Cluster is surely short for Cluster-fuck as something goes drastically wrong in every issue. Last issue Samara escaped and Halleran gave her a tablet, so that he could bargain with McHenry. So while they’re flying away in what they think is safety, they are actually being followed. Which leads to yet another confrontation. We get to see more about the punch, we actually get to see it as the Pagurani removes it from Grace (I really like her character design, the lizard arm tattoo is cool). At the beginning of the first issue I thought that the Punch device was going to be the crux of the series, or at least that it would be around a lot longer than four issues.
One thing I like about this book is how willing they are to kill off characters. It means that I can't bank on any particular characters safety, except for Samara obviously. It makes the world feel dangerous and that’s a good thing.
This leads to one of the problems this issue has, the cliffhanger. Samara is in mortal danger, I won't say how, but it's fairly obvious that she's going to be fine next issue. These are generic cliffhangers that have been sapped of their power by over-use. It's like watching a prequel that endangers a character we know is alive and well be in the sequel, it just doesn't mean anything. Maybe I'm wrong like I was about the punch device and they kill her off, but I highly doubt it.
There are three pages of spaceship combat, which felt like over kill. The backdrops on these pages were bare and not that interesting. I suppose they dedicated three pages to make the time of the battle feel longer and show how good the pilots are. I think they could have got away with only using one page of smaller panels to get the same feel. Apart from that the characters and the planet look great. I really liked the depiction of the punch removal, let me put it to you this way, it ain't pretty. I hope we get to see more of the tech in the world in future issues.
We get another of those flashback scenes this issue. Thankfully it's at the end of the issue and it's only one page. They must want us to get the information from these panels but the way the flashbacks were handled in the last two issues was not great. This one is not jarring, you know it’s coming and it gets it's point across quickly.
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Cluster #4 Writer: Ed Brisson Artist: Damian Couceiro Colorist: Michael Garland Publisher: BOOM! Studios Price: $3.99 Format: Mini-Series; Print/Digital
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