Sprout is determined to avenge her grandfather, but getting to Harrington will not be easy. Can she hurt him where it counts? Find out in Klik Klik Boom #5 from Image Comics!
KLIK KLIK BOOM #5
Writer: Doug Wagner
Artist: Doug Dabbs
Colorist: Matt Wilson
Letterer: Ed Dukeshire
Publisher: Image Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 18, 2023
Previously in Klik Klik Boom: after straying from her assigned “X”, Serena is injured and awakens in a hospital where Harvard Dillinger walks in and starts to threaten her for her cooperation. Sprout arrives on the scene. Serena spots an “X.” Sprout takes Dillinger out. Serena is overjoyed to see Sprout until she communicates that next, she wants to go after Harrington. Serena insists that this will not be possible. Sprout takes a picture of Serena and Beatrix and walks out of the room. She has left her satchel, and Serena knows she will not return. After a while, though, she pulls herself together and decides to follow.
A GRAND FINALE
Klik Klik Boom #5 opens with Serena dressed like Sprout and carrying Beatrix in a handbag. She is with Sprout’s friends outside the Harrington gala, and they are all there to cause a distraction.
In his office, Harrington works on his speech as he puts a watch back together. Two people from his security detail arrive with Sprout. They found her in the lobby, unarmed and compliant. Harrington asks her why she is there. In reply, she slaps a photo down on his desk showing him killing someone. He explains that Minerva has been influencing world events from the shadows for centuries. His vision is greater. He wants to take a more public role; however, this means erasing some of their less savory past deeds. Sprout’s grandfather took pictures that show too much. Harrington feels he can’t dare to trust that they will be kept secret. Now that Sprout is here, he can finish cleaning up.
His men take her. He stops them so he can tell her that the man was not actually her grandfather. No one knows who Sprout is or where she came from. He crouches over her stunned body to tell her this. And she lashes out, knocking out his security, running for the balcony, and leaping over the edge.
Harrington is surprised, but orders security to clean up the body. Then they show him images of the distraction outside. He recognizes Serena through her disguise but does not seem concerned.
Serena gets into the building and goes backstage to where the computer with Harrington’s presentation is. She sticks a thumb drive in. Harrington walks in and says that it is over. She counters that she has sent copies of Sprouts pictures all over the world and has exposed them. He is confident that he can spin the story as that of a troll sending out manipulated pictures, a troll who is killed before she can assassinate him. And then he tells her of Sprout’s jump.
We see a brief montage of some of Sprout’s memories of her grandfather and of Serena. Harrington takes the stage. Someone comes out of the darkness and kicks the security guards holding Serena. It is Sprout. Harrington decides he must handle her himself. Serena has a plan and quickly whispers it to Sprout. Harrington draws a knife and Sprout advances on him with a photograph and her Polaroid camera. They fight.
As Sprout takes him down, the curtains pull back. The screen behind them shows the photographs of Harrington involved in killing people.
THE STRENGTH OF FAMILY
I am impressed by the facial and body expressions in Klik Klik Boom #5. Sprout does not communicate by talking; instead, her emotions and meaning are portrayed mainly through her face. When we first see her in close-up, she looks tensely contained, as though it takes so much effort to restrain herself. When Harrington tells her that her grandfather was no blood relation, her face is hidden from him, but we get the full force of both her surprise and then an anger fueled by grief. This care with faces carries over to the other characters, which heightens the emotional impact of the plot in much the same way as really good actors in a play.
The climactic fight with Harrington is nothing short of brilliant. The motion blur and body reactions of the characters capture the brute force energy of their combat. Sprout’s using her camera literally as a weapon is nothing if not hugely symbolic, and I love the “Klik” sound effects that go off as it makes contact. Cameras are not constructed for such use, and as pieces gradually fracture off, Sprout grabs a couple of the larger ones as improvised piercing weapons. It drives home the message that this should be the last time she needs her camera on this mission.
BOTTOM LINE: BREATHTAKING TO THE END
Klik Klik Boom #5 is an extraordinarily satisfying conclusion to an unusual but effective tale of revenge. The icing on the cake is the epilogue that does not have many words, but that tells us everything we need to know. It was a heck of a ride, and well worth it.
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Klik Klik Boom #5
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By day, she’s a mild-mannered bureaucrat and Ms. Know-It-All. By night, she’s a dance teacher and RPG player (although admittedly not on the same nights). On the weekends, she may be found judging Magic, playing Guild Wars 2 (badly), or following other creative pursuits. Holy Lack of Copious Free Time, Batman! While she’s always wished she had teleportation as her superpower, she suspects that super-speed would be much more practical because then she’d have time to finish up those steampunk costumes she’s also working on.