Calum Petrie reviews Assassin’s Creed: Templars #5…
With the revelation that the puppet master of the corruption in the Shanghai rite is a dangerous political figure, Black Cross is forced to take matters into his own hands as the honor of the Order is at stake. But a moment of distraction could destroy everything he’s worked for…
When the Templar Boogie Man steps out of the shadows to try and rectify justice to the order’s crumbling foothold in Shanghai, he may have met his match in one on one combat.
The issue picks up straight away from the last issue’s conclusion, in the presence of madame Sun, where the political figures are trying to change China. Black Cross now has the information he needs and once again must track down people in the know. The scene consists of tracking down and extracting information from a driver before the information points him towards Darius once again.
Darius is waiting out the street violence in a room with the woman known as Roo – their romantic tie in the last issue is not really played upon in this issue. Instead the overall mystery of the box comes into light, the whole purpose of Darius mission to Shanghai. The contents of the box are revealed to be a heartbreaking revelation to Darius, and shortly after all the pieces fall into place just as a man wielding a hidden blade enters the equation.
Black Cross appears to try and help deal with this new assassin. When the assassin gets the better of our Templar hero, help appears from the unlikely Roo. Shortly after the Assassin is dispatched and the real confrontation starts.
Darius hastily confronts his shadowy bodyguard before leaving him for dead. As the issue comes to a close we are pulled into the modern age once again with the telltale Animus “Desynchronised” message, which is synonymous with the Assassin’s Creed franchise. The true search of the modern day Templars becomes clear when Black Cross is noted to have carried a fabled piece of Eden.
The issue has a satisfying pace change to previous issues where long winded speeches between the Templar order leaders discussing politics are changed with short flourishes of confrontation. There’s more emotion in the panels between Darius and Black Cross in this issue alone than most of this five part series has contained.
With the conclusion of Templars, the set up for another series featuring Black Cross is announced and will be released later this year. With the intentions of the characters now clear, Black Cross looks to be the focus of a Templar man hunt.
Rating: 8/10
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Originally published September 7, 2016. Updated April 16, 2018.
