Dynamite Entertainment’s second Zorro arc comes to a close this issue, and features an ending that includes everything you want in a swashbuckling comic that takes place in colonial Spanish California.
The last issue saw Major Pasquale and Alcalde Quintero plan to discredit Zorro and take over the Pulido lands for the gold, begin to play out. Sergeant Gonzales is prepped and ready to play the part of the Fox who is going to kidnap Lolita from her stage coach and hold her for ransom. Fortunately, Don Diego is hot on the trail to put an end to the dastardly plot.
In this issue, readers see Gonzales take over the stage by killing the driver and the fellow riding shotgun. Zorro arrives on the scene a few moments later, and the two duel it out on top of the now runaway coach. It’s a pretty good fight, and the sequence plays well on the page, and even though I knew this was the end of the current arc, the approaching canyon drop off was enough to get me on the edge of my seat wondering if Matt Wagner would end the issue with a literal cliffhanger.
But let’s be real. It’s Zorro, master of the sword. He wins the fight once again, and marks Gonzales with another Z upon his face. Zorro doesn’t kill, instead the villain falls off the coach taking Zorro’s mask with him. Considering the new scar will be another mark of dishonor, I expect Senor Gonzales will return in the future to cause further trouble for our masked hero. In an attempt to warn Lolita Pulido of the impending cliff, and warn her of his plan to topple the coach, Zorro pops his head into the coach, thus revealing his true identity to the woman he loves.
And of course she falls in love with him.
Instantly.
This is the one thing about Zorro and every other masked vigilante that has won over the love of his life when his identity was revealed. Prior to the big reveal, Don Diego had to play the flamboyant and clumsy playboy, who did nothing but bore and upset Lolita in their every encounter. While she may have had the hots for Zorro, one would think the big reveal would do more to infuriate Lolita than cause her to instantly want to make out with the hero. Personally, it would make the story much more interesting if there was a period of distrust and questioning by the heroine before finally realizing how the Don Diego persona was simply a character played to keep the Zorro identity a secret.
On the art side, Cezar Razek does a great job of keeping camera angles and staging correct during the fight sequence. There is something about the art that had me re-reading the issue a couple of times to get the flow of what was going on. During the fight sequence, it looks like Ruzek is adding a lot more detail to everything, and then when the sequence is over, the art returns to a simpler design. If this is intentional, then I like it, as it heightens the action and then causes the reader to relax when the chase is over.
I’ve only been a reader of Zorro comics for four issues, and during this time, Wagner has been able to draw me in to the story and setting of the time, as the series continues to pull me away from the superhero stories. Zorro #14 is the ending of on arc, so it’s not a jump on issue, but if you simply want an issue that has swordplay, a chance sequence, and a girl falling for her fella’, then you can’t go wrong with Zorro #14, which earns 4 out of 5 Stars.
