Raptors 4

Rapaces #4

by Jean Dufaux, Enrico Marini, Joe Johnson (Translator)

Camilla, one of the two Raptors after the established vampire order, is wounded for the first time in her long life. Detective Lenore tries to cure her. Meanwhile Aznar Akeba, chosen as the defender of the established order, must deal with the revelation that Drago, the other Raptor, is his father and choose which side he's on. The ultimate confrontation comes to a head in this last volume of the series!

Genres: Comics, Bande Dessinée, Graphic Novels, Vampires, Horror, Fantasy, Comic Book

56 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2002

About the author

Jean Dufaux is a Belgian comic book writer. Beginning his professional career as a journalist for "Ciné-presse", Dufaux started writing comic books in the 1980s. Perhaps his most well-known, and certainly his most long-running, series is Jessica Blandy.

Reviews

[BookCupid · Rating 3 out of 5]

Is this the end or a new beginning?

With very few humans left on earth, it's important to keep them alive. But who is willing to go against the evil vampires siblings.

One thing I hadnt seen a lot was evil main characters. And although it was thrilling to enjoy them for 4 volumes, I felt this ending didn't do them justice.

[Rosa Dracos99 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excelente cierre de la historia, en el que todos los cabos quedan atados; así como las relaciones de los protagonistas.
Una vez más, comentar que la trama está muy bien desarrollada; y, sobre todo, como el ilustrador logra reflejar mucho de esta trama jugando con la coloración en los diferentes momentos y lugares.

[Juho Pohjalainen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I experienced a strange phenomenon reading this comic, where my familiarity with vampire tropes and clichés and powers only made things weirder: the few bits that stood out, things unique to this particular variety of the bloodsucker, kept throwing my head off. It's like a railroad: you know where it's going, it always goes this way and the same way, and then suddenly it goes somewhere entirely different and your brain just kind of locks out for a while.

Maybe it's because the comic starts out as a murder mystery, where the whole vampire thing is kept somewhat under the lid: a guy shows up dead and drained out of all blood, and I could immediately guess where it was going, but then you had shit like cysts behind ears and what have you...

Anyway, it was okay. The politics got a bit weird and I lost track on who was a vampire and who wasn't, but I found some good characters to get invested in and the art was passable.

[Urbon Adamsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

PT Melhor do que o volume anterior, embora esta série merecesse um ritmo mais pausado e um desenvolvimento mais aprofundado das personagens e do universo onde se inserem.

Ainda assim, é uma conclusão sólida, que deixa em aberto possíveis expansões da história.

--

EN Better than the previous volume, although this series deserved a slower pace and a deeper development of both the characters and the universe they inhabit.

Even so, it’s a solid conclusion that leaves room for possible future expansions of the story.

[Line Blue · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,8 es mas débil de todos, ocurrió lo que temía con un final bastante insatisfactorio, donde no me importaba el destino de los protagonistas o las decisiones que toman, falto un quinto volumen antes del final, para explicar la enfermedad de los vampiros, lo bueno el arte llega a otro nivel de excelencia.

[Alessandro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bello. Molto bello. La storia si complica, non poco, ed è affascinante. La fine è decisamente diversa da come me la aspettavo, quindi sorprendente. Disegni sempre al massimo. Tutta la serie è un prodotto di qualità superiore.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

DPL hoopla

[TheWord · Rating 1 out of 5]

1,5

[Czterysta Czterdzieścicztery · Rating 2 out of 5]

Choć właściwie wszystkie wątki pozostają spięte tym albumem, a nawet pozostawione z otwartym zakończeniem, to jednak nie można powiedzieć, ze to satysfakcjonujący koniec tej serii, raczej pośpieszny i byle jaki.
Możliwości posiadaczy "torbieli za uchem" wzrastały z albumu na album, a tu nagle okazują się dużo mniejsze w finale. Tak samo dla tytułowego rodzeństwa Drapieżców zdaje się nie być granic, a tu nagle w tak blady i miałki sposób schodzą ze sceny.
Był tu dobry pomysł na rozwijanie intrygującej serii, ale nie było pomysłu na jej zakończenie. Szkoda, zmarnowany potencjał.

Scenariusz: **
Rysunki: ****

[Inge · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this comic. I love the way that anything can happen in a book. But this was totally unexpected. Even the ending I didn't see it coming in the slightest way.

Very suprising serie. Very short but nice to read.

[Sebastien Pascual · Rating 3 out of 5]

The weakest of the 4 volumes. Somewhat of an unsatisfactory ending for this great cycle.

[Gamal Hennessy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A rushed and muddled conclusion to a story that couldn't decide who the main character was or why the reader should care about them.

[A.M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Camilla’s was cut by Aznar before he and Drago fought. The cut has healed but it has taken the colour from her vision. She goes to a Chinese healer to restore herself. Lenore goes with her and flippantly drinks a whole bottle of poison. It has no effect on her. She has really changed. But she still retains her image in the mirror.
Healed, Camilla tries to kiss her in the street and Lenore tells her she doesn’t want any more of her kisses. Ouch.
Aznar meanwhile, is cleaning house. In this lawless world, the vampires have started to set kidnapped humans up in a kind of paintball skirmish trap for fun.
Spiaggi, still on the run, meets up with the coroner who betrays him and is hit by a stray bullet in the shootout. His dying words are the code to his secret lab.
When Spiaggi goes there, he meets Do Santo and others who are re-animating the headless corpse of one of Aznar’s victims. She tells them Aznar did it and now they know he’s got his own agenda. Spiaggi makes a deal. He shows them the cross the priest gave him. It seems to be super effective; one vampire throws up at the sight of it and it burns Do Santo’s hand. [That priest is hard core.]
Lenore goes home to confront her weasel brother in the middle of a high society garden party for him. Aznar follows her. Two of the guests comment that her parents are hiding from the sun and that they are looking pretty bad. Lenore cuts her brother’s throat. Lenore’s mother asks her husband for permission to eat a handsome man she met at the party. It’s Drago; big mistake, lady.
As Aznar and Lenore escape with him, the house blows up.
Drago gifts Lenore to his son. Ouch. Dude… Lenore struggles with the idea that her family is gone and the changes she’s undergoing. Aznar tells her his reflection is long gone. She and Aznar have sex. Afterwards, Spiaggi arrives to tell them the apartment block is surrounded by police. Aznar goes with him after giving Lenore the sword. He wants to meet up with Do Santo again but Lenore thinks he’s swapped himself for her. Aznar kisses her goodbye in front of Spiaggi. Ouch.
For the first time, the twins are arguing and it’s over Lenore. Camilla kidnaps Lenore and handcuffs her to her bed. She doesn’t know Drago has already given Lenore up. Helicopter gunships go for Drago. He’s taken to the leader of the Greats of Spain. [so that’s what they call themselves…] Camilla knows Drago’s in trouble but as she’s distracted, Lenore breaks out of the cuffs and stabs her with the sword of the Molinas. The only blade that can harm her. As she dies Lenore tells her she doesn’t want to be like her. She wants to find her own way.
The leader, Don Miguel Y Certa is still alive [I was wrong. I thought he was Do Santo.] He preys on the children and they call him The Devourer.
It all comes to a climax in a ruined church. Do Santo shows up with a dying Drago and the priest has followed the Devourer’s latest victims with an army of children who take him down. Aznar arrives too late to rescue him but Drago sees the man who destroyed his family die. He gives Aznar a pin to make sure of it. Tick the revenge box.
As his father dies, Aznar tells him he wants to find his own way. Sniffs…
Aznar kills Do Santo when he runs to his car. The priest sees him do it but Aznar is wearing the crucifix and it does him no harm. He tells Aznar he has no orders where he is concerned, so he lets him go. [oooh kickass priest cleaners and god-blessed vampire stories… NO, brain] We saw Aznar kill his college girlfriend last book, so he isn’t without sin, but he seems to be blessed now.
It ends with Spiaggi as chief of police and rounding up the rest of the vampire elite. He knows Lenore is out there and he still loves her. She’s stalking the streets with Aznar’s sword, and Aznar is watching from the rooftops with her crucifix.
They have to meet at some point; they (like the twins before them) are the only ones of their kind. It seems inevitable that they’ll get back together. And they’ve tasted each other’s body and blood. I imagine if they get together and have twins, that the whole cycle will start again. I can see little vampires telling their parents they don’t want to be toothless vampires like them; they want to be wild. I reckon the Molina’s genes are pretty damn strong.
***
There are some story flaws - why the heck would Do Santo trust Aznar after he knows he acts against them? How do the good vampires feed? What is left for them to do? What is the Costanza group the priest belongs to? How can crosses burn vampires, and yet they can be inside a church? Is the Chinese healer immortal as well? If so, what is he? What else can his plants do?
The graphic novels are so different to anything else out there. This volume goes hard core on the gore; Aznar literally cuts a man in half.
But I adore these vampires. Camilla would destroy Edward Cullen with a fingernail.
5 stars