Review by Roy Boyd

It’s probably not a spoiler to reveal that Buck didn’t die at the end of the last book. The cliffhanger ending is typical of the plot devices used liberally throughout this series, which gives proceedings a 1930’s Saturday morning adventure serial feel.

The Pact is the final part of a trilogy that kicked off with Vostok, Do You Read Me? and continued in Operation Vektor. So, probably not a great place to start if you’re new to the series. However, anyone who read the previous volumes will already be up to speed on the evil machinations of a crazed cabal of Japanese imperialists, who – in a spookily prescient storyline – intend to release a virus to cause a global pandemic. By blaming the Soviets, they hope to increase tensions between the Russians and the USA, thereby ushering in a new era of conflict they will be perfectly positioned to take advantage of. Needless to say, Buck Danny and his aviator chums are on hand to put a stop to this nonsense.

Artist Gil Formosa provides exactly what the series demands, which is mainly Top Gun action with hardware depicted in eye-wateringly accurate detail. The character work isn’t quite as assured. For example, there’s a wide range of hair colours and styles on our male characters, as it’s often the only way to tell them apart because of the similarity of their facial features, although, to be fair, many of them wear uniforms too, so it’s not an easy job.

Writer Frédéric Zumbiehl delivers lots of shouting, with VERY BIG TYPE! Some of this dialogue is often clunky, or poorly translated, such as when one character says the virus “could make all humanity disappear!” This makes it sound like an invisibility virus, rather than something with the potential to wipe out the entire human race.

Otherwise The Pact is a satisfying conclusion to the action-packed story – think James Bond or Mission: Impossible – containing the usual mixture of aerial combat and ground-based action, double agents, evil scientists, and more twists than you can shake a stick at. Though all plot points are wrapped up neatly, there are a couple of threads left dangling (mostly of the ‘villain is dead but we couldn’t find his corpse’ variety). Doubtless these will be revisited in volumes to come.