Issue number four of ‘68: Jungle Jim brings this story arc to a close and it’s as visually arresting as it is heartbreaking. A solid and satisfying end.

Official description from IMAGE:

An armored engine of vengeance stalks the jungle trails, following a rogue band of Viet Cong guerillas and a pair of kidnapped children. Doomed to become brainwashed killing machines, a hero some call Jungle Jim is their only hope.

Writer Mark Kidwell goes for broke with the final issue in this four part story. Brian the soldier is out battling the Viet Cong trying to rescue two children being held captive from the Salut Glen Mission. This fight is slowing stealing his soul and his final confrontation with Sergeant Jim Asher’s zombie corpse might be his last. All the while the lovely Manon is succumbing to the bite she took in the last attack and has prepared for her end and your heart breaks as she faces death. Kidwell has done such a great job bringing this story full circle and while most of what comes to pass is inevitable and painful you still root for a happy ending and that’s the telltale sign of good story telling.

Artist Jeff Zornow puts it all on the table here too. His work has always been highly detailed and beautifully gory but he even steps it up a notch on these pages. The gore and horror is a splatter-filled delight but the true nature of what our heroes are up against is an exclamation gut punch in words and pictures. There’s a balance of horror for shock and horror for emotional weight all of which are done with eye popping results.

The bottom line is that Kidwell shows us the obstacles that we fight against and the ones that determine our future and it’s not always a pleasant thing to witness. The final few pages of this book are so painful and dramatic but what your left with is an emotional satisfying and well rounded tale that knocks you down with such purpose that you can’t help but be left wanting more. ‘68: Jungle Jim finishes strong and we see how the horror of war creates monsters and heroes. Sometimes they can be one in the same.

4/5