Propeller #4

By Ricardo Mo, Alberto Muriel

“Isn’t the timing a little conspicuous?

“I’ve just kissed goodbye to one million dollars. Now seems like exactly the right time for a friendly face.”

“Fair point.”

A high-octane finale to a story filled with blackmail and superpowers! Rex Morgan sends his best friend out to check on the situation, the blackmailer is on the run, but things quickly take a turn for the worst – cue the epic action sequence!

Writer Ricardo Mo finishes off the story of Rex Morgan, a man with the ability to teleport (seriously the coolest superpower there is, though I would miss listening to the radio in the car…), as Morgan tracks down whose been blackmailing him — and revealing a hidden alliance in the process.

Something Mo does well with this story is create a strong sense of suspense. With Morgan’s friend Hudson doing all the legwork (at first) it seems everything is going according to plan.. unless… someone is setting a trap!

Mo does the suspense well in this issue, but something he also does is create plenty of humor between buds Morgan and Hudson. Hudson, the more rational one of the two, seems to always be getting into trouble due to his friendship with Morgan, and Morgan doesn’t seem to ever give him a break either. A great scene shows Hudson arriving at Morgan’s apartment, since Morgan has to teleport him somewhere. Hudson asks if maybe they should do a quick trial run first, but instead Morgan just teleports him instantly… leaving Hudson to respond “You’re a sick son of a bitch, you know that?”

The artist on this series has been Alberto Muriel. His approach to the artwork has been with a black and white style, often times so detailed you barely notice — the impact of lighting on the panels does well to make the pages standout as well. A great scene comes when Morgan is left to take a stand against his enemies, and when you don’t have a gun, but do have the ability to teleport objects… anything is a weapon. Muriel does a great job at fleshing out the scene where Morgan shoots around various objects about the room, from a chair, to a knife, and of course glasses. This scene is met with just the artwork, up until the glasses part — “Glasses? Really?”  – Muriel is able to make the action intense with only a couple of pages as it’s clear the amount of panic is high in the room.

Propeller #4 tidies up all the loose ends and gives Morgan a means to rectify some of his past mistakes.  Was the money ever really that important to him? Also anytime there is a fight scene involving teleportation… you’re going to want to check it out.