Calum Petrie reviews The Raid #4…
Bejo’s unique henchmen are at the door, Teja can not hide in the prison and the guards are being bought off. This is how we start the final issue of The Raid. Rama is the only man trying desperately to keep an non-corrupted police officer from dying in a place where he should long be dead. When this one fish is fighting against a tsunami though, things are not going to be all sunshine and rainbows.
The opening section of the issue is an escape from hell, as both Rama and Teja are fighting through obstacles to keep Teja from dying. Though Rama quickly comes face to face with the man so aptly named “The Assassin” and is caught up in a fight he might not be able to win.
The confrontation that follows these events is a wonderfully crafted piece in which Teja stops running and decides to stand his ground. The mantra in which his internal monologue recites is a wonderful sea of calm that mirrors the brutal reality.
This one section of the issue is the stand out moment of the series to date, where a terrified man who is sent to prison as a punishment decides to take what little control he can muster. The fight that follows is a visually horrific event in which the reader is left feeling a gut punch, and left sharing some of the pain in the story.
The story starts to wind down with Bejo proving to be as insane as we all suspected he was, the closing of his own personal tale. Killing off the ties to the life he used to have, and stopping people being able to use his past against him, by killing it off with his own hands.
The final panels of the story return to a bandaged Rama in his prison cell, playing off that he never really knew Teja and that he was just his bodyguard. When the moments return when he is alone with his thoughts he starts to lash out at himself for not being able to save a man who put his trust in him.
The conclusion to thistale is not just the missing link in The Raid 2’s story, but it is a beautifully crafted combination of story and art. The story is not a happy tale, yet in the larger scheme of The Raid series, it fits in nicely and becomes more than just a stand alone story-within-a-story.
Rating – 9/10
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