Reviews»Comic Books»Blackout #4
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Kareem Ali 2

Blackout #4

 

  • The good

    Conclusion to King Tiger

  • The bad

    Inexplicable events implying one doesn't even care to make sense. Suit is not impressive and still no significant answers regarding it or how Scott acquired it.

  • The ugly

    • Blackout #4 continues with Scott facing off against three mechs  operated by highly-trained personnel consumed by the desire to destroy him. He sees no way of escape until one of the Mech suits suddenly activates its emergency protocols ejecting the pilot, which stuns everyone. Using this distraction as an opportunity to escape, he creates a portal to make his getaway but the persistent pilot jumps through as well. However without the suit the pilot is on the verge of freezing to death in the shadow dimension before Scott decides to return him and continue on. He runs into Alexis Luca, and asks her about Robert Marshall’s disappearance but she knows nothing about it. She does agree to help Scott since she has her own issues with Mechatronics, and she’ll pass on all the information she has if he can get her back to her office. She’s been in the shadow dimension with him before so she already knows it won’t be easy to traverse it this time. But that’s not their only concern because one of the pilots has realized that the Blackout suit is drawing its energy from the building so their plan is to cut all the power off. Since the suit is already running low on power, will Mechatronics finally have the advantage they need to stop Scott?

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    When I first started this series I had relatively high hopes for it but that faded tremendously during the first 3 issues. That’s been due to very few answers, a dry story, and an unimpressive suit so far. And that’s when an issue doesn’t feel as if it’s just delaying any progress in the story. So I wasn’t looking forward to this battle with the mechs because it seemed like it would be more filler but it didn’t feel like filler while I was reading it. Usually that would be a good thing, however the events that occurred were just perplexing. It wasn’t clear why the mech went into emergency protocol and opened, and if it was due to the suit draining the power from it automatically, then it wouldn’t make sense that the suit’s power would be low after that when all he did was open a portal. If that’s the case then the suit has a worse battery life than a smartphone with twitter open but it’s been shown that the suit can be powered just by one smartphone. So if the suit was drawing from the entire building then it should be fully charged, and it was perplexing as to how the pilot even realized the suit was being charged through the building’s power. And if their suits still had power then couldn’t he just draw…well you get the point. A suit that operates in the shadows but is unable to operate in the dark is not a good idea. So the entire sequence didn’t add up. I’m not familiar with Scott Tavers enough to know whether or not other aspects of the action in this issue came out of nowhere but it did seem to be the case. And now I’m also wondering how the suit is repaired when it took visible damage this issue. And since no answers were given in the story, which was disappointing, this stands out even more. Scott says in this issue, “I need answers that don’t lead to more questions,” and unfortunately that’s all this issue gives when the same conclusions could’ve been drawn in earlier issues.

    The bright spot in this issue is another excellent installment of King Tiger, which concludes here. The artwork is great and can pull you in completely with its detail. There’s plenty of action, answers, and a perfect set up for the upcoming series, and it’s one I’ll definitely be checking out.

     

    SUMMARY

    Blackout #4 is a perplexing issue, and not in terms of a complex story, but in inexplicable events that don’t care about simple logic and in doing so makes the suit even less impressive. It’s not good that there are still no answers regarding the nature of the suit or purpose of it, and when its use of power is still unclear then it becomes very problematic. I don’t know where things are headed from this point but most likely this series would’ve been more enjoyable if it started from this point instead of the pursuit of  Robert Marshall. It’s possible that when some answers are finally given that things can turn around but even the excellent King Tiger can’t save this very disappointing issue.

     

    Release Date: 8/13/14

    Writer: Frank Barbiere, Randy Stradley

    Artist: Colin Lorimer, Doug Wheatley

  • Rating ( 3.75 )
  • Total score 3.8

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