EDICOLA NEWS: THE REVIEWS nr. 213
album: The great escape of LYON (Panini)
stickers: 216 (1-195, L1-L21) + 50 cards
starter pack: album + packets 4,90€
box: 36 packets (4 stickers + 1 card per packet) 1,00€ each
We do not know how “cool” the setting is for the youngest, but we old folks make our eyes shine, thanks Lyon and Panini, the time of the cowboys is back! The album is the correct continuation of the previous “Monsters and Mysteries”, perhaps the best product of Panini in 2021, its podium is in serious risk precisely because of its successor.
Compared to the previous one, it is a more substantial album, 24 stickers and 14 more cards. Wanting to be picky this could be a negative aspect, we have always been the promoters of albums that are also essential and cheap, but there are exceptions, as in this case. The long history that runs through the pages (we are in the west, aren’t we?) is well structured, nice and dynamic, the number of stickers is necessary to make it also fun to discover it gradually.
As written the story takes place in the wild west, it seems to read a Bonelli comic where Lyon and Cico look like Tew Willer and Kit Carson. The classics of the genre are all there, the lone knight, the sheriff, the rich and criminal fixer, the villain, the saloon, etc. The beauty of history is precisely being able to stay modern by retracing the glories, places and myths of the American frontier. There do not appear to be any fashionable infiltrations, such as zombies or vampires. Everything is old west here!
We do not reveal the ending, but part of the adventure is dedicated to the detention of Lyon in prison. Here we actually find a story within the main story, as in many films the good is not entirely good, but sometimes an outlaw is needed to restore peace to the city and defeat the despot of the moment. Central part of the album with the comic story in stickers, a bit out of context, a cross between science fiction and horror, so as to make happy even the fans of the most launched Lyon in the future.
Panini repeats the beautiful idea of the previous album with the last pages and its alternative “action plans”, here are the L stickers that allow them to be attached in variable ways in order to have different possible stories, which still lead to same inevitable result (this is also a classic of the western genre), namely the victory of the cowboy and his pards against the enemies.
An added value to the album are certainly the stickers, which are nice, colorful, interactive and must also be used to be able to solve some games within the album. We are not great lovers of additional cards but in this case we make an exception and indeed we invite Panini to repeat the idea. Of the fifty cards, the first 42 are used to create a real deck of poker cards, including jokers, another classic of the western genre, just like many of us, comic fans, have bought Disney playing card boxes over the years. or other characters. The remaining 8 feature the characters from the story, so it’s a nice addition. The card holder box is really useful in this case.
Lyon is certainly a perfect character to always create new stories and new settings, Panini’s good ideas with the splendid mix of stickers and cards really lead us to think that this could be the album of the year. We have already fallen in love, when it comes to westerns it’s even easier.