Flawed #3 // Review
Gemma is being told that aggression doesn’t solve every problem. The fact that she’s getting beat up by the woman who is telling her this might make matters a bit confusing. And anyway, it’s an ally that’s beating her up, so it’s cool. It’s just another day in pursuit of the skinwalker serial killer in Flawed #3. Writer Chuck Brown carefully weaves his supernatural horror action story into its tertiary chapter with the aid of artist Prenzy. The story gains some depth with an expanded ensemble of characters that reveal the world of Flawed in a bit more shadowy detail.
The issue opens in the past. There’s a girl who is dumpster diving in the Devil’s Den neighborhood of Setham. A couple of guys in ski masks attempt to abduct her, but they get what’s coming to them. Shoot ahead to the present, and that girl is all grown-up and shooting at Gemma. Damn near kills her, too. Evidently, that little girl has grown up and become a bounty hunter who is working for an extremely shady figure. Meanwhile, Gemma is recovering from her latest scrape as her allies express their concern over her health. Of course...everyone expresses that concern in different ways...
Brown frames the script for the third chapter from clever angles. The villain who is nearly killing the hero is seen as a somewhat innocent child in the past before the story launches into present-day aggression. Supernatural horror so often plays with nauseatingly simplistic notions of good and evil. Brown is clearly working with thematic dynamics that are far more sophisticated than so much of what passes for horror in ANY medium, whether that be novels, films, video games, or...anything else really. Brown is crawling around in interesting shadows with interesting characters as his series closes out its third issue.
Prenzy is working with very dramatic angles to action and drama that punch off the page in appealing directions. The blur effect that Prenzy employs is an under-used effect that gives Flawed a rich visual reality that feels almost dazzlingly distinct. As explosive as it is in so many ways, Prenzy’s art maintains an admirably reserved stability when it needs to slow things down for more nuanced moments of drama. The horror of the story still rests pretty solidly in expositional dialogue for the time being, but Prenzy is clearly leaning the shadowy mood and tone of the series in a direction that could get quite terrifying quite quickly.
The issue closes out with a letters section and a very cool little essay on superheroes and mental health written by Professor Julian C. Chambliss of Michigan State University. Chambliss’s essay doesn’t connect directly to the rest of the chapter, but it’s an enjoyable, little thought-provoker that feels right at home in an issue featuring a hero who is also a psychotherapist. There isn’t a whole lot in the essay that’s all that insightful for people already quite familiar with superhero stories, but it’s a really intriguing addition to the end of the issue.
