In Review: BANG! #5

Synopsis: This month on Bang! Everything comes to a head as the psychotic secret agent Thomas Cord finally assembles his team for their first mission. A drug-addicted man of action, an 80-year-old female detective, a crippled billionaire with an AI-powered car, and a psychotic super spy form an unlikely team–but they are the only team capable of saving the world from destruction at the hands of Goldmaze and a whacked-out sci-fi writer who may be the world’s only hope . . . or the architect of its destruction.

The Story

Picking the story up from where the last issue of Bang left off. We finally meet Philip Verve. The writer that created Goldmaze and came up with all the heroes. It is now time to give Thomas Cord and the new team a test. The mission is to break into a castle and find out who is behind Goldmaze.

The Artwork

Wilfredo Torres gets lots of action beats to draw for this issue. And he does a fantastic job of them. The opening of the book sees Philip Verve giving Thomas Chord, Paige Turnier, Dr. Queen, and John Shaw a mission briefing. But things soon pick up as the four special agents split off into teams of two. The various action beats throughout this comic are wonderfully drawn. I was particularly impressed with Dr. Queen’s team up with Shaw as we see them take out the guards with a combination of Queens A.I. device and Shaw’s inhalers. The panels where Chord and Paige work together are nicely done as we see them take out a lot of guard’s ninja style. Furthermore, all these panels are helped brilliant with some great colorwork from Bill Crabtree.

Overall

Bang! has been one of a few high points for me this year. The other is Adler from Titan comics, which I reviewed last week. Matt Kindt has definitely redrawn the rule book when it comes to bringing us a Spie Fi story. I loved the twist at the close of this issue where we learn who is behind Goldmaze. Admittedly, I kind of saw it coming, but the execution of it was really well done.

The issue ends with the team becoming permanent and future missions are definitely going to happen.

The dialogue between Chord and Paige as they reminisce about their previous mission together was so much fun and really well written.

Overall. Move along James Bond. I would like me some more Bang!