If Vertigo was smart, they’d approach The Luna Brothers (tm?) to create a series for them.  With Y finished and 100 Bullets nearing the end, there should be plenty of room for the brothers’ brand of long-form storytelling.  They excel at telling stories about groups of ordinary characters suddenly thrust into extraordinary situations.  The Sword is yet another triumph for them.

The art has its own special appeal.  It doesn’t remind me of anyone else’s style.  There’s no one doing art like this.  It’s a simple drawing style enhanced by the coloring and visual effects, but the storytelling is always clear.

The pacing of a Luna Brothers series may be too slow for some, but every issue gives you enough bang for the buck that you don’t feel like you’d be better off waiting for the trade.  The dialogue is naturalistic, although, like in most comics, there are occasional lapses into exposition.

Plotting has always been a strong point for a Luna Brothers series, but I had some problems with this issue.  There were a couple of things that happened that left me scratching my head:

1.  Picking up hitchhikers, even if two of them are attractive girls, is as bad an idea in a boat as it is in a car, particularly if you have a family.  I think that people who have enough money to own and maintain a boat should know this.

2.  I googled “pirate attacks Bahamas” and struggled to find anything that happened after 1680.  If you’d read this issue you’d understand what I’m talking about.

The previous six issues left me saying “Wow!” while this one had me saying “Wow!” and “WTF?”  (Yes, sometimes I say “WTF?” out loud.)  Overall, though, it’s still a solid book and well worth your dollars.