Artemis & The Assassin #5 - AfterShock Comics

ARTEMIS & THE ASSASSIN No. 5, September 2020

Despite Stephanie Phillips’ heartfelt “Thank You” to this mini-series’ readers at the end of this comic showing just how much thought the American author put into her storyline, it is arguably doubtful many within this book’s audience actually found its conclusion particularly satisfying. For whilst Issue Five of “Artemis And The Assassin” unquestionably contains a few resolutions to the overall narrative, it leaves so many more plot-threads still disappointingly up in the air that doubtless many a bibliophile were probably fully-expecting a sixth instalment.

Indeed, not even the near obliteration of Isak, complete with exploding eyeball, disintegrated arm and severed foot, seems to have permanently resulted in the mass-murdering company executive’s demise – courtesy of Dutch Henderson inexplicably making a well-timed appearance from the past with a working copy of the ‘book of the Dead’. Such a dissatisfying revival obviously sets up the opportunity for a future sequel, but frustratingly doesn’t in any way help explain just why the time traveller’s company from the future was employed to interfere with the success of the Allied invasion during World War Two in the first place..?

Similarly as bamboozling is the actual source and limitations of Maya’s supernatural powers. The deadly assassin has already demonstrated her susceptibility to physical injuries during this five-parter’s previous editions, yet during this particular twenty-page periodical she appears perfectly able to ‘shrug off’ a sword blade straight through the gut without much effort. In fact, this fatal wound only seems to show its bloody impact towards the end of her unsuccessful fisticuffs with Isak, and then it doesn’t seem to stop her literally blowing her overconfident adversary up with the woman’s all-too convenient magical energy; “Look at this power. You don’t even know what you’re capable of. I did this. I gave you this power.”

Sadly, even Virginia Hall appears to develop some 'super-powers' so as to overcome her awkwardly-placed teleportation back into the past. Historically deemed "the most dangerous of all Allied spies" by the Gestapo, "the limping lady" arrives smack in the middle of a well-armed German guard-post, and despite her prosthetic leg, both outruns and then outfights all of her gun-toting opponents before contrivingly completing an identical feat with a disbelieving French Resistance cell.

Writer: Stephanie Phillips, Artist: Francesca Fantini, and Colorist: Lauren Affe