Glitterbomb #4 Review

The funny thing about a glitter bomb is it’s festive, but an attack. You can buy them on sites like this, and they’re meant to ruin someone’s day.

Sounds like the perfect title for a book about the horrors of Hollywood, but how is issue #4?

Glitterbomb #4 (Image Comics)

So what’s it about? The very short summary reads:

On stage. In the spotlight. There’s no escape. “Sharply written and drawn, with deft insight into the trappings of celebrity culture, GLITTERBOMB just might be the ultimate Hollywood horror story.” —KAREN BERGER (Founder of DC’s Vertigo Imprint)

Why does this book matter?

A horror story about the nature of the soul sucking nature of Hollywood WITH a monster? Giddyup!

Fine, you have my attention. What’s good about it?

An innocent little birdy.

This series continues to capture the very honest and genuine nature of how awful people can be, especially in the movie business. In a fantastic twelve panel page, writer Jim Zub and artist Djibril Morissette-Phan capture how little people change over time. On the left side we see the people now (some have changed, some haven’t), at the center we see Farrah’s memory of them then, and then finally on the right we see Farrah’s reaction to them. The page is complex and dynamic in so many ways my head was spinning.

Aside from this scene, most of the issue is either Farrah getting to a remembrance gala, or the fallout from actions Farrah takes when there. To say Zub left me in complete shock of it all is an understatement. These scenes go down a road you think is relatively expected and then they blow up in your face. The fact that the last page said, “To be continued” was an even bigger shock. Cheers to Zub, I have absolutely no idea where this story is going and that’s an amazing thing.

Morissette-Phan continues to pen strong, realistic illustrations. There’s plenty of “shock and awe” facial expressions he nails vividly. Most importantly, Morissette-Phan captures Farrah’s very complex mix of emotions, in flashbacks and in the current day that make it easy to sympathize and understand her. That’s important given her state.

It can’t be perfect can it?

Since it’s hard to know what is going on with Farrah, the climactic scenes are hard to care about. A lot of shit goes down, but what is happening to Farrah remains to be seen. Sure, she’s sympathetic in many scenes in this issue, but when the monster rears its head I don’t know who or what she is anymore. There’s certainly some redemption going on in this climax, but there’s too much utter unexplained madness it comes off as gore and violence for violence sake.

Somebody is a predator…

Is It Good?

Glitterbomb continues to capture the frailty of the human condition via the awful behavior of Hollywood peers. In a world where it’s all about how you look, Zub is revealing the inner truth of the characters is more monstrous than anything you could imagine — even when the script blows everything up and makes you shake your head with utter confusion!