REVIEW: Plutona #4

With a team of Jeff Lemire, Emi Lenox, and Jordie Bellaire, it would hard pressed for Plutona to disappoint anybody. Together this team took the classic tale from Stephen King’s novella The Body, and brought it into the new generation. And just like its predecessor, this fourth issue really digs into the tragedy of childhood. Friendships die, unfortunate romances blossom, and parents have less authority. There was honestly not a single blunder in this issue. Both the art and writing were flawless, almost to the point where it is intimidating for upcoming creators.

Emi and Jodie’s collaboration on this issue was incredible. There were constant moments where Jordie would highlight these vibrant emotional moments from Emi with perfect subtlety. The most notable moment, for me, was with Diane staring after Teddy. Everything in that panel just pulled out those sad blue eyes. And the panel with the flashlight, laying on the ground, shining on Plutona’s body was also fantastic. That retro palette Jodie used, with a lack of screened glow effects, just worked very well with Emi’s night scenes. And with Emi’s perspective, backgrounds, and facial expressions, the two brought this issue to life.

All if this is due, in no small part, to Jeff’s amazing writing. His scripts were so well done, that he could have coasted this entire issue only using the narrative and art. Which is exactly how a comic book is supposed to be written. And when Jeff does use dialogue, it has a purpose. Each moment a character opens their mouth, or their text message, gives the reader another insight to their lives and perspective. He also gives a nice treat at the end of every issue, with Plutona’s story before her death. This is especially great since Jeff does the art himself. The only thing that has worn its welcome, in the series, is Ray. At this point, he is just too redundant.

Either way, though, Jeff’s scripts were outstanding this issue. And the artists, Emi and Jordie, did a great job interpreting them together, as if they were just a single artist, Emordie Bellenox. I recommend this issue to everyone who reads this. It is well worth the money, and time, spent. Plutona #4 definitely deserves 5 out of 5 stars.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

STORY BYÂ Jeff Lemire, Emi Lenox
ART BYÂ Emi Lenox, Jeff Lemire

Author Profile

Dylan Hicks

I just graduated from MSUD with my BAS in Mathematics. I live in a small 1 bedroom apartment with my girlfriend, and our two cats. I work full time for NTIA-ITS as a Computer Scientist. All I really do is engineer mathematical models and write code all day. I took up this second job at Comic Crusaders as a way to become more involved with the comic book community. Since I was a child I have loved comics. I grew up reading Spider-Man, Shi, New Mutants, Spider Woman, and Gen13. As I got older, however, my tastes started to shift from almost exclusively Marvel to various independent labels. Now I read a huge variety of comics: Valiant, Black Mask, Aspen, Avatar, Image, Dynamite, Boom, Aftershock, etc.. If anyone wants to know, my favorite publisher, hands down, is Valiant.
I am also working on writing a few comic books myself. I have about 4 ideas in the fire, but only 1 of them is really getting anywhere; I have 6 of the 10 books finished. In addition to writing, I am also a practicing colorist. If you want to checkout any of my writing samples, or coloring samples, please check out my DeviantArt and let me know what you think.
dirtgrubdylan.deviantart.com.
Some more about me? I love black metal and video games. I usually spend most of my time hanging out with my girlfriend. We have been together for 6 years, so at this point she is basically my best friend. But when I am not with her, I get together with my friends to drink some beer and play some Magic, the Gathering. And, as pretentious as this is, I am also working on starting my own engineering firm. So that involves me reading a lot of textbooks on Mathematics and Computer Science.
So yeah, if you have made it this far thank you very much! I am crazy excited to start my career in writing. Let's see what I can do with this.