Writer – Micheal Fleisher
Artist – Jan Duursema
Inker – Jan Duursema
Colours – Jerry Serpe
Letters – John Costanza

The second-to-last issue of The Warlord takes a turn for the fantastic as Morgan and Aoife take a trip to the realm of the gods. Michael Fleisher’s latest story features monstrous creatures, other realms, a newly introduced character and a little action sprinkled throughout to keep the pace up. While it is a good thing to see something a little different in the book other than the norm, it seems to be a bit of an odd tale to feature when you know that your series is ending, if they did in fact know at this point. The artwork by Jan Duursema is as good as ever though every time Tara makes a return to the pages of the book, her hair seems to get bigger and bigger. The main problem with this issue is much the same as the last in that it takes a long-time character, this time Shakira, and simply reduces her to a sex-starved sex object. Though an argument can be made that Mike Grell originally created her as a means to tempt Morgan during her first few appearances, she has grown into a very complex and fascinating person – all of it seemingly thrown away these last few issues. Again, it is unknown why Fleisher would do so, but it cheapens his writing like nothing else. Jennifer Morgan also appears, still confounded by Khnathaiti who grows stronger every day. Hopefully everything gets wrapped up in the big finale in a satisfying way, but as of late, with the stories slipping in quality with every issue, it is really hard to tell.

2 out of 5