Lady Cathryn Meets Her Fate In The Last Siege #8

Fire, blood, and death. That is all that awaits the king and his soldiers as they breach the walls of the castle. The end of the battle is finally here, and as the dawn breaks, the Stranger must choose between revenge… and redemption.

After the explosive ending to the last chapter, the castle has been razed to the ground. In The Last Siege #8, Lady Cathryn’s small band of loyalists has apparently reached their threshold and fled. The Usurper’s army has similarly scattered, leaving only Istvan and a few of his most fervent men to hunt down Cathryn and Tomislov and put an exclamation point on the despot’s statement. There’s nothing left to fight over, save honor and ego.

Once The Stranger’s identity and history with Tomislav was revealed a couple chapters ago, there was really only one way this thing was going to end. The question was how well Landry Q. Walker would handle the finale. I almost expected a twist in this final chapter, given how easily the turn was served to us earlier, but it played out pretty predictably. That being said, it was a reasonable ending to a pretty straight forward period action piece.

This series’ biggest strength has always been how well Walker and the art team play off each other. There are several sequences throughout the series where Walker backs way off and allows Justin Greenwood and Eric Jones to tell the story without letting dialogue and narration clutter things up. The artwork has a very cinematic feel, with quick, dirty linework, cinematic angles, and a fire-lit palette. 

The Last Siege plays heavily into fantasy, but also has a heavy spaghetti western influence. The initial build was almost painfully slow, but once the pieces were in place, everything moved at a lightning pace, right up to the brutal final pop.

The Last Siege #8, Image Comics, released 09 January 2019. Written by Landry Q. Walker, art by Justin Greenwood, color by Brad Simpson, lettered by Patrick Brosseau, variant cover by Tom Neely.