Juvenile #4 // Review
They all know that they have powers. They all know that all that have to do to be able to have access to these powers is stop using. (Those in charge are giving them meds to suppress powers that they don’t know that they have.) So they know they have powers, but those who in charge can’t KNOW that they know that they have powers. It’s a tricky situation that arises in Juvenile #4. Writer/artist Jesús Orellana reaches the penultimate chapter in a deeply enjoyable, little super-powered drama. With all of the basics established and the final conflict loaded-up, Orallana begins to pull the trigger on the conclusion to a fun mini-series.
Sara is approaching Max. He’s the only one of them who doesn’t have access to his powers. It’s kind of a weird situation...when he came to the facility, he was the only one who knew about the powers. He’s been caught using them and now they’re watching him really closely...making certain that the meds are in his system. They’re all exploring the use of their newfound capabilities. Next they’re going to want their freedom. It’s only natural that they would want that. It’s going to be dangerous considering all of the firepower that’s keeping them in the facility...
Orellana brilliantly defines a deliciously simple metaphor for institutionalized control. It’s staggeringly clever in it’s simplicity. The basic premise of Juvenile speaks to just about anyone who has been in any way disenfranchised and it does so in a way that truly feels fresh and original. THAT isn’t something that would be terribly easy to do, so the basic premise of the series is a huge accomplishment in and of itself. On top of that...the basic drama of the ensemble is just SO well-executed on so many levels.
And then there are the visuals of the story...which feel particularly sharp now that the series has reached its penultimate issue. Artists have to do so much in delivering a story to a comic book page--they have to get the lighting and the framing of the shots just right and portray every character in the entire story AND do scene editing and...what’s fascinating with Orellana’s work with Juvenile is that he’s capable of showing-off what a good scenic designer and set decorator he is. The facility that Sara, Max and company inhabit looks so completely lived-in that it feels like its own character...just architecturally. That’s something that often goes unexamined on the comics page.
Orellana really has something here. The series DOES end next month, but it would be really cool to see it do well enough for Orellana to be able to move forward and do more work with it all in a subsequent series that opens things up. All he’s really shown in four issues is the inside of this facility. It would be fascinating to see what the world outside is like. Orellana could really deliver one hell of a gut punch at the end of the next issue. It might seem kind of cheap to make all of it be happening in VR or in a distant spacecraft or any other major plot twist, but it would be a hell of a lot of fun to see him do it.
