REVIEW: GRIM #17

Troubled Childhood

Our Lead, Edward, is a high-steaks rockstar with a sad childhood. While he lived in an idealized American home in New Jersey in the 1970s, his Father was a different story. Ed’s Father was cruel and uncompromising on anything he considered unmasculine, like his son wearing makeup. There’s a powerful scene setting up the dymanic between Ed and his Father where after seeing him in makeup, his Father asks if he’s gay and when he says no, he tells him to remove it; after not complying, his Father beats him brutally. This would be a running theme when later we get another flashback where Ed returns home late from band practice, and his Father is telling him to give up music and contribute to the family; when he protests, his Father belts him another one.

Their relationship dymanic never changes, with Ed being compliant to his Father’s demands well into adulthood, even after he’s rich and famous. Only this time, instead of using physical force to manipulate his son, he’s resorting to guilt-tripping him into paying his bills because he clothed and fed him as a child.

Die Like A Rockstar

Ed, like most Rockstars, parties hard and also uses it as a crutch to deal with his pain and problems: drug overdoses, relationships collapsing and the previously mentioned childhood truma. While Ed parties to hide his pain rather than confronting it, his bandmates deal in healthier methods like seeking help through therapy. This leads to a fracture in the band when his long-time friend informs him he can’t go through watching him overdose again, and tensions tighten when he finds out Ed was planning on going solo and wouldn’t tell him.

Ed not only loses a band member but also his Father as we discover his unfulfillment as an artist is the least of his problems when his relationships with everybody from every corner of his life start falling apart. Grim #17 lacks the staying power it needs to be a weekly floppy as this entry has failed to catch my eyes, and I’d recommend readers to check out Grim once it’s collected into a single volume for the full story and a more enthralling experience. While the action is lacking and the interpersonal drama is the path of the course for this type of story, the art and moment-to-moment dialogue carry this issue, helping frame formative moments in the lead’s life, adding weight to his journey to stardom and the odd supernatural aspects. We aren’t given enough time to allow Ed’s story to really sink in, bouncing from one problem to another with his father dying off far too quickly to allow for this situation to affect the story in any meaningful way.

“Grim # 17 has some nice art and solid dialogue, but it doesn’t save this issue from pacing problems.”

FINAL SCORE
2/5 STARS

WRITER: Stephanie Phillips
ARTIST: Flaviano
COLORS: Rico Renzi