Written by: Raymond Khoury
Illustrations: Bruno Rocco
Coloring: Magali Paillat
Publisher: Dargaud
De Laatste Tempelier #6 De Eenarmige Ridder – Comic Book Review
Templars have always been interesting characters for different series, and even franchises like Assassin’s Creed build their whole story around them. In some series they are shown as valiant knights, protecting the Christian faith, while in others they are a band of criminals and so on. In this series which is aptly called ‘The Last Templar’, we learn about an order of said warriors who possessed more power than one could imagine, namely the true scriptures of Jesus and his apostles, which could easily overthrow the foundations of our belief system. Even though the latter may not always sound ‘of this day and age’ anymore, it’s actually a lot more interesting than you’d initially think.
Things got out of hand last time when special agent Reilly was deceived by ‘the Iranian’ who stole the identity of a historian who was murdered by said man. The miscreant took Tess and Jed Simmons hostage, the latter being a renowned archeologist, but in the end Tess was rescued, leaving Simmons in the hands of the psychopath. Nonetheless, Reilly and the agents of the Vatican, track down the mystery criminal, but things take a turn for the worst when Simmons is blown to pieces by the usage of a suicide vest. Amidst the chaos of the explosion, Tess is again abducted and forced to help the Iranian achieve his goal, namely find the secret documents the templar Conrad hid in the fourteenth century. Luckily Reilly is right on their tails.
In the meantime we also get flashbacks of Conrad’s unlucky adventure, where he and his fellow knights are ambushed, leaving him weakened and mutilated. That being said, Conrad is invigorated to achieve his goal of hiding the documents that could overthrow the Christian belief system, thanks to the love of his life, who has been tracking him down.
While the story sometimes has a rather ‘Da Vinci Code’ kind of vibe, Raymond Khoury makes this story completely his own. Even though the Christian religion may be the central topic of this series, the events that unfold in the alternating timelines are both interesting and suspenseful, all while you’ll get more than enough text to plow through. The latter may seem a bit heavy to some casual readers, but not a single line of text is otiose, which allows it to create a proper foundation for the story to come to fruition.
Bruno Rocco’s illustrations are sometimes a tad gritty and sketch-like, they show a lot of detail, and add the proper atmosphere to a rather heavy story topic. While the characters certainly look great, safe for the same facial features that appear many times for different character during this issue, it are the backdrops that simply look amazing. The environments look perfect for this story and they have heaps of details to them, leaving little to the imagination, allowing you to dive into the catacombs, crypts and/or other areas the characters visit. All of this is brought to life with the many remaining sketch lines by Bruno, in combination with the somewhat bland, yet great, coloring by Magali Paillat.
Conclusion
De Laatste Tempelier #6 De Eenarmige Ridder is actually a very interesting continuation of the series, which has a lot of story value that keeps proceeding in a well thought-out fashion. With the story showing interesting snippets of both past en present events, there’s more than enough content to keep you occupied for a bit, and with a proper amount of suspense tied into this album, things are never bound to get boring. This is one of those comic books you won’t read through in a flash, allowing you to fill up a boring evening. If you’re into conspiracy theories, forgotten knights and a hefty amount of detective work, this series should easily win you over.
De Laatste Tempelier #6 De Eenarmige Ridder - Comic Book Review,
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