WTComics WeView Review – BRILLIANT TRASH #4

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From the Publisher – In the days to come, a super powered teenage girl wipes the heavily disputed Old City of Jerusalem from the face of the globe. Now, in American dystopia after the “Lady Last Word Incident”, a click-bait headline writing “journalist” holds the key to a med-tech conspiracy that could turn people into gods for the price of days off their lives. But in a world where news is tailored to every viewpoint, will anyone believer her?

Our We Talk Comics WeView – One of the first things I understood after finishing Brilliant Trash #4 is that this is a bleak series. You feel like you have solid footing with a character’s motivations and then the rug is suddenly pulled out from under you. I actually like that about this series, but I think it’s really important to understand that from the outset.

There are a lot of engaging elements to the story. The writing is crisp and not over reliant on dialog for exposition. One of the issues I have with it is that there is a lot of “in” terminology used, and while those terms may get explained in earlier issues, it takes a little while to pick up on their meaning by issue #4. It would probably be helpful to have a bit of a glossary somewhere in the book to explain some of those words that are unique to this story. Despite that, I didn’t find that it hindered my enjoyment of the book, it just took a bit more willingness to go with the flow.

I enjoyed the art by Priscilla Petraites quite a bit in this book, the panel composition really stood out to me. It can be hard to find inventive ways of telling a story within a typical panel grid page, but the way the characters interact within the panels and the angles that we are viewing them from, really added to my enjoyment of the book. I truly enjoyed the coloring in this book from Marco Lesko though. There are many different and well-defined shifts in color, from flashback to current time, to 4-color superhero. All of them have a distinct look and I think that is a really nice touch that helps set this book apart from the rest.

Brilliant Trash has a lot going on, and that makes for a good read. This issue was a quick read, but that didn’t make me feel like I was being short changed on content, more that it was a well-paced and efficiently told story. It’s hard to tell a superhero story and be inventive, and while there are some elements that are typical of superhero storytelling, it’s the way that they are packaged here that makes the difference. Brilliant Trash has some interesting takes on powered character designs in here as well, which is a definite plus. I think this is a story that it helps to have read what has come before, but there is enough here to hook you and make you interested in seeking out the rest. Well done.

Rating – Very Fine (VF) or 8/10

Review by Brett

Love the review? Hate the review? Disagree with me? I’m happy to talk comics on twitter @Brett_WeTalk

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