Review: ‘Duke’ #4 Puts All The Pieces Together

Duke has spent its entire length laying out all the pieces for the Energon Universe’s second phase. In Duke #4, our hero starts to see the whole picture as the pictures are put together.

Joshua Williamson, Tom Reilly, Jordie Bellaire, and Rus Wooton approach the end of Duke’s journey.

Major Bludd and the Iron Grenadiers have cornered Duke, Clutch, Stalker and Rock’n’Roll in the Pitt. Their only hope may be the Baroness. But if they can get past the brutal mercenaries, they’ll still have the mystery of the MARS Corporation to solve, and it’s a mystery Duke may not be able to survive…

While I liked this issue, it was definitely the weakest of the series so far. There was a lot of plot for this issue to cover, and it was frankly about two issues of story crammed into this single issue. If it had a little more time to breathe, it could have been much better. The character moments still land well, and I’m excited to see what the Baroness would be as a free agent rather than a Cobra true believer in particular.

Reilly’s line art just continues to be the best part of this series. It’s very dynamic, and with the frantic pace he makes sure it all stays exciting. His character acting is great too- you can see the history between Duke and Clutch just in their facial expressions, and it’s clear that Rock’n’Roll is not a guy to be messed with as you watch him clobber mercenaries.

Bellaire’s colors continue to be great. She largely uses the palette of the old toy packaging in this issue, which I didn’t realize until the final page. It makes Reilly’s modern designs and methods feel closely tied to classic GI Joe without using old school coloring techniques. Wooton also adds to that classic feel by using some very fun sound effects on the page, some with modern integration with the art and others simply by going all in with a big effect.

Duke #4 is available now from Skybound Entertainment/Image Comics.