Do you remember where I left off with Nikolai Dante? Um, months ago?
Fear not, because Volume Six brings us a status reset from Robbie Morrison, John Burns, and the returning Simon Fraser!
Last we met them, Nikolai was living a pirates life with his mother, the Pirate Queen. He was blackmailed into surrendering her to a rival - so the first part of this volume brings us to the end of the story.
John Burns, who has drawn all of this arc, returns to bring it to a stylish close
Nikolai is brought back to face the Tsar - the man who brought down Nikolai’s father and family and killed almost Al of them. Nikolai is still in love with the Tsar’s daughter, but being the greatest outlaw on the planet makes things complicated.
Until…
Dante has no choice but to accept working for his greatest enemy, and betraying his people. But while trapped in a role he doesn’t want - may as well cause a bit of PR trouble, eh?
A lot of this volume follows Dante as he follows the Tsar’s orders… but undermining them as often as possible.
The missions are a variety of random capers, normally oversexualised in true Dante fashion. But one mission is designed to close off a thread - only one of Nikolai’s siblings, Lulu, is still alive, and the Tsar orders him to track her down and kill her.
This one gets very dark very quickly
Another mission forces Dante to try and break the criminal gangs who work the undercity. This puts him directly back in touch with several old “friends” as he tries to insert himself into power so he can then take down the mafia from the inside. This is a really satisfying story - closes a circle
The main thread of everything here is that Dante and Jena have been in love with each other since the very start of this series, although they can barely say that to each other. There’s a terrific story here where they are sent after her old mentor, who has been “sowing dissent”
The pirate stuff was apparently not popular, which is why they moved back to the political storylines instead - I liked the pirate stuff personally!!
Nikolai Dante has three volumes left to go - no idea what comes next, but for now it goes on the shelf! Fun, flashy, but smarter than it lets on
