Issue summary: Elder Leot and Urcell travel to confront Rath after hearing of his actions taken against the silent school while deciding that it is no longer time for talk but time for action as they need to get rid of Rath now but as the reach his throne room he quickly dismisses them as he has other matters he is attending to. The rebels and the gangs of the ninth begin to push the drift back out of the ninth turning the battle to their favour as the drift fall back, but this favour soon turns as a freshly mutated Kadaver enters the fray as a vessel for Rath. A vessel that Rath uses to bestow the same gifts upon his soldiers ad he has Kadaver allowing them to get back into the fight and turn it around. Just as Kadaver and the other tainted drift soldiers are about to over run the rebel forces Aquaman appears to take Kadaver down and allow the rest to escape to fight another day, but as he fights away he is soon intercepted by Murk who has been hunting him to settle a score. It is revealed that Murk had faked his death in a hope that Arthur would leave Atlantis and leave it alone, leaving it under Rath’s reign and to never show his face there again. But his return messed Murks plans up leaving Murk with no other option than to attempt to kill Arthur to stay loyal to the crown and rid the throne, in the battle Murk reveals his true feelings towards Arthur. Feelings of anger as he announces he was involved in the decision to relive Arthur of his position as king that he did not want Arthur as king as he believes Arthur was an awful leader but upon hearing that Arthur has no interest in taking back the crown he is more than happy to side with him to deal with the ever growing threat of king Rath. Meanwhile back in the upper levels of Atlantis the elders hold a meeting about the out of control king and vote to revoke the power and confidence that they had placed in him thereby reliving him of his position however as they attempt to charge the throne room and take Rath from power they are met with a gigantic mutated Rath with the power of the Abyssal Dark after he mutates little by little through the issue.

My rating: 8/10

My verdict: This is a series that constantly delivers so much so that each issue of this ever growing story arc is a much needed and much appreciated chapter that continues the epic civil war for control of Atlantis. I’ve said it before and I will say it again this really is like a series of game of thrones but this cuts to the points a little better. Its been a nice touch to see issues that see to individuals different missions but its great to see them all link back up once more and drive the story towards Rath’s death, even with the next issue being called The assassination of King Rath I still personally don’t think that Rath will be killed I think he still has a few issues yet. This is just speculation however as Mera and Orm haven’t entered the fray yet as her series has only just released it’s second issue of six parts so how connected the war will be to these is still up for speculation but I can put money on the fact that the pair will have a larger role in the conclusion of Atlantis fate then just fighting each other on the surface. I enjoyed how the gangs of the ninth and the rebels managed to push the drift back and would have soon over thrown Rath if not for Kadaver’s arrival and Rath’s use of the dark magic he is now infused with, the best part of the issue was when Rath began to pay the price for using the dark magic and began turning into one of the taint – bloods he ordered exterminated earlier in his crusade. The shock twist inside this issue was the arrival of Murk and his true feelings being aired towards Arthur, as I always thought the two where close friends and that Murk actually cared and respected Arthur but this issue changes all of that as you realise that he was in fact just doing his duties and held no faith in his king whatsoever so it should be fun to see where the story takes us next with the alliance between these tow characters and the growing threat that is Rath