The horrifying truth behind Rome’s grisly string of murders has finally come to light… but will Antonius Axia and his mysterious new partner – the gladiator Achillia – be able to stomach it? It’s a race against the clock to stop a serial killer – who may very well be the vengeful spirit of Apollo himself — before it strikes again! But should Antonius and Achillia fail in their mission, they’ll condemn not only Rome…but those Antonius holds dear as well.

After the last issue, my expectations for Britannia: We Who Are About To Die #4 were, to put it politely, in the toilet. The were so low that I almost didn’t bother reading the issue, but as I’m sure you can tell I did end up opening the review PDF.

At this point, if you read my review of issue #3 you’ll know I had some issues with the way that Peter Milligan wrote certain aspects of the issue. Thankfully that isn’t the case here; We Who Are About To Die #4 is a stronger issue than the third issue was, because the time where the action and plot furthering dialogue were happening at once were kept to a minimum.

While the issue had the distinct feel of the last few scenes of an episode of Scooby Doo as it wrapped up the four part story, the finale of We Who Are About To Die was stronger than the closing chapter of the first miniseries. Milligan reverses the downward trend of the last two issues (although to be fair the second issue was still good, just not as good as the first) as he neatly ties everything together – without the comic feeling too rushed.

Almost every thread is tied up, although some are done so better than others, the issue left me feeling as though this story at least was complete – if not the strongest from the publisher that I’ve ever read.

Juan Jose Ryp and Frankie D’Armata continue to breath life into the pages of the comic as only they can; again, the hyper detailed art is incredibly strong here, which I’ve come to expect from Ryp and D’Armata’s work over the past year and change.

At the end of the day the issue does have some minor problems; the Scooby Dooesque conclusion doesn’t work as well within the general context of the story as I’d have hoped, and had the line “and I would have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for that pesky Detectioner!” appeared I wouldn’t have been surprised. But I think I would have laughed.

As I said, not a bad issue, but not as great as the first.

Story: Peter Milligan Art: Juan Jose Ryp Colourist: Frankie D’Armata
Story: 7.75 Art: 8.25 Overall: 7.75 Recommendation: Read

Valiant provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review.