In Review: Xena: Warrior Princess Vol. 4 #8

Synopsis: With Nazar protected by Keenta and her Amazons, Xena and Gabrielle confront the Oracle at Delphi. But will they be able to convince the Oracle to stop their assassins before it’s too late?

Review: The story arc comes to a close and in so doing sets things up for the next one. Picking up from where things left off. Xena and Gabrielle have set off to confront the Oracle of Delphi in the hopes of putting an end to the assassins threatening Nazar.

The Story

Erica Schultz finishes off this story with great wit and verb as Xena and Gabrielle put an end to the Oracle’s schemes. And while doing so they also manage to rescue Nazar’s misguided parents who sought help from the Oracle.

We have some great moments in this issue, but for my money, the best is when Gabrielle threatens the Oracle with her deadly finger of doom. This is growth for Gabrielle who is still fairly new friends with Xena. These stories are set roughly during the shows the first season so it is still early days.

I also enjoyed the conversation toward the end of the issue where Xena asks Gabrielle if she’d have really killed the Oracle.

The Artwork

The artwork in this issue is top notch. I love the fact that Keenta the Queen of the Amazons sports a mohawk. And the panels concerning the Amazons and the assassins that are trying to kill Nazar are really visceral.

But my favorite moment from this issue is the final page, which sees Callisto brought back in. Artist Vicente Cifuentes does a brilliant job of capturing the madness in Callisto’s face. That final image alone sets things up brilliantly for issue 9.

Overall

As have said once before. I never really followed Xena all that much when it was on the air during the 90’s, but as a casual viewer of the show, I think the team at Dynamite comics have done a wonderful job of capturing the feel of the series. And this last story arc has really built on that.