Hyde Street #5 // Review
Miss Glee Goodbody didn’t kill the woman in her aerobics class. That much is for certain. The fact that she happened to die in Miss Goodbody’s class was circumstantial. That didn’t stop her from suffering the way that people do when they find themselves crossing over into a darker place somewhere beyond the 1980s that were her home. Her current home is deep in the heart of Hyde Street #5. Writer Geoff Johns explores Miss Goodbody’s life with the aid of artist Francis Portella and colorist Brad Anderson. Johns’ script lacks a certain amount of subtlety, but that doesn’t stop it from being deeply entertaining.
Glee is trying to do what anyone is trying to do on Hyde Street. She’s having some difficulty with it...a situation that continues to plague her due to the guilt that took her to Hyde Street in the first place. There’s something deep within her that is constantly driving for greater health at any cost. It’s a situation the finds her running a health food story on Hyde Street that seems to have its own consciousness. So why is it still so disturbing when Mr. X-Ray comes-in asking about the highly competitive boyscout who has been lurking around?
Johns’ script isn’t giving Glee a whole lot of depth. Her basic psychological make-up isn’t really all that complicated, but it IS potent enough to be relatable to anyone who has felt themselves driven to drive others. There’s a respectable amount of vulnerability written into the character that makes her one of the more appealing characters on Hyde Street. The overall feel of the 1980s comes through. Quite strong in her backstory, which dominates much of the issue. It’s quite an accomplishment on quite a few levels even if Johns isn’t exactly going for a whole lot of subtlety with respect to the script.
Portella’s art is exquisite. There’s a very sharp balance between detail and negative space that serves the 1980s feel of the story quite well. Miss Goodbody manages to look both gorgeous in her perfection and deeply flawed within as Anderson casts her in colors that feel deliciously vivid. Portella renders the drama from a variety of different angles that occasionally amplify the action and the horror in ways that feel fresh and novel even if the script isn’t going for anything terribly new with its approach.
Johns is a solidly respectable writer. One gets the feeling that he may have known exactly what the art team was capable of doing with the visuals for this particular issue and written the script accordingly...allowing Miss Goodbody’s story to resonate more through the artwork than it does through anything particularly clever in the script. He’s got a much larger plan with respect to the series. There are a lot of elements in play and he’s working with a lot of different characters. Every issue is going to embrace the anthology format of the series in different ways. The fifth issue may not hold a lot of novelty, but there’s something really impressive going on around the edges of the entire series.
