Writer – Brian Augustyn
Artist – Rags Morales
Inker – Richard Space
Colours – Eric Kachelhofer
Letters – Gaspar Saladino

The fourth issue of Black Condor is one full of mystery and action and it all begins with the villain, at least one has to assume he is a villain, named the Shark. He has come to Philadelphia looking for Black Condor and one would not think it would be to team up and yet that is exactly what he wishes to do. As it is, Condor has no desire to team up with the creature and wants nothing to do with him whatsoever. This of course makes the Shark quite angry and so a fight breaks out between the two which consumes the majority of pages in the book. Rags Morales does a great job of making it as exciting as possible and with Brian Augustyn providing a fun story, they manage to create a package that entertains the reader from start to finish. While this battle rages on, Condor’s friend Ned is visited by the original Black Condor who looks to be a ghost and who seems to have a vested interest in the new Black Condor. Questions, like how and why are raised and one has to wonder just where this particular plot thread is going to go for other than the name they share, there seems to be little else in common between the two that would connect them. That being said, this little mystery that Augustyn has inserted into the book is by far the most interesting aspect of it now as it really makes the reader wonder about the whole situation. While there is this new bit of fascination in the book, the origin that Augustyn has been hinting at has taken a backseat to all of it though it is quite possible that he means to tie the two together at some point. Finally, there is an end sequence to close out the book when a mysterious young woman is about to be attacked by a bunch of toughs, only to lash out with devastating consequences. It gets even more intriguing when she seems to reach out to Black Condor telepathically, whether intentionally or not and it gets his attention so that the book leaves off with him standing amongst a group of bodies wondering just where and who it was that committed the violence. For a moment it looked like this was going to be a silly issue but the creators of this tale threw in some interesting nuggets to make it quite compelling.

3.5 out of 5