Tomax and Xamot have made a deal with Cobra Commander. They seem perfectly well-placed to replace the influence and power of Laird James McCullen Destro XXIV. Only thing is: their chief rival is far from defeated as they are soon to find out in Destro #5. Writer David Watters reaches the conclusion of his story with artist Andrei Bressan and colorist Adriano Lucas. It's a brisk moving finale with quite a bit of action which explodes across the page and quick succession. 

The Crimson Twins are showing Cobra Commander around the facility that they have come to control. Things have been a bit confusing in the fog of war between arms dealers, but when the smoke clears, Destro appears on a throne real to deal with Tomax and Xamot in the most brutal and percussive way he can. It doesn’t hurt matters that each of the twins can feel the other’s pain. The Crimson Twins DO have Destro’s forces outnumbered. They have a whole army whereas he only has three soldiers. You can do a lot with three soldiers if you deploy them in the right places, though. 

Watters finds a way around the cliches that would otherwise rest in the heart of yet another sci-fi action series based on a major IP. The conclusion that is reached between Destro, the Cobra Commander and the Crimson Twins is framed with extreme cleverness in a way that feels deeply engaging without actually doing anything to add a great deal of depth to the characters. They remain the villainous caricatures that they had been in the cartoon, but Watters manages to find a way to make those caricatures.

There’s a very distinct style about the visuals that asserts itself on the page with heavy ink that occasionally develops into something more sophisticated. There’s some meticulous detail that works through finer lines amidst Lucas’ color. Bressan’s style sometimes gets in the way. Some of the action in and around the edges of the panel DOES seem a bit silly. Anatomy gets a bit strange and blocky in the background, causing some of the surrounding action to feel like it’s coming out of som 8-bit cartridge, but the overall movement, motion and composition of everything adheres to the page perfectly.

The action holds quite a bit of impact. However, the drama that is driving, the conflict had a largely been concluded in the issues prior to the big finale. This is not to say that this issue is completely without its charm. Quite the contrary, in fact. There’s a great deal of work being done to set this particular series into the larger essence of the rest of the Energon Universe. It’s going to be interesting to see how everything develops as the overarching universe continues to fuse G.I. Joe with The Transformers. There’s a great deal of potential in that particular crossover as more and more mini-series pop-up and the new G.I. Joe flagship series opens-up next month.

Grade: B+