I Can Sell You A Body #4 // Review
Denny Little and his girlfriend are breaking into an empty warehouse. On the surface, it might seem like relatively low-risk behavior, but she’s a little crazy. He’s got a deep and intimate connection with the afterlife and the occult, so nothing is ever going to be totally safe between the two of them as “I Can Sell You A Body” reaches its fourth and final issue. Writer Ryan Ferrier closes-out a cluttered, little plot with the aid of artist George Kambadais. There’s a hell of a lot of activity in this issue. Still, as so much is tied-up in dialogue, in one bewildering meeting in an abandoned warehouse, it feels paradoxically anticlimactic.
Denny Little has decided to try to make contact with a demon. He’s decided to invite it into him. He’s decided to do this in a warehouse owned by a mobster who doesn’t even store anything in it. His reasons for doing so are his own. Things get complicated when a major enemy shows-up. Then there’s the small matter of an exorcist who has come in from overseas. Everything comes together in a big, empty space. There might yet be a happy ending for Denny, but he’s going to have to compromise a hell of a lot for a satisfactory ending to his troubles.
There’s a heavy collision of many different plot elements in the pages of this issue. Ferrier does a pretty good job of wrapping everything up, but it’s all such a crazy blur that it scarcely feels satisfying. Denny’s personality has had a chance to develop in the three issues leading to this finale, but it hasn’t developed enough to make an ending feel earned. Little’s still a bit of a mystery by the end of the fourth issue. The decisions he’s making here don’t feel totally intelligible because so much of who he is hasn’t been totally fleshed-out in the first three issues of a tragically short series.
Kambadais juggles a lot of plot elements in an empty warehouse. Panels are weighed-down by heavy dialogue, but Kambadais manages a few moments of graphic visual appeal nonetheless. The sudden arrival of the exorcist is handled with a solidly un-exaggerated, non-amplified sense of drama. Little’s demonic possession hits with its own kind of understated weight. As nice as it is that there are moments of visual impact, the series doesn’t conjure anything suitably climactic to exit on. It all feels a bit uneasy at the end of the series. This might be a more satisfying situation at the end of a slightly longer series, but with only three issues before the finale, the rather abrupt ending feels more like a hit-and-run than anything.
The “I Can Sell You a Body” premise has so many exciting possibilities. Ferrier seems to be scratching the surface after four issues. The drama has run through way too quickly to be anything other than vaguely confusing. Ferrier’s four-issue story has the feel of a very impassioned and drawn-out call from a stranger dialing the wrong number. It’s not that it hasn’t been interesting. It just hasn’t been anything that feels compelling enough to relate to.
