Calum Petrie reviews Assassin’s Creed: Templars #4…
The streets of Shanghai have erupted into utter chaos asBlack Cross finally evades the henchmen of Big-Eared Du and heads to the International Settlement to establish just how much trouble the Shanghai Rite is in, and he learns that the corruption goes deeper than he ever could have imagined…
SEE ALSO: Check out a preview of Assassin’s Creed: Templars #4
The intertwined journey of Darius and Black Cross appear to be tied to the military action taking place throughout this story. Everything is linked and the Templars quest for order and peace appears to be escaping their grasp in China. Every player thinks they are a step ahead of everyone else in this twisted story.
The previous issues finale becomes the current issues starting point, with Darius getting in over his head once again. He finds himself as the captive of the woman he has been hunting down since issue 1, only to find their path blocked by the military coup now taking place on the streets of Shanghai.
Darius plays a very minor role once again in this issue, his involvement is kept to the beginning of the issue. His role takes a strange turn towards the end of his section and a romance seems to come out of nowhere when he kisses the woman who has now become his captor.
Black Cross is once again the main focus of this story (after all he is the title character), even though his presence in this issue is not that great either. The detective skills of the Templars boogie man are used within this issue to seek information and find out what exactly is happening with all the different players behind the curtain. The hunt brings him to the household of Madame Sun who is the person responsible for the deception and theft of the item that was Darius original mission.
Black Cross continues on from his new trend of opening up and showing the reader more of his reasoning for helping Darius. The character is starting to slowly open up and develop to the reader, rather than be a mysterious boring figure who swoops in his his own agenda.
The issue itself sets up for the finale, maybe not in a way that leaves a massive reveal for the final issue. Though the Templars have never been about massive reveals, its always a more calculated and manipulative game they play.
The issue, as does the rest of the series, gets bogged down with politics and kills the pacing of the issue rather than follow action with more action. Sometimes with all the names and places being thrown into the conversation, it will take several times reading the one pages to fully establish your understanding of the situation before progressing with the issue.
With one issue left in the series it will be interesting to see how the story comes to a close, also if all the loose ends are tied away nicely.
Rating – 6/10
Calum Petrie – Follow me on Twitter
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Originally published July 27, 2016. Updated November 14, 2019.
