Yes, you heard right, that rocking game that started a legacy is at last accessible in comic form. What is more, Kris Oprisko’s impressive writing takes all that silliness out of the dialogue and replaces it with brilliance, completing the coolness that made the game such a success. Then there is Ashley Wood, who is one of the most talented comic artists out there. Her style is a hybrid of swirling paintings and ridged-lined drawings that is simply gorgeous. These two together are giving Solid Snake’s story the royal treatment it deserves. (For those who wonder exactly what that story is, check out my review of the last issue, or Peblee's review of issue four.)

Having kissed those deserving butts, let me lay down the coolness of this issue. It is Snake verses Psycho Mantis, a bizarre, floating telepath who wears a tweaked gas-mask that allows him to control the thoughts entering and leaving his brain. (Check out Wood’s awesome cover featuring his disgusting self, which resembles your diseased social skills.) But, it looks like Snake won’t stand a chance as Mantis forces him to fight Meryl while keeping Mantis’s mental powers at bay. Just when it seems that Snake has been overcome by Mantis’s illusions, we find that Snake is smarter than his bandana and hairdo suggest. But, it seems that this issue ends in tragedy when Psycho Mantis attempts to make Meryl shoot herself. Does she do it? I DON”T KNOW! Oprisko ends it before we know forcing me to buy another issue with my dirty, dirty money.

Those of you who play the game will love and respect Oprisko’s interpretation of the conflict between Snake and Psycho Mantis. While others will goggle at the first glimpse of Rex worked in Wood's amazing style. This is simply not a comic to miss, even if you have to mug blind nuns to pay for it.

-Fumanchu