Table of Contents Show
The Forged #4 brings us back into this strange yet intriguing world with a new arc; it picks up mere seconds after the end of the last issue, but in quick time, it gets things resolved and set up for the new arc. There are a lot of moving parts in The Forged #4, some surprising and all very intriguing.
The Empress In The Forged #4
Following on from the cliffhanger of the previous arc, our intrepid team of special soldiers, Scimitar-3, find themselves in the throne room of Her Eternal Glory. The Forged #4 wastes no time introducing us to the Eternal Empress and her quirky personality. She is not presented as some evil dictator or bumbling fool as many archetypes of other would-be God Emperors have in fiction; instead, she is likened to a kid in a candy store.
The Eternal Empress is fascinated by the Forged team that randomly appeared in her throne room, she finds the sycophant behavior of the Casandra they brought beyond boring — and is tired of the rigid military formality. She is bouncing between our main cast, even playing a sort of impromptu game of hide and seek with Harpo until she tires of it.
In addition to not caring about decorum befitting her station, she is also quick to point out our main cast as amusing stereotypes in a way. While the team of Scimitar-3 are all likable, this is only The Forged #4, we have not spent a whole lot of time with them. As such they do fall, at first glance anyway, into several archetypes; the Eternal Empress, herself being a departure from her archetype, points out. It is an entertaining metacommentary by the team of Greg Rucka, Eric Trautmann, and Mike Henderson.
Threading The Needle
The Forged #4, being the first of its arc while also resolving the cliffhanger of the previous, had its work cut out for it — the team used this position to add more wheels to this issue. Everyone is working on their own agenda that is furthering the main plot and they are all tied together, but no one knows how they tie together, so it gives the reader a snippet of each thread, drip-feeding us information so we can put it together ourselves.
The previous arc and issues were an introduction to this world, and characters, and were action-heavy. This arc, if The Forged #4 is any indication, will be a more laid-back, but more pulp-style adventure, too. The Eternal Empress and her childlike wonder at everything seems to take a turn with her wish to get closer to Victory. Davian and The Unseen Hand are clearly making moves on all sides, information is power after all.
The Cassandras have just murdered one of their own while having another rescued from a place she should not be. Our squad of Forged meanwhile got shore leave after a mission that went sideways — and, in the midst of all of this, there is a conspiracy with changed ship manifests and the whole interdimensional alien menace that combines all threads. It is a really well-woven tapestry Rucka and Trautmann have weaved for us.
The titular characters are not even actually involved as directly as a normal story of this ilk would try to do. Jo and Victory bond over being creatures of habit in a bar while an assassination takes place and the spymaster of the Eternal Empire sets his dominoes up. They are merely a cog in a greater machine, great stuff to get to, especially after the very pulp action opening arc.
The Forged #4 Begins A New Arc With A Different Tone
The Forged #4 is a step in a new direction for the series in more ways than one. The first issue of this series really had us on the edge of our seats with its mystery being slowly given to us. With The Forged #4, we cannot wait for the next issue and that is a very great problem to have.
