Firearm 12-18

This set of seven issues consist of the final arc of the Firearm series. These final seven issues are also one long story arc (which actually spans into some issues of Prime, Freex, and Nightman as well) as opposed to most of the rest of the series which were usually "done in one" or low issue count stories.

Simply put, this arc has been one of the better arcs I've read in quite a while. It hasn't been since, well, the last group of Firearm issues that I've been so impressed. In this arc, Alec Swan (Firearm) is hired to find the killer of a rich woman's son. It turns out that this child was an ultra. Along with this child, many other ultras have recently been killed. They have been killed by a man named Rafferty. Spanning these seven issues, you'll see the story presented not only from Alec's usual first person perspective, but you'll also have one complete issue along with sections of other issues being told from Rafferty's perspective. This leads to a very engrossing storyline.

This entire arc reminded me very strongly of the anime Cowboy Bebop's final couple of episodes where it was strictly antagonist vs. protagonist and there was nothing gray about it. Rafferty is an evil ultra killer and Alec is the man who has set out to stop him. The climactic showdown between the two, taking place in a church, has a very epic feel to it in that these two characters have developed so much story between them in the preceding issues and it was all coming to a head. Amazing stuff.

The only real drawback is that it crossed over into issues of other Malibu series so you had to fill in a few of the blanks yourself if you didn't read those issues. Other than that, you simply can't go wrong by picking up this story arc.

Ratings:
Art: 3.5
Story: 4.5
Overall: 4.25