Everfrost #4

Everfrost #4

Black Mask Studios 2021

Written by Ryan K. Lindsay

Illustrated by Sami Kivelä

Coloured by Lauren Affe

Lettered by Jim Campbell

The climactic conclusion as Ryan K Lindsay, Sami Kivela, Lauren Affe, and Jim Campbell melt your brain in the finest Black Mask tradition!

Climactic conclusion is definitely an understatement. Van has been on a mission since issue one and here we see her reaching the pinnacle of that search. This has been one oddball event after another and I really have to say that this engages the reader in ways that are both incredibly interesting and bordering on the absurd. I mean are there any real people left on this planet or have they all been replaced by robotic duplica’s of them? The man whom Van fathered a child with, whom she also killed, isn’t dead and he isn’t human and it just boggles the mind and imagination as the reader frantically tries to make logical sense of everything we see. This is the best kind of storytelling though because while the reader is fully engaged and invested in this we’re absolutely thrilled by what we see as well.

I am a huge fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter really does bring their personalities to the forefront. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story the more we begin to see the full scope of the story itself. When we see things happen towards the end of the issue it really does bring things into focus in some strong ways.

I am really impressed with how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. That we see these layers continue to open up new avenues which add these great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. It is really impressive to see these open up and be explored. The way that we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved exceptionally well.

The interiors here are pretty amazing to me. The creativity and imagination that’s on display is utterly phenomenal and seeing that Eight is really being utilised to its fullest is really sensational. The linework we see is strong, clean and crisp plus with its varying weights and techniques we see being utilised to create the detail within the work we’re seeing is really sharp. How we see the composition within the panels bringing out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is fantastic. I wish we’d have seen more backgrounds but what we do see really enhances and expands the moments. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a sensational eye for how colour works.

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This is a fantastic one and done arc, there’s really nothing left of the story to come back and revisit at a later date. It has been a while since we’ve seen a story of this scope being told in four issues that’s as complete as we see this one being done. The story is incredibly well written with such great characterisation and these utterly strong interiors that made this a science fiction story to remember.