Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Outcast #4
Image Comics
Kirkman & Azaceta
The fourth issue of Outcast begins to bring together the strands from the previous two issues as more of the origin story is revealed and some of the overall plot is moved forward. However, this comic continues to tease events rather than bringing the goods to the issue at hand as was done in the first issue. When an issue inches a plot forward, such as the case with this one, it becomes paramount that the characters carry the comic book. Unfortunately the lead character is probably the least interesting among the cast, which makes this read more of a necessary evil to getting the comic book to a spot where the cool stuff can happen. A decent read but nothing as special as the first issue.
Kyle has some conversations with the detective that shows up at his door. Eventually Kyle makes his way over to the Reverend to discuss the conversation with the investigator. In order to get some of the Reverend's time, he follows him along on a couple of meal drops. One of which we learn of another exorcism survivor. Finally, the Reverend and Kyle talk things over with the investigator and they decide to visit yet another candidate that seems to be possessed.
The book seems to spend a lot of its pages moving pieces into place. While this might seem necessary it makes for a tough read. It's clear Kyle is wishy-washy about the whole exorcism piece and the Reverend is the one pushing things forward as needed, but this feels too slow.
In between the scenes with Kyle and the Reverend we get two pages of the cop that beat up the other guy from the previous issue. With no introduction and nothing to remind the reader as to what this scene is all about it feels awfully misplaced in this Kyle-Reverend heavy issue.
The artwork struggles to bring any life to the characters. They are almost all virtually expressionless. The scene between the cop and his wife is particularly flat. There are three panels where the woman is looking up at an angle with her giant coffee cup in her hand in the forefront. She looks lifeless and unchanged no matter what the dialogue is for the given panel. The book is depressing and the artwork takes that in perfectly, but the book can't always be so stiff and that's where we are heading in this issue.
Outcast is slowing down too much for my tastes. If you like horror and slow burn stories then you should be good to go with this and every issue. However, I think the characters don't feel very unique or interesting and that could be a problem no matter how much you like the genre and storytelling techniques used. A good read as part of an arc but a little too slow for a single, solitary read.
3 out of 5 Geek Goggles
