Underwinter #4 Review

What's Under There?

Written by: Ray Fawkes
Art by: Ray Fawkes
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: June 28, 2017


I have found the bane of my existence and its name is Underwinter. I have made this series my cross to bear regardless of how much I’ve disliked it. I just keep waiting for something to click that suddenly make me look at it differently, for it to have some kind of effect on me. We left off from the last issue with the group starting to be more outwardly effected by the creature they play for, will this issue show those effects take a more meaningful turn? Will we learn more about the characters to make us actually care? I really hope so. Find out, along with me, after the jump.

Just like every issue we start off after a bit of time since the group’s previous concert at the mansion. We see each character in their different situations as they continue to fall apart in different ways. We get the impression that their effect are now spreading and infecting those around them, which I believe to be signifying how addictions and problems don’t only hurt the sole person but also effects the ones around them. In the same issue that one of the characters talks about how their playing of music is an addiction. We get some lore or background that has mostly been insinuated up to this point but is basically said out right by this issue when the caretaker shares some details with one of the artists, The one who actually peeked out of their blindfold in the first issue. Eventually the issue ends in just the group going back to playing. The exact same way every issue seems to end. We get some glimpses of the group in their regular life, we get them coming together and going to the concert, then we get them playing and it ends. With the circumstances and details changing a bit here and there, there just isn’t much difference between each issue.

Let me stress this plainly: I GET this book. It’s not an issue of ‘not understanding’ it, or it being too visceral to really review because it should be an emotional response. I get what this book is trying to do, I just don’t think it does it very effectively, or what it does do it just repeats adnausiam with nothing really changing issue to issue. We’re four issues into this story and all we really have gotten is the main characters, who I can’t even name, decaying or slowly falling apart in different ways. We still have no real idea of what this is working toward, if anything. The decay and the rotting of the characters we really can’t even sympathize with because what little we got of these characters, before it started happening, was just terrible.

So to conclude, the book is repetitive, ineffective, lacking in characterization, lacking in actual plot, and on top of it; it comes with art that reminds me of a deranged middle schooler’s finger painting project. I feel this book does nothing effective. Each issue is basically the same with varying degrees of effects on each character changing, but ultimately you will get to the end of the issue knowing nothing more and wondering what you should even expect from the next issue. I keep waiting for something to happen.

Bits and Pieces:

Did you read the last three issues? This issue really isn’t much different. Repetitive, ineffective, and messy all in the guise of being surreal or visceral in which it fails on every front.

2/10