Space Ghost #4 // Review
The crystalline beings and the space sharks of Planet Liquo are on the precipice of potential peace. They’ve been in an awful conflict for a very, very long time. Now they find themselves quite nearly ready to lay down arms. It’s a tenuous time. If anything happens at the summet between the leaders of the two great civilizations, it could mean intergalactic war. Thankfully, there’s a very capable hero overlooking the proceedings who is very capable of. dealing with any potential threat in Space Ghost #4. Writer David Pepose crafts an engaging story with artist Jonathan Lau and colorist Andrew Dalhouse.
Given the tensions involved, it’s inevitable that there’s going to be SOME kind of conflict that breaks-out. Jace spots a sniper in the north tower. He, Jan and Space Ghost scramble to engage the hostile shooter. They ight be able to move efficiently, but that doesn’t mean that htere isn’t going to be a very real threat as Space Ghost mnages to narrowly protect the two leaders from a totally devastating blast that would have otherwise vaporized both of them. With the immediate threat out of the way, the real work of binging-in the shooter is about to begin.
The cental conflict of the issue quickly becomes a conflcit between the two opposing races that have been at war with each other forever. While the conflict itself is faar from compelling, Pepose’s framing of it IS a lot of fun. It’s fun to see the heroes placed directly between two different races who are bent on totally annihilating each other. The heroes (who are totally outnumbered and overpowered) are squaring-off against a couple of nations that are ready to totally destroy each other. It’s a kind of selflessness that rarely gets framed as cleverly as Pepose is managing here.
The full force of the power of what’s being unleashed betwen the two races could be brought to the page with a bit more intensity than Lau and Dalhouse are rendering for this issue. THe overall layout and panel composition of the issue DOES hold quite a bit of power, but there’s something abot the execution that feels a bit too murky to have the kind of impact that it might with slight ly more vivid colors and slightly cleaner lines. It’s a remarkably sharp presentation over all, but a tighter execution of the art wold have amplified Papose’s script beatutifully if it had just been done with a bit more impact.
Overall, Pepose continues to give Space Ghost an impressive stature that makes him feel like an admirable rough-and-tumble superhero. The selflessness of the character feels remarkably well-rendered for the page as he and his allies try to stop a couple of different races from totally destroying each other. This is pretty refreshing. All too often good-vs-evil dynamics in space fantasy require that the heroes be good guys defending against evil..not heroic peacemakers who are trying to keep two warring factions of war-ike races from totally destroying each other. It’s a fun skewing of traditional space fantasy conflict.
