Warhammer 40,000: Sisters Of Battle #5 - Marvel Comics

WARHAMMER 40,000: SISTERS OF BATTLE No. 5, March 2022

Unapologetically throwing away any sense of covertness to Canoness Veridyan’s secret assignment on Siscia for an “all-out war” against the minor Imperial Mining World’s chaos-infested population, Torunn Grønbekk’s final instalment of “Warhammer 40,000: Sisters Of Battle” certainly contains plenty of pulse-pounding moments. Indeed, at one point on the planet’s surface, “behind enemy lines”, the Prince of Pleasure even opens up a literal gateway thronged full of Slaanesh’s most purple fiends, steeds and heralds in an attempt to thwart the formidable firepower of an Adepta Sororitas Immolator; “Was it overkill..?”

Happily however, all this mass destruction doesn’t stop the Norwegian author from reaching a conclusion to the Order of Our Martyred Lady’s mission, even if the revelation is that the entire celestial body has given itself over to the "Lord of Excess" purely because the miners unwittingly uncovered a small corrupted statue in an abandoned temple’s wading bath whilst digging underground. This arguably underwhelming disclosure is debatably made all the more disappointing when the planetary-wide revolt’s instigator, Crea, is simply shot in the head by Sister Superior Cassia whilst the gaunt-looking priestess is taking a refreshing dip in the pool’s chaos-contaminated water.

Equally as bemusing is the fate awaiting the traitor Origen, who having been the sole objective for Veridyan’s semi-doomed operation, is seemingly killed straight out of hand by Inquisitor Ander, just as soon as the heavily manacled prisoner is brought before him. Admittedly, the grim-faced member of the Ordo Hereticus doesn’t execute his former acolyte until the exact location of Slaanesh’s statue has been confirmed. But this information is already made partially available to Ander courtesy of Sister Dialogus’ deciphering of Origen’s encrypted letters.

Much more satisfying than this mini-series’ storyline is Edgar Salazar’s pencilling, which does a proficient job in depicting the utter carnage taking place on Siscia’s surface once the Sisters of Battle roll out their forces in full. In addition, the Mexican artist sketches a truly epic sacrificial demise for an encircled Tedra, who quite literally blows the guts out of the uprising by dousing herself in highly flammable promethium, and then calmly walks towards the nearest group of gun-toting chaos cultists.

The regular cover art of "WARHAMMER 40,000: SISTERS OF BATTLE" #5 by Dave Wilkins