Titan Comics Review: Horizon: Zero Dawn #4
[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writer:Â Anne Toole
Artist:Â Ann Maulina
Colorist:Â Bryan Valenza
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Reviewer:Â Tony Farina
Summary
Amadis and Talanah run, jump, fight and then they share a private moment under water as chaos reigns down around them.
Positives
Horizon: Zero Dawn #4 is beautiful. I love the art. Ann Maulina is the MVP of this issue and the first ARC. There is a lot of running, jumping, swimming and shooting. That is not an easy task. The story calls for it. Maulina captures the energy of this story. It is based on video game and taking a form of art that must move and translating that into an art form that is static is no easy task.
I think the thing that really shines is the face work. We never wonder what is on the mind of the characters. It is often subtle, but because her work demands that we spend time with it, we catch the detailed work. This is on full display in the image just above this. You know what he is thinking and you don’t even need to read the book to catch on. That is skill.
Negatives
Horizon: Zero Dawn #4 falls apart a bit. The art, as already mentioned, carries this story. The ending is problematic. This is a book about strong women. I am not suggesting that strong women do not want to have relationships, but this ending seemed to be geared for teenagers who can’t handle a story without a love story. Guess what, when running for your life, you don’t feel like you want to fool around with the person on the other side of the cave no matter how sexy you find that person.
Verdict
Horizon: Zero Dawn #4 was flat. Each issue drifted a bit more. It seems as though this is supposed to be just doing some world building and character development but it just did the opposite. This seemed a lot more claustrophobic. Readers do not always need a love story and this is where this feels like it is going.
