By Brandy Dykhuizen. Our Week In Review collects our thoughts on the comics that demand attention. Do you have a deep-rooted desire to know what we think about all your favorite books? Well. This is where you need to be.
The Violent #4
Image Comics/$2.99
Written by Ed Brisson.
Art by Adam Gorham; colors by Michael Garland.
Letters by Ed Brisson.
BD: The Violent is approaching what can only be an extremely dark and desperate end. Mason has painted himself into an ensanguined corner, alone with a corpse and a hacksaw. The book opens with his frantic addict’s oscillation between doing something terrible towards a selfish end (in this case, murdering his buddy to save his own ass) and recovering enough humanity to feel despairingly repentant. It would be best to bag up the body, piece by piece, and dispose of it far away from the scene of the crime, but at the end of the day, sawing through bone and familiar flesh proves to be too much for him.
Across the cold Vancouver sprawl, Becky’s post-O.D. discharge sends her right back into the reeling world of interrogations, murder investigations, and family turmoil. While keeping Kaitlyn at Becky’s mom’s house is arguably better than allowing the toddler to be placed under her own parent’s care, grandma seems more concerned with giving the knife a little twist in Becky’s heart than actually providing a structured, child-friendly environment. The Violent keeps its characters motivated by their basest, most self-serving incentives, keeping each other at enough of an arm’s length to obfuscate the details that could be turned against them, but near enough to yank each other into their web when an alibi or accomplice is needed.
The characters have snowballed into a fairly heinous mess and their relatable qualities have plummeted to an all-time low. The series started strong to provide a voice for those who have been dehumanized and shoved to the margin, but currently seems to struggle in portraying the various dimensions of people’s personalities that are required for the reader to cultivate empathy — especially when they’re participating in the unspeakable.
7 out of 10
From earlier this week —
James Tynion IV Talks ‘DETECTIVE’, Kate Kane’s Return, And The Importance Of Tim Drake
Line Up Those Michelin Stars: Here Comes ‘SUPER BATTLE LUNCHTIME’ #1
‘3 FLOYDS: ALPHA KING’ #1 Gets Watered Down By Its Own Conceit
REQUIRED READING: ‘WET MOON’ Is A Gorgeous Gothic Nexus Where The Beauteous Do Dance
BOOKS FOR BABES: Explore The Thrill Of Rebellion With ‘JOYRIDE’ #1, ‘JEM’ Remains Cool
Agree? Disagree? What books are YOU reading this week? We want to know! Tell us about those feelings of yours in the comments section below.
