Velvet #5 Review

Velvet #5 wraps up the first story arc and what’s revealed throughout the issue will shed new light on what’s real and what’s dangerous.

Official description from IMAGE:
The first arc draws to a shattering conclusion.

In Velvet #5 writer Ed Brubaker delivers one powerful story. The first four issues shed some, but not much, light on who Velvet Templeton is and was in her search for X-14’s killer. In this final chapter of the first story arc we get plenty. Not only Velvet’s beginnings, her mentor and her missions but Brubaker gives readers personal insight of the dedication, loneliness and consequences of a life of a spy. He sows the seeds of doubt, mistrust and speculation which come to fruition and tragedy in the present time from last issue when Velvet is in Monaco.

Brubaker shed light on what’s real, what’s lies and destroys the idea of a glamorous life as an international spy. But does so in a way that makes an emotional connection to Velvet’s mission and mind-set. The flashback to her training and her mentor Pauline is a glimpse at the sadness and deep toll Velvet is facing. Needless to say the issue is still full of intrigue and action that just lies above all the darkness underneath.

Steve Epting has plenty to work with as Brubaker’s story covers a lot of ground. Epting handles it all in stride between Velvet living between reality and lies in her relationships, her training as a teenager and the current search for a killer among a deep web of lies and deceit. Elizabeth Breitweiser’s colors set a dark muted tone over Epting’s line work and it’s a thing of beauty.

This is a near perfect ending and beginning to the first arc that flows smoothly and coldly as the ice that runs through Velvet’s veins. Velvet #5 is chock full of insight, twists and turns all of which makes for a satisfying conclusion to the first arc in a story that gets better each and every issue and in the end sets readers up for great things to come!