‘Project Patron #5’ (review)

Written by Steve Orlando
Art by Patrick Piazzalunga
Published by AfterShock Comics

There’s only one real way to deal with a blackmailer, other than kill them.

And that’s to confess the shameful truth you’re concealing. That robs them of their power and hold over you. Right

You’d think the four surviving members of Project Patron would have figured that out. They’ve been tasked with keeping up the fiction that the Patron, Earth’s mightiest hero, is still alive and did not die fighting the monstrous prehistoric being known as Woe.

They’ve conned the world, presumably for its own good, by maintaining its belief in the big hero to protect them from when the next Woe appears to threaten all humanity. And they did it by neuro-piloting a robot that looks like the Patron and replicates his powers.

But a Lex Luthor-type villain with a god complex while possessing the surname of a biblical demon, Matthew Mammon, is blackmailing the group. He wants a cut of every nation’s GDP or he spills the beans to the UN. And he’s awakened Woe to force their hand.

The Project Patron team figures if they can kill Woe, then Mammon loses his leverage because the world will believe in the Patron even more.

They think they have outwitted Mammon.

Project Patron #5 brings in all of this while also depicting a slammin’ fight between Patron and Woe.

The fight goes to some interesting places as the team, all four of them jammed on the robots neural net, battle each other over the course of action.

And while they choose sacrifice, thinking that they have ended Mammon’s blackmail plot, they forgot about how to actually stop a blackmailer.

No spoilers, but it’s gonna fun next issue to see how the team handles the new curveball Mammon hurls at them.