Royals #4 – Of Dreams, Destiny, and Twisted Faith

In Royals, Telepathic twins Paul and Castor Wahng have been running poker games for a while, but the biggest game of their short careers has come back to bite them big time. Caught red-handed cheating at the biggest tournament they’ve entered yet, the game was secretly run by their final opponent Daeshim Kang of The Bloody Cocks, a ruthless Seoul crime syndicate. In order to avoid Kang’s wrath and pay him back for the money they won and have already blown, they must steal the Hammer of Sepphoris, an invaluable Christian relic. Complicating matters is that the relic is protected by Father Park, a priest who was particularly kind to one of the brothers. With Paul’s friend Minah kidnapped, a surprising discovery in the church’s basement pushes the brothers to their limits. Caught in the crossfire is Father Park….

This review is brought to you by Nerd Initiative’s Shawn!

Catch Up with Royals #3

Creative Team

Writer: Derek Kirk Kim
Artist: Jacob Perez
Cover Artist: Jacob Perez

Writing

Woah, Derek Kirk Kim threw me an absolute curveball with this issue. With the last issue landing on a cliffhanger, I did not see the story going the way this issue took it. This series has been so enjoyable already, but Kim just brought a new level of depth. Royals #4 is the kind of issue that people are talking about months later. Kim did a masterful job of bringing what appeared to be a minor character to a pretty major role in this story. Doing things that hurt people, all while doing it under the guise of the greater good, has always been a topic, but Kim brings it into this story in a new and ultimately meaningful way.

The Wahng brothers continue to be interesting characters who grow each issue. Despite their growth, it was nice to see that in some ways Kim made the brothers take a development back seat, so that other characters could be more adequately fleshed out. Royals #4 feels like the next layer in an onion that Kim continues to peel back for us, making us question what we saw in earlier issues and the conclusions we drew from them. Above all else, this issue shows us there’s more to this already exciting story than we thought.

Art

Jacob Perez killed it on this issue as he has in every issue of this series so far. Issue #4 was filled with a lot of emotion, and Perez does an amazing job bringing those out of the characters on the page. While Kim does a great job telling us how complicated the relationship is between Paul and Castor, it’s Perez’s art that shows us that friction.

Perez also spared no expense on the detail. He continues to use the spacing on the page well, creating non-traditional panels and forgoing a panel at all sometimes. Perez’s colors really helped make this issue what it was. While his art was great, the variety of settings in this issue needed an adept touch when it came to coloring to keep the story from getting bogged down with the jumps, and Perez nailed that.

Final Thoughts

Royal #4 shows why Royals continues to be one of the most fun, experiential, and interesting titles on the market today. Every issue takes us a little bit deeper into the world of Paul and Castor. The best part is when we go deeper, what we find is never what we expect to find. This issue is easily the best one of the series yet, and that is saying something, as I loved the first three issues. Royals #4 left me wanting Royals #5 to hit shelves next week.

Overall Grade: 10/10

How are you liking Royals? Let me know in the comments