The Dynasty has secured control over the Kryn homeworld of Aebra. The planet is torn asunder. Its peoples have been scattered and are now hiding in catacombs. The time has now been reached where Rio, father of the Dynasty, can initiate the draining process of Aebra to refuel their own waning powers. Only a few warriors remain to fight the evil, immortal race.
Enter our heroes, running away from a huge killing beast. (Ever seen "Excaliber"s warwolves? X10, dudes.) It's stopped, dead, from a blast by the lady who saved Stripe's life, and her name is Archon. The brief reunitement between Stripe and his fiancé Britanny is stopped short when Archon snaps the whip, saying that there's work to do. Brit gets agitated, to say the least, but Archon explains.
In a nutshell, she teleported Stripe to safety last issue, healed him, and infused his body with one (unnamed) artifact in his possession. To do this, she had to "touch his mind and soul". So now Stripe has total control over all the artifacts, and has become the one person capable of taking down the whole Dynasty race.
Brit asks where the foci of the planet is, and Archon tells her. Our werecheetah heroine takes off in a blur of speed with Archon silently wishing her good luck.
In another place where all the action is, Stripe gets whupped about by Rio, the granddaddy of all elder beings. Royally whupped.
Archon senses that Stripe's in trouble, and Gina offers up the knowledge that they can now speak to the Dynasty's symbiotic armor, who themselves do not like the Dynasty very much either. Gina and Penny were working on finding a way to nullify the armor on the Dynasty, and Archon implores Gina to let her speak to the symbiote.
Elsewhere. Stripe still fights on, but loses worse and worse each time. He gets in a quick punch to the face and the stomach before Rio sends Stripe to oblivion. Rio then begins his obligatory villain-speech when he notices that his nose is bleeding. Archon tells him that she's taught all of the Dynasty's symbiotes to ignore their hosts, effectively shutting off the Dynasty's armor.
And just as she tells him this, Britanny arrives. She takes out Rio's mate, Riel, and sets to work on him. One punch. One punch, and he's sent flying into the anchor of his ship. The Dynasty take off, and Brit runs over to Stripe's lifeless body.
Brit sees Archon and begs her to get Stripe back, which she does. Happy moments indeed, hugs all 'round. (Right in time for the wedding, too!) Oh, and the Dynasty doesn't escape, either. Brianna's Peebos make sure of that. Finally, we see a male werecheetah(!) crossing the Sahara desert with a map to the Diggers' home. Hmm...
"...the one key to our survival had been delivered to us...Stryyp'Gia." Right. Ooooh, lookie, a nose bleed. (Spite, spite.) It seems to me that Stripe was only sent in as a plot device to show how much Britanny loved him when she thought he was dead. Personally, I thought she showed more emotion facing off against Brendan than here.
It felt like Mr. Perry rushed this issue along, just to see how this series would end. Granted, Stripe did prove how, when the chips were down, he would give everything up in order to defend his homeworld. But these characters, ALL these characters, got absolutely no development in this issue.
Even the art could have been better, at least related to the Dynasty. If all of the Dynasty looked half as cool in this issue as Mr. Perry had showed them in issues #36 (Rielda, the assassin) or #38 (Uriel, the dragonrider), then I would have been truly impressed. Only Archon gets the Babe-of-the-Month trophy here, folks. All of the characters looked their usual, or substandard. The only other notable artwork (aside from Archon, sigh) is the background, which is nice because of its craggy, crystalline landscape. (Sigh.)
To the defense of the comic, however, I must point out that the dialogue is top notch. When the characters banter (in ANY GD issue), Mr. Perry works magic. This comic is no exception. The best lines include "She be havin' back fer days...with a WEEK on it!", and, "Eat yer hearts out, hurtbots! There's a NEW sheriff in town!!!" This is prime dialogue at its best, but its the plot (and resolution of the plot) that drags this story down. Sorry.
^_^ Still. A nose bleed?!? Might as well have sent Charlotte against Rio. What did she do in this series either, besides relieving Porky Pig of his role as "Comedy Relief"?!?
(out of four.)
Maybe now we can get back to the wedding story and "Time Warp"-like artwork. Hmm??
Vaultron Force - parody of "Voltron", a Japanese cartoon about a mecha.
Anti/Frosted Lucky Charms - a cereal promoted by a leprechaun, mmm-mmm-good!
"Princess Power" - ???
Virtua-Giga-Gochi-Pets - based off of the Tamagotchi(?) electronic pets, and their myriad spin-offs
"You are soooo next!" - Bugs Bunny said something similar in "Marriage of Figaro"
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