It’s not always easy to keep the right distance. Say you’re the type of guy who doesn’t know what it means to be a good father...or really any kind of father at all. And maybe you know that just showing-up could be the least that you could do...but given that you’re the type of person who has ever had that kind parenting himself...maybe the best gift that you could possibly give is your own absence. And maybe a pink bunny plushie. A pink bunny with little button eyes rests outside in the rain at the beginning of Precious Metal #4. Writer Darcy Van Poelgeest continues a deeply emotional surrealism with artist Ian Bertram. Color comes to the page courtesy of Matt Hollingsworth.

Having given the gift of his own absence (and a pink plushie bunny in the rain) Max Weaver is heading out to deal with his work. He has returned from another world to find himself in the midst of a rebel encampment. Things are getting tense. Bishops mission not cleanse New Empire of modified beings is continuing. He’s being approached by a tower of a guy who calls himself Axe. He’s there to lead Max through a few casual visions of Hell on his way to his own destiny. 

Van Poelgeest’s dark poetry continues unabated. There’s a mincingly exhausted restlessness about the overall action of the drama that feels like it’s already dead...and yet there is SUCH magnificent life about the overall rhythm of the story as the author steadily marches the action towards the big showdown that begins this issue. There’s a feeling of a culmination. There’s an overwhelming sense of intensity and momentous impact that strikes as the issue reaches its final pages. The  weight of Max’s exhaustion throughout much of the series thus far explodes as the story hits some impressive rising action.

Bertram and Hollingsworth are given the opportunity to recall hammer-in the reality of the conflict with some beautifully immersive landscapes. Axe shows Max around and there’s a real sense of depth to the visuals that give an impressive range to the visuals that Bertram hasn’t had an opportunity to get into as much over the course of the first three issues of the series. The surreal horror of the story is brought to the page with every bit as much clarity as it has in the past, but it’s nice to see Bertram and Hollingsworth open-up to a little bit more empty space in and around the edges of the panels. 

It’s always a bit strange when a series that’s as poetically surreal as Precious Metal hits some of the more intense moments of action. Can Poelgeest and company manage to finesse the weird emotionality of the series thus far into something that’s suitably overwhelming, but the heart and the mind have already been so lulled by the beautifully poetic horror of it all that it’s a bit difficult to completely embrace the total intensity of what’s going on with the central conflict. That being said, the conflict is DEFINITELY there at the heart of everything.

Grade: B