This series ended rather abruptly to my perception, as it seemed like there were still plenty of stories left to tell. That said, however, Pattern Storm is a pretty good wrap-up for this futuristic action piece, providing some big answers and some very memorable action sequences. I was surprised at the somewhat anticlimactic nature of some of the final confrontations, and to some extent it does feel like Kennedy is trying to wrap things up quickly, but it was nice to see the answers to some of the series' big questions spelled out clearly, and Ruiz Velasco does a spectacular job of bringing the world of 2100 to life. Not as strong as the previous two volumes, but not a disappointing ending either.
This volume opens with a reprint of The Red File, an unusual one-shot that provides crucial information on the background of the world and the characters, and fills in some gaps as to what happened before the series started. It's an innovative bit of storytelling, done through emails, memos and news clippings rather than standard comic-book panels, and there's a lot of information conveyed as a result. What's really clever about this section of the book, beyond just the design aspects that went into it, is that there's a lot that is not being said. It's not the kind of thing that would have worked early on, but with two volumes under his belt, Kennedy is able to let readers read between the lines of the official story and see what actually happened, using knowledge gleaned from the previous issues.
Previous volumes of Lone Wolf 2100 were more about filling out the world, about the journeys of d. Itto and Daisy Ogami. This issue, there's a much tighter focus on the plot and the backstory that relates directly to it. Answers about what exactly is infecting Daisy Ogami, who released the War Spore and why and big confrontations between the hero and the villain of the piece take up most of the issue. Oddly, while epic doings like this are usually stronger than the more meandering stories that explore the world, I found the opposite to be true with Lone Wolf 2100. The events in the book are undeniably exciting and provide some nice payoff, but I missed the stories of Ogami and Daisy encountering robotic nomads or hunters that we saw in the previous two volumes.
Fortunately, the fight sequences that make up a lot of this issue are quite compelling, thanks to Ruiz Velasco's work. The sequence that shows his capture says everything you need to know about Itto's skill and the ruthlessness with which Belladonna has hunted him, and if the final showdown between Itto and Belladonna seems a bit brief, certainly you can't fault the visceral impact that her death scene has. The final battle between Itto and Terasawa is more drawn out and more effective, showing off not just skill with violence but skill with tactics and planning, and it provides a satisfying conclusion to the story.
While Kennedy wraps up the story to some degree, having Itto triumph over the foes who have been hunting him, the story doesn't really seem completely over. The last words of Terasawa, which indicate that Itto's victory is only partial and anything but certain, ring true, and as a result, I'm left feeling that this is less of an ending and more of a stopping point. There aren't any major questions left unanswered, but it does feel like the story was rushed to a conclusion too soon, which is a shame. 7/10
