Zeb Larson reviews Roche Limit: Clandestiny #4…
Langford presents Sasha and Elbus with a life or death ultimatum.
Everything hits the fan in this issue as the crew realizes why they were sent to Dispater. Far worse than their fate though is what MoiraTech hopes to accomplish by sacrificing them. Moreci gives the reader a lot of background information in this issue, though he leaves one or two important questions still unanswered. Combined with the excellent action sequences which make up approximately half of this issue, this issue is probably one of the best-paced and most fun to read in all of Roche Limit. I will be avoiding spoilers in this review.
Danny’s “father” is revealed to be an AI created from Langford’s memoirs and computer data. He lets the group know that MoiraTech has been sending expeditions to this planet with components for a preprogrammed spaceship, so that the monster on the planet could be brought back to earth. Colt narrowly regroups with the others after a running gun-battle with the monsters, and they make their way to the city to try and stop Leland before he can get off world. Even if can stop him, though, Langford warned them that stopping the monster would end in their death.
Moreci pitched this series as the Aliens of Roche Limit, and the pitched flamethrower battle that dominates much of this issue lives up to its inspiration. Danny’s status as a synthetic gets a few little acknowledgements as well. In addition to the solid fight scenes, Colt really gets to shine here. Everybody else hates Dispater and its various horrors, but it’s all water on a duck’s back to Colt. Indeed, Colt seems to be having a jolly-old time just trying to stay alive, and Colt’s quips and lighthearted banter bring a little humor to an issue that is otherwise relatively heavy.
What we learn about the anomaly probably isn’t groundbreaking to most readers, because it should have been clear for a while that the anomaly does something terrible to human beings. What we learn about MoiraTech is equally interesting, and in conjunction with other facts we have we can speculate a bit. Danny mentioned the darkness in the infant’s eyes that he killed, which suggests that some part of this corruption has already spread to earth. Whoever’s directing the company has likely fallen under the sway of whatever malevolent entity exists in the anomaly.
If that is the case, we have an excellent setup for the third volume. Even if Sasha can defeat the monster, there’s a whole other problem waiting back at home (which of course assumes that she can defeat this thing). Since we can be sure that there is some of intelligence at work in the anomaly, one can imagine that it won’t take defeat lightly, either. And as for the here-and-now, we know that Sasha is going to go off and try to kill the monster that’s out there. How will she fare? Will it be using the memory of her dead family against her, or can she stay sane long enough to do the job?
Rating: 9.2/10
Zeb Larson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=8k_v0cVxqEY
Originally published August 26, 2015. Updated April 14, 2018.
