Dead Man Logan #4 // Review
Logan gets a surprising ally in his quest to keep his future from happening before his time runs out in Dead Man Logan #4, by writer Ed Brisson, artist Mike Henderson, colorist Nolan Woodard, and letterer Cory Petit. After the action extravaganza that was the last issue, this one slows things down and builds the plot a little more.
As Logan heals in one of Forge's secret laboratories, Hawkeye gets a visitor- Mysterio. Mysterio has discovered that Miss Sinister and Neo-Hydra plan on killing him when they're done with him and asks Hawkeye for help. Hawkeye says they should ask Logan and the two of them set off to find him. Meanwhile, the forces of Neo-Hydra begin their hunt for Mysterio, first going to the insane asylum Miss Sinister found him in. Hawkeye and Mysterio find Logan and after a brief scuffle, Logan agrees to let Mysterio help take down Neo-Hydra.
One of the best parts about this book is the way Brisson keeps subverting what reader's expectations of what this story would be. It isn't a hunt for Mysterio as Miss Sinister and Neo-Hydra work to unite the villains and bring about Logan's terrible future; it's something much more interesting. Mysterio asking to help Logan is a definite subversion of the reader's expectations and it works extremely well with the way Brisson has been writing Mysterio. Mysterio in this book isn't a criminal mastermind or a cocky villain, he's a bit of a mess but he doesn't want to die and he's tired of being used.
Brisson keeps playing with the relationship between Neo-Hydra and Miss Sinister, which is adversarially beneficial. They're working together, but Miss Sinister definitely has her own agenda and isn't afraid to throw her weight around against the non-superpowered forces of Neo-Hydra. On the heroes side, Logan's healing factor has gotten worse, halving the time he has to live, driving him even harder to make sure his timeline doesn't become the prime one. These aren't new developments in the book, but Brisson is using them to build toward something and it will be great to see where he goes with the whole thing.
This issue is more quiet than the last few, but Mike Henderson's pencils are still amazing. This issue, instead of his skills at action pencilling being on display, he gets a chance to show off his character acting skills. The characters’ expressions sell what's happening on the page perfectly. Henderson is an extremely talented artist and hopefully after this he'll get more high profile work.
Dead Man Logan #4 keeps up the high quality that this book has had since the first issue. Brisson is crafting a wonderful story, one that keeps surprising readers. Henderson's art works perfectly with Brisson's script. This issue adds another wrinkle to the plot and the possibilities of what will happen next are nearly impossible to guess. So many things can happen with all of the ingredients that Brisson and company are mixing up in this book that anything is possible and that's rare in today's comic industry.
