Calum Petrie reviews Assassin’s Creed: Templars #9…
With the reality of his situation now almost preternaturally clear to Dre, there is only one possible course of action… he needs to get away from Abstergo.
With no clue how to do this, he lets his instincts take over, and finds that he has hidden depths he never knew of… and skills he couldn’t have imagined!
The final issue in this run of Templars is a strange one indeed; the story is tied off in a manner that feels somewhat disappointing. The previous issues fade out the character we have known as Black Cross and introduce the character Graff into the role of the new Black Cross.
The final issue starts with the modern day and the spider web of deceit and treachery is unfolding at an alarming pace. As things appear to spiral out of control it seems the only thing that can be done is to hurry to the end of Dre Bolden ancestors genetic memory.
The pacing of the issue was very strange for me; the middle section where Graff was undergoing training was not a large section at all, yet in a few pages he has become some sort of master killer. The series felt as though there should have been another issue to flesh out the story a little bit more, rather than having a strange, cramped issue.
The modern day narrative was a little all over the place with people’s intentions and actions left leaving the reader confused as things picked up the pace without a clear set up. The only way around this would have been either a longer issue, or to add in a fifth part to this series to make the narrative a little easier to follow on first read through.
The series ends with a heavy dollop of subterfuge and things are left wide open with a promise that Black Cross will return. The series appeared to be a little on the back foot to begin with, where Templar stories were long drawn out and much dialogue would be centre screen for the majority of an issue. Though when issue #6 started our protagonist was on the run from his order and there appeared to be a more human element to the character, only for that to change within the pages of issue #7.
This four part arc (#6 – #9) has taken a different approach but still had no major payoff, the time spent invested in the arc series now felt very underwhelming. The hope is that the next part of this series will be more interesting is high, though I’m not too optimistic.
Rating – 5/10
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Originally published January 27, 2017. Updated April 11, 2018.
