Scout's Honour #5

Scout’s Honour #5

Aftershock Comics 2021

Written by David Pepose

Illustrated by Luca Casalnguida

Coloured by Matt Milla

Lettered by Carlos M. Mangual

Determined to bring the truth behind Doctor Jefferson Hancock's death to her people, Kit will be forced into the fight of her life against the forces of Scoutmaster Shepherd — but with the future of the Colorado Badlands at stake, can even a Scout’s honour be enough to win the day?

Well the finale to the series is finally here and its do-or-die for Kit as she tries to free the Scouts from the grip of madness that is Scoutmaster Shepherd. This has been one heck of a roller-coaster ride right from the get-go and it never let up. How David has managed to write this story so that yes it feels complete and there is a natural ending it still feels as if there’s a place to revisit should the desire ever arise and those are the best kinds of stories. This has been so well crafted and incredibly written so that everything we think is going to happen doesn’t or it does but just never int he way that we think it will. That it’s so intelligently done that we are kept on the edge of our seats and toes wondering what exactly is around the next corner is utterly marvellous.

I love the way that t his is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development is interesting and as we see the dialogue, the character interaction and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances that they encounter continually shapes them into the people they are meant to become and like real life this is a never ending process. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story it’s easy to find yourself lost in the world and becoming very much a part of it.

I am very much enjoying how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to grow, strengthen and evolve. While some end naturally others are left open ended and the way this engages the readers mind and imagination is sensationally well done. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is so greatly achieved.

The interiors here are bloody gorgeous! How the linework we see through its varying weights and techniques are being utilised to create the detail work we see is astounding. How the different weights utilised on different characters to really stress the mood, tone and feel that is needed at that time is absolutely phenomenal work. The creativity and imagination is wonderfully shown through I wish we’d see more use of backgrounds throughout. Still how we see depth perception, that sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope of the book is extremely well rendered. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a strong, talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is amazing and how we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is beautifully rendered as well.

David really has emerged as one of today’s stronger writers and that he’s been able to create this world based off a single object, the Scout’s Guide book, and turned that into a religion which of course is how men are so easily swayed and controlled is mindbogglingly well done. Seriously this is a fully realised world and we’re visitors in it as David writes it in a way that makes the reader think, think of the book, think of using religion in various ways, think about sexism and so much more. This isn’t just a fun little post apocalyptic tale it’s so much more with this wide range of ideas happening within it. It is a modern day mini-epic and its just an outstanding story in every way it can be.