"Grim Leaper #4"
by: Kurtis Wiebe & Aluisio C. Santos
Okay, if you've been
following this mini-series like I have, you've probably been waiting for a
pretty big payoff to what has in the previous three issues been shrouded behind
a love story. Hey, the love story is great. Lou and Ella are a cool couple
adapting to an extremely weird situation. I mean, if you died and wound up
getting resurrected over and over again, each time suffering a horrifically
violent death only to wind up sucked into the body of another random person,
wouldn't you flip out just a little bit? I thought so.
What has been gnawing at
me for the entirety of this series is not the relationship between Lou and
Ella, but the nature of their circumstances. Each time Lou died, he wakes up in
an ethereal corridor with portraits on the wall of each person he's been
resurrected into. From there, the portrait of the next poor soul he's due to
inhabit swallows him up, and he wakes up inside that person's body--and
projectile vomits like it's an Olympic event and their measuring for distance.
Why is this happening?
As best I can tell, it's
so Lou and Ella can fall in love. That's it.
If that's the case, that
was a letdown of an ending for me. Oh, the overall love story and redemptive
aspect of Lou's character are great, but by the end of this final issue the
whole thing felt like that season of Dallas
where Victoria Principle wakes up and finds Patrick Duffy in the shower. It
was all a dream, none of it mattered, now f--k off and live happily ever after.
And the whole jump into Ella's point of view came out of nowhere, as the
backstory reveals the two actually met on the night Lou died.
I'd say this four-part
series really needs to be read in one big go, like when there's a trade version
or if you have all four issues in hand and at the ready. Because, waiting weeks
at a time between each issue could lead to disappointment from anticipating
things you've set up in your own mind. Wiebe and Santos have a really
interesting story here with two very likable characters, but the supernatural
aspects of their relationship needed a more drawing out for my liking.
3.5 out of 5 stars
Guest Reviewer: Gef Fox
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