Writers – Stuart Kerr, Ralph Griffith
Artist – Bill Bryan
Letters – Susan Dorne

The quest to free Oz from the yoke of the Nome King continues as the Freedom Fighters move on from having defeated Mombi to confronting the monster behind it all. Aiding them in this endeavour, and completely by surprise as well as they were going to stay out of it all, are the Flying Monkeys for they realize that it is only a matter of time before the Nome King comes for them too. As it is, their rebellion lasts but a moment as the Nome King has the magical cap that overpowers the will of every Flying Monkey and there is nothing that they can do about it. So it is that the Freedom Fighters now have a literal army standing in their way and yet, even though the odds are stacked up against them more than ever now, they press on for they are so close to the finish line they have to believe that they can cross it. There is action aplenty from the creative team of Bill Bryan, Ralph Griffith and Stuart Kerr and it encompasses nearly every single page in this book which makes it fly by fairly quick, though not so much that one does not pour over the detailed pencils of Bryan’s artwork. The threads that the authors of this tale have been weaving have all started to merge though there is one still that remains just slightly out of reach, that being the one that includes Ozma and Wogglebug, though readers do see the return of Tik Tok though there is something just a little wrong with the robot. That aside, the battle rages while Peter and Dorothy finally make their way up from the depths of the castle and it is then that they also join the fight, seeing what is happening from their vantage point and it is also there that Dorothy recognizes the magical cap and sees just what it is that the Nome King is doing with it. By the time this issue ends, the tide has turned in favour of the good guys though the story does not obviously end here for just when it looks like things might be winding up, Kerr and Griffith make things just a little more complicated for the heroes, not that they know it yet. Things it seems, are just getting started and whether that affects all of the Freedom Fighters or just Ozma, is hard to say but readers know that it is sure to be just as captivating as everything that has come before.

4.5 out of 5