Tony and Saffron Chu’s sibling rivalry reaches a new level of crazy to end the first arc in ‘Chu’ #5. ‘Chu’ #5 also answers the question as to why Saffron wasn’t in the original Chew series. But more importantly, issue #5 serves as a great character development booster for Saffron. Remember that Saffron Chu is a cibopars, and can gain knowledge by sharing a meal with another person. This pays off big time by the close of this issue.
As far as the writing goes, the transitions, the timing of dialogue, backstory, and overall storytelling is in full sync. The story never feels rushed or like something is missing. Most of the book is pretty unpredictable and the ending leaves a lot of room to the imagination for the future of the series. One thing’s for sure: I think we’ll see less of Tony and a lot more of Saffron moving forward.
Dan Boultwood’s creative chops are in full swing this issue, delivering some of the best visuals we’ve seen from the series thus far. Boultwood also pencils together some fantastic fight moments between Tony and Saffron. Be on the lookout for some funny background moments within random panels, including a pigeon wearing a bowler hat and an awesome homage to the movie Tremors.
Chu #5 is a great leaping pad into the unknown, going forward into issue #6. Layman and Boutlwood continue to keep the story amusing, refreshing, and just an all around great time. Sad Lemon retailer offers some amazing variant covers illustrated by Rob Guillory for this issue, so definitely pick those up as well. And as always, make sure to support your local comic shop and grab your copy of Chu #5.
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