REVIEW: Dedication #5

After spotting Dee user her powers last issue, Arnie and his armed mob of followers head over to George’s to get answers, only to be intercepted by George himself. George allows Arnie access to the roof of his store to investigate things in exchange for assistance from his crew. While out hanging business signs with George, He begins to explain to the group how he played the stock market, capitalizing on the recent events, and created a profitable situation that allows him to buy up the properties in town. How this adds anything to the story I’m not sure, but the creative team spends considerable effort letting the readers know just how much wealthy George is. Also, considering what is supposed to be going on currently in this story, the logic behind George’s overnight fortune doesn’t make sense. Elsewhere, Arnold investigates what’s happening on the roof of George’s store and finds his newly powered employees gardening. After a failed round of questioning from Arnie and the occupants of the roof briefly displaying their powers, the issue ends with a very weak cliffhanger.

Reading this, you may think to yourself there has to be more, but sadly there is not. A large amount of this issue is dedicated to advertisement pages. I know a company has to pay the bills to keep the books coming out but it really kills the vibe for a reader to keep running into non-story related content. While there is room for improvement, Juan Frigeri’s art is good enough bring the story to life for readers. It’s the story itself that is the problem here. Not only is the issue lacking any type of action or excitement, I found myself unable to justify what this issue added to the overall story other than to highlight the character George is rich. There is a lot of unnecessary dialogue in issue #5 that really serves no purpose.

FINAL VERDICT: Dedication #5 has the feel of a “filler” issue in the middle of a long-published series, but it’s only the fifth issue of a new series and when you’re trying to bring in new readers, there’s no time to waste on unnecessary dialogue and plot points. The shared universe approach Double Take has deployed is intriguing, but the creative team of Dedication #5 needs to take this book back to square one and reevaluate what it is they are trying to get across in their issues.

[yasr_overall_rating]

Story: Bill Jemas
Art: Juan Frigeri
Publisher: Double Take