Eat The Rich #5
Joey's problems come to a head in Eat The Rich #5, by Sarah Gailey, artist Pius Bak, colorist Roman Titov, letterer Cardinal Rae. This is a good comic structurally, but the book's metaphor gets away from it, and the ending feels a bit too mega-happy.
The entire crux of this issue is Joey making a choice based on the events of last issue. Astor outlines the consequences- either she can marry him and everything will be alright or not. Joey makes her choice, and the ending goes from there.
Okay, so this is a weird issue. Gailey does a great job throughout, and there's a sense of chilling momentum to the whole thing. At one point, they remind readers about the book's central metaphor by revealing that the rich around the world do what the Crestfall Bluffs do and that they have an entire network built up to keep them fed. It's also revealed that even the help are forced to eat to bond them ever closer to the people they work for. The metaphor is how the rich actually treat the poor in the real world and how some of the poor sell out their side for a spot at the table. The issue keeps up the atmosphere that has made this book so good, which is why the way the book ends is so weird.
There will be spoilers from this point on, so SPOILER ALERT.
So, Joey and Petal end up killing and eating Astor and then leading a revolt against Crestfall Bluffs' rich. It's a happy ending and a bit of a hopeful one for a book about how the rich treat the poor. That's the problem. This is a horror book that's lived and died by its atmospherics; for it to abandon that tone to give the whole happy ending is disquieting. It's not a bad ending; it just doesn't feel like it follows what has come before. Maybe it has more to do with this reviewer's cynicism about the world. The fact that the rich always win and the poor never actually work together makes the ending feel weird. Even though the book telegraphed the ending with its title, it's not a bad ending; it just feels bizarre for this story to close on a positive note.
Bak and Titov's art is fabulous, but there's nothing new about that. Everything looks fantastic, and for this entire book, they've been an amazing art team. There are so many great panels and pages throughout that it's hard to pick one. They definitely bring the whole thing to life, and it works for the book.
Eat The Rich #5 nails the ending unless the reader is a cynic. Gailey has done a fabulous job with the horror throughout this book, and the ending has a nice hopeful tinge to it. It's up to the reader whether the conclusion works for them, but that doesn't mean it's not good. It's very well done. The art is phenomenal, so it looks amazing no matter how the reader feels about the ending. Eat The Rich has been a great book, and this ending works.
