Ragman #4 Review and **SPOILERS**

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Pull the Strings

Writer: Ray Fawkes 

Artist: Inaki Miranda 

Colorist: Eva de la Cruz 

Letterer: Josh Reed 

Cover: Guillem March & Rain Beredo 

Cover Price: $2.99 

On Sale Date: January 10, 2018

**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**

Wow, are we already four issue in on this six-issue miniseries? I would have expected to have a lot more to say in an introduction by this point. And the fourth issue is usually the dud in these sorts of affairs…well, let’s not put the pessimistic cart before our miserable horse, proceed on to my review of Ragman #4 and find out if my misgivings are warranted! Which you know they are. I mean, come on.

Explain It!

I love comics. You know what I love about comics? They get to the damn point. No need to spend Stephen King-length copy on describing the shabbiness of some serial killer’s crap shack, in comics you can just show said shabby crap shack. Comics are a great learning tool, can be terrifically cinematic, they work in any genre and are the reason that superheroes exist. But really, it comes down to the fact that they can show rather than tell. So when I opened this issue to find out that Ragman had been taught the finer points of ragging in between issues, and he’s been sucking up souls from wayward demons willy-nilly—despite the reservations of his dead squad that are constantly nagging Rory—well, I was pretty annoyed. I mean, I would have liked to see that, instead of spent two issues of Rory fighting random demons without much actual story.

When Etrigan trains Rory to use his rag tentacles to seek out Fanshawe and his evil minions, it turns out they’re zeroing in on his old army buddy Frank’s house, where his wife and kid are sleeping soundly! With Frank’s ghost yammering in his brain, Ragman takes off to intercept the Thugs of Satan, but at Frank’s pad he finds a web of rags, strewn through…some people…not sure who they are, but they’re not Frank Jr. or Frank’s wife Mandy. The Thugs start clobbering on Rory, but then Etrigan says a poem and Rory lets loose a rag blast that slices the bad dudes into ribbons. He makes his way to Mandy and asks about Frank Jr.—only to find that he’s newly-possessed! Or something!

I like the gore. I like the look of this series. Heck, I even like Ragman and his newly-emerging bandage abilities. But this thing is just crawling along at such a slow pace with too many superfluous issues. This is not a story for a six-issue miniseries, this is one for two issues within an existing Ragman series. Which, after this thing, is more unlikely to happen than ever.

Bits and Pieces:

We see some of Ragman's cool new powers, otherwise this miniseries continues to crawl along, stretching a couple of issues worth of story out to six. Might make for a nice trade collection, when it's all done. It's certainly compelling from a visual standpoint.

3.5/10