Rising Action

‘Rising action', indeed. This is the conclusion to what I suppose can be regarded as ‘Act One', in which all the proverbial hits the fan. It's much more action-packed than the previous volumes, and reveals a lot of what has been going on in the background, although it only gives us hints about the main villain's motivations. It's certainly a big improvement after the previous volume, although the necessity for all the big fight scenes does, perhaps limit the plot. Even so, the ending is by no means predictable, there's a real sense of threat for many of the characters, and the conclusion of this part of the arc leaves things wide open and as intriguing as ever.