Puppet Master #10 really kicks this current story arc into high gear. Many plot points that were teased in the previous issues are revealed here, including what happened to Camille—the fan-favorite character who appeared in Puppet Master II and then disappeared forever without explanation; the character who makes up the bulk of the plot here. She looks very different from the last time we saw her, though, for reasons that are a pleasant surprise. Gabborin pulled a welcome bait and switch in the writing, and to discuss it we’ll definitely be getting into some heavy spoilers.
So, it seemed pretty logical that Camille would not have stayed in her human-sized puppet body for any longer than she had to. The story’s been slowly leading us to believe that she had taken a human form at some point in time from when we last saw her. The older, seemingly sinister director of the Institute appeared to be a very clear guess—hell, she even resembled Nita Talbot, the actress who played Camille in Puppet Master II. I’ll freely admit not giving the creative team enough credit here and fully expecting this to be the ultimate reveal, which I would still have been perfectly okay with. Instead, though, we got something a lot better as our young hero’s only ally, the kind and sweet, younger therapist who’s been treating him, is the one who actually turns out to be Camille.
My biggest delight, though, might be Six-Shooter’s little solo mission. We got to see Leech Woman’s solo kill in the previous issue, which was great as I love that weird little puppet. But as much as there’s been great, earnest character development for the puppets in this series, Six-Shooter has kind of gotten the short end of the stick. Even in “Rebirth” where we spend time with each of them as human characters, we don’t know much about Six-Shooter other than his personality seems to perfectly mirror the puppet to the point where we still don’t know his name. He just wanted to be called Shooter, even as a human.
As much as I championed that arc, I felt that there was a lot left unsaid with that character. So I’m very, very happy to see that we’re still getting that kind of thing even now that the team have returned to their puppet forms. There’s a lot about Six-Shooter’s past that is teased if not outright stated in this issue. Details that make me more interested in him than I probably ever have been before.
This is a really excellent issue overall and one I highly recommend reading. Everything is on point, the story is becoming clearer and clearer and I can’t wait to see how the arc wraps up. There are so many shocking, surprising or simply outright fun moments that I almost let out a little Six-Shooter cackle myself.
WICKED RATING: [usr 8]
