secret against extinction. Can the Project Patron team do what the Patron couldn’t? Can they defeat the monster called Woe and stop Matthew Mammon, a man who crossed time, space and death in the name of profit?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Steve Orlando brings things to a close here in a kind of old-school way where it packs a punch but slides in enough story points to keep you reading right along. Which is how a final act installment should be overall, so it hits the right notes here. Patrick Piazzalunga has been able to breathe a lot of good emotion and intensity into a lot of this as well and his work with Woe has definitely hit the right notes to make this a solid piece of work to watch unfold. You want that kind of fight to have the right kind of impact and feeling to it and it’s definitely captured here as these two beasts go at each other with very different goals in mind.
Woe is your basic brick enemy, your classic Doomsday type, and that works perfectly well for what’s going on here. He’s got the history with Patron and who it was before and now that this group is facing him, they’re having to go at it in an all-new way. I really liked that they didn’t hesitate for the most part the last time around in having them decide that they really just need to go all the way and join together at once in order to face him down. It’s a culmination of approaches that’s required even from someone who has just such a basic fighting style. There’s enough nuance to how Woe goes at things that even he’s able to see when there’s a pattern to push back against and break, making him even more dangerous as he’s looking for more meat to consume.
With Mammon working things himself as part of the grander plan that he’s trying to profit from, he’s not paying too much attention to the fight directly. Largely because it’s one where no matter how it plays out he ends up making out well and profiting. So that lets us focus on the flip side of the fight between Woe and Patron with Moro and the rest of the team as they go at it, trying to figure out how to work together and the best way to listen to what’s needed. Of course, Moro’s secret comes out here and we also get some extreme exposure as to the truth of who Patron is at this point, which is definitely going to be a problem. I do like that this ends with some clarity but it also highlights the potential for another series, which we’d totally be game for.
In Summary:
Project Patron plays in a really fun area of superhero comics and it does so in a way that really worked well. The cast was one that definitely made for an engaging read within the project itself in seeing how they came together while seeing them through Moro’s analytical eyes. The final issue plays big to the action as it should with Woe really going at it and taking down Patron hard – once again – and giving us a whole lot to like on that front. It’s a good and fun read and one that I suspect reads really well in a single setting as the whole run at once.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: AfterShock Comics
Release Date: August 25th, 2021
MSRP: $3.99
