Review: ‘No/One’ #4 Takes Family Drama To The Next Level
by Tom Smithyman
Overview
Family stuggles and issues of a pre-emptive defense against doxxing dominate this chapter, making it a thinking person’s comic book. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though it does cut down on the action, at least for now.
Overall
8/10In anything is certain in No/One, it’s that families are complicated.
In the latest issue, newspaper reporter and new podcaster Julia Paige is verbally brutalized on television by a more senior journalist – who just happens to be her mom. Mommie Dearest goes on the series’ equivalent of Fox News to decry her daughter’s reporting and publicly humiliated Julia for not pushing enough during her interviews around a sensation serial killer case.
Still, that’s nothing compared to Ben Kern’s domestic situation. The retired police commander’s son has admitted to being the OG serial killer, though a copycat murder casts significant doubt on that confession. Kern’s other son was killed by copycat. Jailed son James isn’t exactly a big fan of dad’s these days as Ben tries to pump his only living offspring for information about the case.
It’s enough to make you think that writers Brian Buccellato and Kyle Higgins have some real familial strife. But whatever their home lives, the pair are having a pretty good run with this series. If there is a downside, the scripts are relationship-dependent, so forgetting who is who from month to month can leave some readers struggling to remember all the finer details.
Another issue is that the series is tackling a number of complicated issues. At first, it touched on the evolving role of the media and the pressure that newspapers are under to attract readers in an era of instant gratification. In this chapter, a senator introduces a pre-emptive self-defense act for social media terrorism and doxxing. Still, if the biggest writing complaint is that a series is too grown up and complicated, the creative team must be doing something right.
Artist Gerado Borges continues to impress in this fourth issue. That despite not having much action to focus on for most of the book. Still, his facial expressions and choice of angles convey exactly what the characters are thinking. And he does have an opportunity to show off some action at the end as the vigilante No/One confronts the killer.
No/One #4 is currently available for purchase at your local shop.
