This is the final issue of the second series featuring Rikard as the undead Viking warrior.  After being turned against by the Valkyrie, the two made an alliance (and more) as they teamed up to battle the evil warlock Raevil along with the help of the others in their party.  In this last issue of the ongoing saga there are a few unexpected twists and turns, which says enough as the series has taken some strange tangents in its story telling.  Although the final battle ends in a gory enough fashion it still leaves a few unanswered questions which is where we will presumably find the heroes once again after the story wraps up here.

About a half of this final story focuses on action sequences, be it the witches battling one another, or Rikard battling the undead bear, and while there are a few relatively slower moments in the meantime, it is only the last third of the issue which helps to wrap up the overall story.  At times in this series the pacing gets a bit truncated in order to put in action sequences, but here the action is well used, especially as always with the amazing artwork by Joelle Jones.  It is not just Joelle that makes this issue shine though it is the well conceived and executed plot as told by Cullen Bunn.

It is perhaps best to describe this series as one which always left the readers guessing even though the plot seemed fairly basic.  There have perhaps been a few strange choices along the way by the creative team, but with this issue as reference, they all work well together in retrospect as they built towards the setup for the following series.  This series is one which has flown under the radar for a number of reasons, but really any fan of the medium that can handle a bit of gory violence should be reading anything that these two put together for this group of characters.

Story: Cullen Bunn Art: Joelle Jones
Story: 9.0 Art: 9.0 Overall: 9.0 Recommendation: Buy

Oni Press provided Graphic Policy with a free copy for review