Dark Blood #4

Dark Blood #4

BOOM! Studios 2021

Written by LaToya Morgan

Illustrated by Moisés Hidalgo

Coloured by A.H.G.

Lettered by Andworld Design

Can Avery clear his name and find out what's really happening to him? On the run, Avery must elude the cops for the accidental death that he's sure to be blamed for. William, Avery's brother, tries to convince him to explain that it wasn't his fault, but Avery is sceptical the authorities will believe a Black man... and terrified at the possible truth behind the incident.

The deeper we get into this story the more I feel for him. He goes off fighting in the big war and has to come home to racism and such while he’s being experimented on by one his doctors. Avery just isn’t having any kind of luck that isn’t bad and it gives him this whole Underdog feeling that we love rooting for. Also I love that Avery is trying to protect his family by not going back to the house but shouldn’t he be leaving that up to her. I mean she has a much right to say come or stay away as he does, regardless, Avery is a good man and we have seen this throughout the first four issues and I doubt that my opinion of him will waiver.

I love how LaToya is telling this story. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceedingly well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interactions as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter. I do find it fascinating that Avery is such a gentle soul but watch out because now he’s a monster when he gets angry! The pacing here is amazing and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story we really are getting a mighty fine look at the man Avery was, has become and is becoming.

I greatly appreciate the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. How we see the layers open up new avenues to be explored, whether in the past or the present, and how they add such great depth, dimension and complexity to the story is marvellously rendered. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is impeccably achieved.

The interiors here are really rather quite stunning. I mean I'm sorry but pages two and three sum up everything I love about what we see here. The linework is phenomenal and how the varying weights and techniques are being utilised to create all this wonderful detail we see within the work is extraordinary. There is some great use of backgrounds throughout the book and they enhance and expand the moments perfectly. They also work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is achieved excellently.

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This is a really provocative, poignant and powerful story that isn’t pulling its punches when it comes to how Avery has been treated his entire life. With such intelligent writing and characterisation wrapped up in these expressive interiors is taking us on that roller coaster called life. Avery’s life that is and there’s so much more going on than we’re privy to and I for one like that we learn alongside the characters instead of knowing ahead of time.