Ambition is a Bitch
Writer: Cecil Castellucci
Illustrator: Adriana Melo
Colors: Hi-Fi
Letters: Sal Cipriano
Cover: Walt Simonson & Paul Mounts
Associate Editor: Brittany Holzherr & Harvey Richards
Editor: Jamie S. Rich
Cover Price: $3.99
On Sale Date: May 1, 2019
**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**
Do you think Granny Goodness could be a Golden Girl? Like, she’s torturing the Furies and hardening them for battle against New Genesis, but on weekends is just her and the girls and bottles of wine. And laughter. Oh, the laughter! A gal’s gotta have time like that to unwind. Let’s see if Granny gets any downtime in Female Furies #4, which I have reviewed, right here!
Explain It!
This here’s the issue where Big Barda helps Scott Free escape to Apokolips and make his way to Earth. We now know that this, having breached the agreement between Darkseid and Highfather, led to the war between Apokolips and New Genesis starting anew. But what we didn’t know was that this was all pre-planned by Granny Goodness and Darkseid—that Scott Free was meant to escape and be used as a scape goat for an assault on New Genesis. Scott fled too early, however, and Granny Goodness hadn’t even gotten her ducks in a row. Which I guess means that the Female Furies weren’t at their full ass-kicking ability.
Some guards manhandle Barda or something, and she wants to lodge an official complaint or something, but she needs to get it signed off by a man, I guess? She goes around asking men to help, but of course they are less than willing. And I’m like: what the fuck am I reading? A comic about Apokoliptan bureaucracy? How could a comic book about the Female fucking Furies be so boring? There’s lots of allusions to the way women are marginalized in the workplace, by men and other ambitious women, but this comes off as the preachy side-effect to an otherwise dull story.
And I don’t know what it is, but this is the second time I’ve noticed Adriano Melo’s artwork take a nosedive halfway through a six-issue miniseries. I don’t know if more changes were requested as this thing went along, or if they just have trouble remaining consistent over a long haul. Some of the panels in this thing look half-finished. Which would be a problem if they didn’t depict people standing around and talking most of the time. This issue might make a decent sleep aid.
Bits and Pieces:
The gripping story of professional sexual harassment against the backdrop of Apokolips and the Female Furies has become the boring story of professional sexual harassment. Why the effort to make this an illustrated and colored comic book was made is beyond me.
4/10
I really can't get over how poorly written this is. Characters speak plot points (or, worse, thematic points) to each other in a curiously stilted manner. And the thematic concerns are so prominent that they make the book read like a political tract. (Like maybe if Chick had been a feminist back in the day.) It's pretty terrible, really.
ReplyDeleteNice art, though. But there's no charm, wit, excitement or drama.