[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writer: Cecil Castellucci
Artist: Adriana Melo
Colors: Hi-Fi
Letters: Sal Cipriano
Summary
Granny Goodness is up to no good as she tries to get the Beautiful Dreamer to infiltrate the minds of the Furies so she can manipulate them. She is especially interested in some hard-core mind control of Aurelie. What Granny doesn’t realize is that the Beautiful Dreamer is actually not really on her side. She and Aurelie get away with HImon and well, things go crazy from there.
Scott Free finally has something to do. He turns traitor and then, of course, he escapes. That isn’t even a spoiler it is just what he does.
Then…there is that ending and I simply refuse to spoil that.
Positives
I have to say that Cecil Castellucci keeps the hits coming. I mean literally. This story is full of action and gut punches. The story is just relentless and I just feel mentally wiped after reading it. I know that might sound bad, but it isn’t. She keeps the balance between Fourth World Superhero world and real world so perfectly. You can never really feel like you are in one place or the other, but she never makes either thing feel cheap. One thing I have not spent enough time on during my reviews has been Castellucci’s use of dialogue. It is super clever. Once Scott Free is brought into this book, there is a lot of word play for the fans. Bravo!
Maybe the reason I have not spent enough time giving the props to Castellucci is because Adriana Melo is just so utterly fantastic. There is a page in this book when Granny has to go see Darkseid and Melo does almost a full page of him on his throne and that look on his face, the action going on around him, the back shot of Granny coming into the room is all nothing short of cinematic. Seriously, I am not sure how Ava DuVernay is going to story board her New Gods movie, but I will be really upset if she doesn’t replicate this shot. It is simply amazing.
I could go on and on about some of the other pages, but why bother. Just feast your eyes.
Negatives
Seriously, nothing to see here. This book is beautiful, powerful and a must read.
Verdict
Once you are done reading this, you will build a time machine so you can move ahead until next month. I cant believe this is already half over. DC, if you are reading this, please make sure you give Cecil and Adriana more to do with these characters once this run is over. Please. Pretty please.