The Terrifics #27 – Gene Luen Yang, Writer; Sergio Davila, Penciller; Vicente Cifuentes, Inker; Protobunker, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: It’s been announced that the final arc of this inventive title will be going directly to digital, which is a shame, because this has been one of DC’s most consistently entertaining books under both Jeff Lemire and Gene Luen Yang. The last issue before the shutdown set up a bunch of interesting new plotlines, including a dying Simon Stagg making a deal with the devil and a train full of passengers on Mr. Terrific’s experimental light rail going missing. That’s led the team into an underground mystery – with the assist of Mr. Terrific’s secret second team, the T-Council. This group of scientists includes Ted Kord, Man-Bat, the Strong family, and Michael Holt’s old rival Silas Stone. It’s a great way to bring in some lesser-known DC scientist characters for an adventure that veers hard into horror concepts as the story moves on – with some disturbing visuals courtesy of artist Sergio Davila.
It soon becomes clear that the missing passengers were a sacrifice to whatever Simon Stagg cut a deal with, and they’ve been transformed into subterranean monsters – including Plastic Man’s son Luke. As the heroes chase him down, they stumble into a scene right out of a sci-fi horror movie like Alien. This threatens to tear the team apart, as Mr. Terrific is determined to find a way to free the civilians while the more ruthless Silas Stone believes the priority has to be to protect the surface by any means necessary. One of the best parts of this issue comes once Simon is finally located, and the evil corporate executive gets some surprising depths as he takes a massive risk to undo the mistake he made. There’s also a fascinating little detail dropped when Sapphire encounters her father’s old robot. It’s a classic Silver Age-inspired sci-fi adventure, and it’ll be seriously missed when it’s gone.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
