Charlton Notebook: The Fightin' 5 #38

The obvious question here is 'Can this comic be anywhere near as awesome as its cover?'. Unfortunately, the answer is 'no', but that speaks more to the cover than the story. Once again, Rocco 'Rocke' Mastroserio demonstrates his talent for cover design. He is a very underrated artist, in my sometimes humble opinion. Things ain't all that bad inside either - as we're seeing the James Bond influence trickle into the Derbyverse. How can you go wrong with an organization called S.A.T.A.N. whose leader dresses up in a devil costume? It's a pretty entertaining story. I tend to be of two minds when it comes to the Montes/Bache art team.Sometimes, they can be inspired, using interesting layouts and drawing characters and scenes with a real depth. Other times, especially in action sequences, it can come across as rushed. Here, I like 50% of the panels, but I'm 'meh' on the other half. Peter Cannon won't show up for another couple of issues, so the back-up a second F5 tales - not quite as fun as the first.