The seventh collection of Busiek’s superhero comics, issues 1-4 of Book three and 1-4 of Book four.

Writer: Kurt Busiek
Artist: Brent Eric Anderson

The story of brothers Royal and Charles Williams concludes. Charles is now working for E.A.G.L.E., U.S. government’s special branch. He’s also recruited Royal and convinced him to go undercover in Pyramid, the main villain organization. The reason is that Royal realized that the man who killed their parents works for Pyramid. So, in order to get their revenge on him, Royal needs to find out more about him and possibly get close. However, things go wrong and Charles is more and more focused on getting revenge.

Meanwhile, new super heroes and heroines are shown briefly, and the fate of the Apollo 11 is revealed.

The theme is, again, darkness in the superhero world. The new heroes are increasingly violent, and the crowds seem to expect that: they cheer when the heroes kill villains. Darkness spreads over the whole city. People are restless and suspicious about each other and the heroes reflect that. Apparently, it’s a comment on modern comics and their grittiness.

Lots of really interesting stuff happens on the background but if you’re familiar with superhero comics, I think’s pretty easy to figure it out. However, it’s a bit frustrating when I would have wanted to know more about them. The epilogue was a great way to tie things up. The story has a lot of in-jokes and references.

Overall, this was a good read if not as much fun as the previous volumes.

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