Lytton #4 - Cutaway Comics

LYTTON No. 4, June 2021

Tenaciously trying to tie-up all the different plot threads which this title has previously created during the lead protagonist’s utterly mind-blowing hunt “for the Positron”, Eric Saward’s screenplay for Issue Four of “Lytton” must surely have kept its readers holding on to the comic for dear life with the sense-shattering speed of its numerous action sequences. Sure, so frantic a pulse-pounding pace arguably leads to the odd scene needing to be re-read so as to ensure all of its nuances are properly understood, but the former “Doctor Who” script editor crams so much into this single twenty-eight page periodical that such an undertaking to comprehend the breadth of the screenwriter’s storyline was probably always going to prove a necessity anyway; “I’m not used to working this amount of overtime on a week night, Mister Lytton.”  

For starters, the revelation that Mister Longbody is actually a Terileptil planning to take over a London warehouse packed full of extra-terrestrial weaponry in order to use its explosive stockpile to destroy the capital city, must certainly have caught many a bibliophile by surprise. Coupled with the aggressive alien’s determination to have the “rogue prototype” E.V.E. similarly annihilated, and much of the intergalactic freelance soldier’s extreme efforts earlier in this mini-series to both placate the reptilian humanoid’s mounting anger, as well as cover-up its bloody murder spree, finally starts to make much more sense.

In addition, the exhilarating adventures of Wilson and the mysterious Artemis positively demand a willing suspension of disbelief from this book’s audience, due to just how well Saward pens them. The pair do a first-rate job of overcoming some of the Terileptil’s infamously formidable androids with little more than brute force, and then continue to impress as ‘kick-ass’ companions when they individually tackle a truly massive Vindanty Snare Beast and recalibrate the complex inner workings of a Positron’s backup coolant unit respectively.

Equally as enthralling though are Barry Renshaw’s colourful pencils, which contain all manner of nods to numerous other science fiction/Spy-Fi franchises such as Logan’s Run and Jason King. The “Lucasfilm Officially Approved Star Wars Sketch Artist” does a particularly fine job depicting Lytton’s swashbuckling swordfight with Longbody, and momentarily manages to make it look as if the deadly contest may well actually portray the final moments of the mercenary from the satellite Riften 5.

The regular cover art of "LYTTON" #4 by Barry Renshaw