A hidden extraterrestrial searches for meaning in a challenging world as he struggles to come to terms with his life in an out of disguise in the latest chapter of writer Steve Orlando’s Martian Manhunter mini-series. Riley Rossmo’s art settles into a place somewhere between fantasy and drama in an issue featuring vivid color by Ivan Pascencia. The 12-part series ends its first 1/3 with a mix of weird fiction that still manages to find the gravity of serious drama. The strange fog of the first three issues comes to life in a chapter that finds a smart sense of momentum.

The issue opens in a flashback. There’s a contagious idea spreading through Mars that authorities are having difficulty containing. J’onn J’onzz and his partner experience a distance growing between them as concern over their child and the practical need to keep apart in case of infection leads them to sleep alone. The narrative then drifts back to earth. Where J’onzz seeks clues to the whereabouts of kidnapped Ashely Adams. Finding him psychically linking with a pet iguana. Little does J’onzz know he is being hunted by something far more menacing than a tiny domestic lizard.

Orlando is playing with a lot of different ideas here that could all be explored in greater depth. The premise of an infectious idea spreading across Mars could be the central idea for a series of sci-fi novels. Here it’s just a throwaway concept meant to explore the psyche of J’onzz and how he got to be where he is. Psychically linking with a pet lizard could also serve as a fascinating subject for a longer work, but here it’s not given much room to breathe. So much of what Orlando is doing here is capable of being so much more than a weird pulpy trip with extraterrestrials. Orlando’s fourth chapter is a fun trip when it could be something far more profound.

Riley Rossmo’s art settles into a calmer kind of weird this issue. Previous issues in the series featured aggressive action that had Rossmo’s art flowing across the page in a rich, viscous spaghetti that looked pretty without actually delivering much of a coherent story. Here it calms into something far more pleasantly surreal and emotionally representational. Well-framed drama finds a brisk pace. There’s room for horror and heroism as the series continues into its midpoint. Plasencia’s color has an interesting multi-layered feel to it. Vibrant colors are often cast in shadows as J’onzz and company explore the darkness in a world of death, abduction, and predation.

Though it doesn’t live up to its potential, the fourth issue of Orlando and Rossmo’s Manhunter is finding a bright pulse that stands out from most of the rest of the work currently populating the mainstream comic book rack. It’s a very unique place that Orlando and Rossmo are visiting every month. It’ll be interesting to see where it goes after issue four as J’onzz finally comes face to face with the central villain of the series.

Grade: B+