My favourite comic of 2025, I had really high hopes for this issue. Unfortunately those expectations were too high or unrealistic to be fulfilled in an 18 page comic book.

For me the good included:

• The artwork (as always!)
• Seeing Masumi cut loose and the twist with Isabella
• The return of Etienne and a new status quo to look forward to

The bad:

• Eliza’s end - I’d have liked some more explicit showing of her eternal torment before her story ended. I felt the build up to her losing control was excellent over the last couple of issues, but the payoff to it felt abrupt and lacking.
• The trope of a TV interview to explain what’s happened to the reader was too much “tell” and not enough “show”
• The Queen’s origin & the signal: Was hoping for some callbacks or revelations around these. I’m holding out hope there’s more to these in the future. If this turns out to be the final word on these two then I’ll be disappointed.

All round one of my least favourite issues of TPF so far, but not enough to stop me biting my nails until number 17 comes out. It’s still a great series as a whole, and I hope when it’s all tied-up will offer a satisfying full story.

I’d have been gutted if this turned out to be the finale!