Caspian Porter #4 is a comic written and lettered by Drew D. Lenhart with art by Juan Fleites and Jonathan Wetmore. The pirates of Whydah City begin their attack on Rooster Valley in this very chaotic comic. This is a violent and revealing issue where all the tension that has been building up over the previous issues finally comes to a head. The leading lad for this tale is Caspian Porter, a man on the run whose journey through a wormhole has sent him into the past. With him is the robot CRB aka “Curbie” who is helpful some of the time. Also playing a prominent role is the leader of Rooster Valley, Baron Von Der Berg and his daughter Lenn. Things haven’t really been going right for Caspian since he landed on Mars and due to some actions on his part an invasion is being launched. There are two warring sides but multiple goals in this battle so there is a lot to watch for.  This is a very violent issue with vicious attacks, bloody moments, and some light gore. The pace here varies as the action scenes tend to have less words so they move faster whereas the calmer scenes have more talking so it slow up a bit. There is a strong intensity here due to the fact that it is a high-stakes battle. Besides a couple wordy pages most of the dialogue is quick comments and snappy back-and-forths. This thick comic is the payoff of four issues of buildup and it handles it well, providing the reader with excitement, revelations, and a look towards the future.

            This is a comic with varying degrees of detail, intense shadowing, and a color palette that fits the Mars-rustic vibes of this story. The natural scenery is mostly rocks and dirt with roughly put together buildings; it might bring to mind Tatooine from Star Wars. This story moves all over the place so there isn’t a set location that could be focused on; the plot goes from the ground to the air in one page and from an open space firefight to the woods. Also of note is the persistent life-filled backgrounds, rarely will you ever see an out-of-place bold color backdrop on a close up. The expression level here is high as there are many different characters showing emotion in this stressful situation. The range here is vast as they show devious, anger-based, and joyous looks. The faces have varying amounts of detail to get the looks across; sometimes the faces lack things like facial creases so they end up looking stiff but this isn’t a big problem. There are a lot of dinosaurs with some being ridden. There are also a bunch of flying ships of various sizes. The action scenes can be short or lengthy and normally involve gunfire and occasionally involve blood. Everything flows generally well so you shouldn’t get confused. Just about everyone here is wearing an assortment of armor except for Lenn, who is wearing a fur(or leather?) two piece.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like sci-fi tales starring a character who is out of his depth that is now involved in a huge battle involving dinosaurs and guns with flying ships scattered about this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

R. Blood, death, and light gore.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“I’m not so sure if we can pull through on this one.”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/snowyworks/caspian-porter-4-the-battle-of-rooster-valley-tpb/description

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 42

Violent Pages: 17, for 41% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 0, for 0% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 4

“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”

“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”

“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”

“This was a tournament arc.”

“All my life I had to fight.”

 

Gore Level – 4

“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”

“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”

“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”

“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”

“This is a slaughterhouse.”

 

Death Level – 4

“And everybody lived happily ever after.”

“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”

“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”

“Yeah this was a tragedy.”

“Think Gettysburg.”

 

Porn Level – 1

“Everybody kept their clothes on.”

“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”

“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”

“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”

“Oh. This is porn.”