“The final battle for life itself has arrived! As Babel makes its last assault on the heavenly realm beyond the Deadside, a band of Earth’s most dangerous heroes – Ninjak, Shadowman, Punk Mambo, and Tama the Geomancer – must halt its eons-old campaign once and for all…or face a global disaster of biblical proportions! Plus, at the center of it all: The undiscovered truth about Shadowman that will change the Valiant Universe forever!”

The final chapter of Rapture has arrived, so does the miniseries go out with a bang, a whimper, or something else?

Well… it’s actually a little bit of all three, if I’m totally honest.

Let’s start with the art, shall we? The art team of Cafu and Juan Jose Ryp with Francis Portella, colours by Andrew Dalhouse and letterer Dave Sharpe deliver a visual tour de force that looks fantastic on the review copy pdf (which typically means that the physical comic will pop harder than a balloon on a cactus). Make no mistake that while there are still one or two panels where the proportions seem a off the comic looks as beautiful as a deep breath on an early Autumn morning.

Rapture has been a series in which the lettering has taken on a character defining trait as Sharpe gives Babel’s speech patterns a brilliantly inventive twist that gives the character as much life as the writing itself. Unfortunately Babel is also the weaker point to the story because he never really feels like a threat this issue; after three issues building him up we find out that when push comes to shove… the conclusion is almost disappointingly forgone.

That being said, Matt Kindt does pull enough character fueled moments out of his hat to compensate, and calling this comic a disappointment would be a gross exaggeration.

Rapture #4 does bring a satisfying conclusion to the miniseries, and it does so in spite of the villain fading into the background a little – though if you told me that the highlight of this issue in terms of the story wouldn’t be the final confrontation with Babel but rather the character interactions and the echoes of things yet to come then I probably wouldn’t have believed you. But, here we are. Ultimately this is still a solid story, and one that fans of both Ninjak and Shadowman should find quite compelling.

Story: Matt Kindt Art: Cafu and Juan Jose Ryp with Francis Portella
Colourist: Andrew Dalhouse Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Story: 7.75 Art: 9 Overall: 8.25 Recommendation: Buy

Valiant provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review