Review: Moriarty #9

It’s funny that the last issue of Moriarty would be the first issue that I review of the series.Maybe it’s for the best as I can now speak without tainted feelings about thebook that I’ve come to enjoy. Sadly this looks like the end of Moriarty for thetime being which is too bad because the world of comics needs a book like Moriarty.

The final issue stays consistent with the pacing of theseries thus far by jumping ahead from the last page of issue #8. We open on asimilar scene with Blair pointing a gun at Moriarty, but now the two men areboarding a boat and heading down the river. Moriarty tells Blair that the gunis useless and that he can kill him at any time gun or not. Frankly, you willbelieve that statement. The next several pages are basically Moriartyexplaining that he’s discovered the building blocks of life; string theory, butwithout every saying it outright. It’s a great bit of dialog as the two menhead down the river into an ambush.

They’re taken by the natives that protect the path of thetree and have Morely’s body. The leader is a plump man that speaks ofMoriarty’s greatness as he shows him the hut of dead bodies they’ve blamed onhim. This is just before a shimmer of light in the distance catches Moriarty’seye and his sniper friend rains down bullets on his would be captors. Quickly,Moriarty dashes through the forest while the sniper reloads. He sneaks up onMoran and holds his sword to his throat; surprisingly he doesn’t even put up afight.

The rest of the story is the big payoff of the story arc sowe’ll stop there. It has an opened ended ending that alludes to what happens,but you have to be paying attention to know what is being alluding to. It’s what Icall the cookie ending. If you’re smart enough to get it, you get the cookie. Ifnot then you’ll still enjoy the story, you’ll just be missing out on thesubtext. 

The writing is sharp and well researched (that I know for a fact!) Theaddition to the explanation of String Theory and Moriarty’s discovery of it isvery creative and adds a layer to his intelligence that has been missing inthis particular story arc. Sure he’s been one step ahead of everyone andplaying the determined detective, but he hasn’t really outsmarted anyone ordisplayed his brilliance. This last chapter of the story helps in that, butdoesn’t redeem the entire arc.

I enjoyed this book, I wish that I had caught up soonerwhile reading it so that I could have talked about it more, but that’s the wayit is sometimes. If this is your first time reading the series then I would sayyou’ve made a terrible choice and to go back and read the other eight issuesinstead. Then you can truly enjoy the first great story featuring ProfessorMoriarty solo. Too bad that the book is taking a break, it’s understandable afterfinding out how much research and time went into the first two story arcs, butthe industry needs more stories with this much thought and design in order togrow.

Score: 4/5

Writer: Daniel Corey

Artist: Anthony Diecidue

Publisher: Image Comics

Price: $2.99

Release Date: 2/15/2012