[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writer: Joshua Williamson
Artist: Riley Rossmo
Summary
After their adventures full of ninja mummies, cannibalistic zealots, and an old tryst of Luna’s, Val is feeling ready to give up. This assignment was a mistake. Forget chasing the ultimate story, becoming a famous writer, she couldn’t do any of that if she died! Now she simply had to get away from Luna! but she can’t, as they are headed to The Underwater Pleasure Gardens of Womba! Oh, and they still have the head of a man that Luna believes he knows.
Val finds herself in the gardens because Antonio is loosing his memories. He doesn’t have the recall he once did and is fearing that he my loose his story!
Together the duo sneak there way into the pools where Luna can submerge himself into the water and interact with the jellyfish which will help him delve through his memories. As silently as possible they sneak past the guardians of the gate as they will kill him if they find him. The last time he was there he mad a mess in typical Luna style.
Everything goes sideways though when he gets himself among the jellyfish and begins reliving his past one memory at a time.
Positives
With this issue, Val really comes to the center of her story for once. While she is sitting and waiting for Luna to do everything she has a moment. She thinks, why am I here? Why do I want to just watching this man’s life and write his story? As things get worse and worse for Luna, Val literally jumps into action! At the same time, Luna is going through a further decline with his memory and his life.
The reversal of focus in these characters in welcome and breaths a breath of fresh air into Deathbed just before it begins to feel stale.
Negatives
Throughout the issue there are issues with Luna’s illustration. His pants magically become shorts and then back to pants and back again. He also appears to grow a beard half way through a fight. It is a weird issue have in the issue as it stands out quite a lot!
Verdict
Deathbed #4 gives both Val and Luna a good, long, hard look at themselves with the opportunity to change things. You should give this book a good read today!
