In this comic book review of Royals #4, we learn that Castor and Paul aren’t the only odd twins out there.
Royals #4
Writer: Derek Kirk Kim
Art and Main Cover: Jacob Perez
Variant Covers: Derek Kirk Kim, Nicholas Giacondino
Page Count: 40 pages
Release Date: 7/1/2026
This review contains spoilers
As Royals #4 begins, Castor wakes to see Minah in the darkness, snippets of recent events playing through his mind, as Paul also wakes up by an airport, wearing a suit he doesn’t remember changing into at all.
It turns out Castor isn’t dead, but he does find himself tied to a chair and looking right at Minah and Daeshim. Understandably, he has questions. Especially when the pair are joined by a third figure: Father Park.
Park explains that Paul and Castor are not the only twins out there with supernatural abilities. He says that some can do stuff like, say, implant things (and themselves) into people’s dreams. He and his own twin brother could read the thoughts of everyone around them, whether they intended to or not. Of them, one twin turned out to be a criminal, the other entered the priesthood. When Park’s brother died, he could finally feel normal.
And that was something he intended to give to Paul. Minah takes the kill shot, and after Castor’s body is dumped off, it turns out the two of them had hatched a plan to fake his death.
Minah, for her part, has been working with Park and Daeshim because they’ve been holding her twin sister Minee for a few years. After Paul and Castor get back in communication, he fills his brother in on what’s going on, but Paul’s intent on just getting the hell out of Dodge (or rather, Seoul).
Castor decides that he’s helping Minah get her sister back, and during a high speed chase, he discovers that shes got a ton of weapons stockpiled for such an occasion.
The thing I’ve seen with Royals is that you can never tell exactly what’s coming. You get some ideas, before the narrative throws you a curve ball. That said, good to see that Castor’s still kicking!
Had not expected Minah to also have some kind of psychic-twin ability…or even a twin in general. That in and of itself wasn’t entirely telegraphed, but at the same time, it doesn’t feel like it came out of thin air, either. When Daeshim found out that Castor and Paul were telepathically linked to each other, of course greed was going to come into play somewhere. But if they were the only known psychic twins and first of their kind? For one thing, he probably wouldn’t have been working with Park, and for another, things may have gotten darker and a bit more human traffick-y.
For that matter, everything with Park was just…wow. With him, you actually do get some hints that there’s something up with him. In issue 1, Paul points out how odd it is for a priest to smoke. And Park didn’t seem overly committed to his own life by doing that. And here, we find out that he’d had a twin brother and the ability to hear others’ thoughts.
On the one hand, sacrificing half of a set of twins so the “good” one can live is objectively insane. On the other, though, hearing everyone else’s thoughts with no indication of an off switch could drive anyone up the wall. Is it any wonder why he’d want to give one of them a chance at normality?
The reveal of Minah’s motivations and abilities add a bit more to her character. She already interested me at the start during her chat with Paul. She may have been sent to speak with him to get him involved in this whole thing. And the whole concept of a woman working with the antagonist, only to genuinely start to care for the protagonist(s) is a classic. But that’s just the smallest part of her character. What stands out more is that she, more than anything else, wants to save her sister, and she’s been gearing up to do it for a while, now. I’m wondering if she would have attempted to go full-on One Woman Army if Castor weren’t involved, or if she was definitely holding off until she could get some reliable backup. And given that Castor used to be an MMA fighter, I’d say he’s definitely a good choice for that.
Paul seems pretty set on leaving Korea by the end, but I wonder if he’ll stick to that plan, or have a sudden change of heart and track down his brother and Minah. We’re on issue 4 out of 6, so time will tell.
Final Thoughts
Royals continues to be one of the more delightfully unhinged crime stories out there, and I look forward to seeing how things wrap in the next 2 issues. Royals #4 is just as bonkers as ever, and I love it for that.
