Bishop #4: One Shot, One Kill

“Time After Time” part 4 is the end of one journey and sends us on to the next. Bishop seems to always be stuck in this loop where he must kill someone to protect the future so, this storyline where he is the hunted is refreshing for the character. Now things are flipped, he is asking the questions that people normally ask him. “What if you’re wrong?”; “How do you know things will get better?” and so on. I think I prefer Bishop being on the run more then the other way around but that’s maybe because we have seen so much of him hunting that I would like to see more of him being the one hunted.

To get the nitpicks out of the way, the art for this comic is pretty dope! I love the cover with the glowing red eyes behind a door that Bishop is standing in front of. However, the consistency with Bishop’s look in this issue throws me off. Bishop is an intimidating figure without the mutant powers and gun he wields. But this issue has him skinny in one panel and his normal brute size in another. Sometimes the transferring of characters from panel to panel can be tough, but this happens more than I would like because it was throwing me off to be honest. If this doesn’t bother you, I understand – like I said, this is a nitpick.

This issue picks up with us seeing Bishop give his sister, Shard, vital intel to help her advance in rank. This moment will foreshadow the end of the issue where we see both siblings doing what they feel is best to protect the other. Once the mission goes sideways Bishop thinks, he got his sister captured or killed. But this emotion does not stay too long because the big bad of the issue is revealed. After some dialogue and a quick shoot out the fight ends with Shard coming through the roof of the building and killing the big bad.

After Bishop realizes Shard is alive, he begins to still feel guilt that he had before the fight. Shard dismisses this sentiment and says, “We have to talk, but not here.”  The siblings go back to Bishop’s place where they share a chocolate bar and toast to a job well done. That’s when the twist of the issue happens. Shard drugs Bishop because her mission was to not just come back and save him. He was causing an incursion, and her mission was to bring her big brother home. and that is where this issue ends, with Shard taking the decision out of Bishops hands.