Negative Space #4 is the final chapter of writer Ryan K. Lindsay and artist Owen Gieni’s sci-fi saga about depression, monsters, and an evil corporation. Is it good?
Negative Space #4 (Dark Horse Comics)
I’m struggling to write this review, because while it’s undeniably well-crafted, and perhaps presents us with an ending that makes the most sense, it left me a bit disappointed when I first read it. I’m going to try to avoid spoilers in this review, but so much of this comic is defined by the ending that it’ll be quite a challenge.
As I’ve said in my other reviews, I connect with this comic because I have struggled with depression throughout my life. So when I read a comic that so directly addresses the issue, I can’t come into it without a host of expectations.
Namely, that it’ll have a happy ending. I’m not saying that I necessarily even want a happy ending, but it’s just what I’ve been conditioned to expect from this kind of story. After all, if you have a story that focuses on a perpetually depressed character, obviously you have to end it with him learning to be happy, right?
I really don’t want to get any more into the plot details, because if I do I’m afraid that I’ll spoil something (especially if you haven’t read the previous three issues), but let’s just say that things do not turn out the way you would expect. At first, it left me feeling a bit disappointingly empty emotionally, but I soon determined that this may have been the only way for such a story to end.
In terms of sheer writing and artistic craft, this issue is just as good as each previous issue. The dialogue is tight and clever, despite a distinct lack of subtlety (which, as I said in previous reviews, is not necessarily a bad thing). Owen Gieni’s painterly style still fits right in, and I’m still wondering why nobody else is talking about this potential new superstar that we have on our hands.
I really don’t have much to say about Negative Space #4 that I haven’t said in previous reviews, unless I get into spoiler territory, which I don’t want to do. But this still represents an extraordinary achievement by two creators that deserve greater recognition.
Is It Good?
With an off-putting, yet fitting ending, Negative Space #4 culminates in one of the greatest depictions of depression that I have ever come across in fiction.
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