The Pull List – John Wick #5
Fresh out of prison, Calamity has her sights set on John. Surprising him from a rooftop, she unleashes a barrage of rockets. The remaining members of the Three Bills brought out their most maniac and destructive partner to take John out. Not caring about the consequences, Calamity begins a rampage through the city. However, the criminal underworld will not ignore all the mayhem. John Wick is close to completing his vendetta against his tormentors but he must face the repercussions.
Issue five is the climactic finale of John Wick’s story. His hunt in Texas for the Three Bills have piled a few bodies and caused trouble for the assassin guilds. In a few days, John worked his way to weaken the Three Bills, forcing them to turn to desperate measures. John’s biggest challenge is Calamity. She lays waste to anything and anybody that gets in her way. John traumatic childhood memory causes him to be compassionated to the innocent lives caught in the crossfire and is shocked to be reliving the same events again. But to ease his mind and complete his vengeance, John takes on Calamity to stop the Three Bills once and for all.
Greg Pak and Matt Gaudio give fan service to all the cool elements from the John Wick movies. John is calm and collected, approaching every situation with a sharp mind and a quick trigger finger. The artwork captures all the gunfire, punches and explosions you want from any action title. The Three Bills are spiteful villains, taunting John while cowardly hiding from him. It builds great anticipation for the epic standoff that bookends the plot. Pak chooses to keep the plot to be tight and action-pack without sacrificing overly complicated narrations. Pak doesn’t plunge too deep into John’s origins, he lightly shows the start of John become the feared baba yaga. The John Wick universe is filled with an amazing world of hitmen, assassins, and maniacs, that this series teases the reader for more. Comic fans should not miss out on this high flying conclusion to one of action movie’s best characters.