Exorsisters #4 is published by Image Comics and written by Ian Boothby with art by Gisèle Lagacé, colors by Pete Pantazis, and letters by Taylor Esposito. The comic features a story involving deals with devils, angels who have fallen from heaven, an odd amount of people without any shadows, and a lot of paranormal detective work.
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What starts as a midnight search through the back alleys around their office leads main characters Kate and Cate into one strange encounter after another as the story twists and turns into something completely different from what I initially expected. Generally, it is a fun experience for me when I’m surprised by the path storytelling takes and while I did enjoy it here as well, the overall goofiness of the story never quite hit home for me.
As we follow the story to its cliffhanger conclusion we are assailed by many attempts at humor which didn’t work for me. Nothing here is groan-worthy, or what I’d call bad, just ended up not sticking the landing as I read through the pages. As I feel a solid portion of the books appeal is intended to be its humor, this was a rough spot for me as a reader to be in. Despite that though the story was still interesting and I would like to see more of these characters as there certainly feels like there is a lot to learn about them.
The two protagonists were a solid mix of personalities that Boothby was able to have them playing off each other well. Their interactions felt very natural and like two people who know each other well. The familial bond is shown very well. With the oddities of each often annoying, but never surprising the other. This feeling of familiarity with each other helped reinforce why, despite some less than confidence-inducing behavior, they each never seemed worried about the other. They know each other and know the other won’t let them down in the pinch.
The art is a wonderful compliment to the book, matching its tone perfectly and helping to ground the story’s more offbeat elements with a style that grants the characters a feeling of normalcy in a very abnormal setting. Nice big panels give an uncluttered view of all that transpires. I really liked how differently a flashback sequence is approached, giving it a very different feel as it is paneled in a unique way when compared to the rest of the book and even has a different page color to add to the effect.
When all is said and done the book told an interesting story, introduced me to quirky characters that had me wanting to find out what was going on, despite it failing to hit home on its humor. I think there is a lot of potential in this book and if an oddball supernatural detective story sounds like something up your alley it is definitely worth taking a look at. As humor is one of the most subjective areas of art it may be just what you are looking for.
Exorsisters #4 is available now in comic book stores everywhere
Exorsisters #4
TL;DR
When all is said and done the book told an interesting story, introduced me to quirky characters that had me wanting to find out what was going on, despite it failing to hit home on its humor. I think there is a lot of potential in this book and if an oddball supernatural detective story sounds like something up your alley it is definitely worth taking a look at. As humor is one of the most subjective areas of art it may be just what you are looking for.
