Advance Review: It’s Bombshell After Bombshell In ‘W0rldtr33’ #5
by Tom Smithyman
Overview
One of the secrets to good storytelling is knowing when to switch things up. This creative team pulls that off in this issue – along with plenty of surprises and great art that will keep readers coming back for more.
Overall
9.5/10What a way to conclude an initial storytelling arc!
W0rldtr33 #5 kicks off with a time jump to 2049 featuring a world straight out of The Terminator. Ellison Lane is on the run from a pack of PH34R drones. Civilization looks to be mostly destroyed and the only buildings that aren’t crumbling have a pretty sinister look to them.
That post-apocalyptic scene is not the future most readers will be expecting. Though after the bombshell from the last issue – that PH34R is actually Gabriel’s sister – perhaps they should expect anything and everything. And everything is pretty much what this creative team throws at you in this final issue in the first arc.
At PH34R unleashes the deadly undernet on the real word, readers are subjected to plenty of violence, sex, death, nudity, drama, technology, mystery and a whole lot more. What’s really impressive is how artist Fernando Blanco is able to cram so much into just a few pages. Blanco pulls off two back-to-back 12-panel pages showing the magnitude of death and destruction occurring around the world – and broadcast over social media. There are stabbings, gougings, drownings, macheteings and immolations galore – each given their own tone thanks to colorist Jordie Bellaire. Honestly, violence never looked so good.
Credit to writer James Tynion IV for not being afraid to disrupt his story so early into its run. It would be understandable for him to stick with a more slowly developing tale and milk it for all he can (as he’s doing in Something is Killing the Children). But with this issue, he turns the whole story on his head – and the narrative is stronger for it.
It will be interesting to see where Tynion and Blanco take the story from here. Will they devote equal time to 2024 and 2049 in each issue or keep things in the present while using the dystopian future as bookends? Or perhaps they will surprise us once again with something completely unexpected.
W0rldtr33 #5 will be available for purchase tomorrow.
