The Legend of Luther Strode #5

written by Justin Jordan
art by Tradd Moore
colors by Felipe Sobreiro

If Justin Jordan and Tradd Moore were to create a sweeping love story, it would look a lot like The Legend of Luther Strode #5.  After the events of The Strange Talent of Luther Strode, Luther spiraled out, believing the Librarian when he insisted that Luther and the others were made killers by the inevitable force of destiny or fate.  Believing this, and hating himself because of it, Luther channeled that rage and his murderous impulses against those he thought most deserved it.  And so, his wall of drivers' licenses was begun.  The reappearance of Petra in his life sparks something of his old feelings.

Petra sees something different in Luther.  She actually sees Luther.  Despite his repeated and fervent pleading that she leave, run away from the danger and himself, Petra stays.  When she confronts Luther about her resolve not to abandon him, Luther seems finally able to accept an alternate view of himself absent the bleak determinism preached to him by the Librarian and Binder.  In short, he recovers his humanity.  Their kiss, after he discards his mask and his blood-thirsty vigilante alter-ego, is suitably epic, an impassioned homage to classic Hollywood romance, a dramatic two-page spread with the lovers surrounded by yellow flames.

Jack, on the other hand, presents a more troubling problem.  Seizing the opportunity offered by Mr. Duvall's improvised bomb to kill Binder, Jack then escapes, abandoning Petra and Luther in the flames, to wreak a greater havoc on an unsuspecting public.  In a move that admittedly breaks the psychological pattern of the furtive serial killer, Jack enters Abberline Mall—a shopping center coincidentally named for the famous Chief Inspector of the London Metropolitan Police tasked with investigating the Ripper murders in Whitechapel—with a grin that anticipates mass murder and widespread chaos.  It falls to Luther and Petra to find and stop him.