Advance Review: Fernando Blanco’s Artwork Dazzles In ‘W0rldtr33’ #4

Fernando Blanco was asked to do the nearly impossible: To illustrate a woman’s mental recovery after viewing imagery from a malicious online source. And inexplicably, he manages to pull it off in a masterful way.

Earlier in the series, Fausta viewed the undernet, the other side of the internet that, when viewed, warps people’s minds and turns them into killers. To return her to sanity, a group of hackers uses other computer imagery to shock her senses out of processing what she saw the undernet.

Over the series of just a few pages, Blanco juxtaposes images of children and butterflies and sunflowers with disturbing naked monstrosities choking her and entering her body from every orifice. It’s a scene right out of A Clockwork Orange, down to forcing the subject’s eyes open. The mind-blowing sequence culminates in a horrifically stunning double-page spread that will keep readers’ eyes glued to it quite a while. (Extra credit goes to Jordie Bellaire, whose colors help to bring the sequence to life.)

That master class in storytelling through illustration elevates and even overshadows some of the developments in a critical issue in the young life of this limited series. A main character (or two) is killed and writer James Tynion IV drops a twist at the end, which is so massive, it has the potential to move the series in a different direction.

While his trademark horror series, Something is Killing the Children, is stuck in neutral, Tynion has found his mojo in this story. He has a vivid imagination and a knack for storytelling. He moves the plot along, giving time for character development as well as plenty of action.

Publisher Image Comics promises yet another massive twist at the end of next issue conclusion of this initial story arc. If it’s anything like what readers have in story for the current chapter, it could be one of the most talked about comic events of the year.

W0rldtr33 #4 will be available for purchase on July 26, 2023.