Oh man, I have been waiting for a cover that just captured your eye. Matthew Fox’s art has been one of the highlights from the series, but I felt like the cover never jumped off of the shelves. But deciding to put an alien on the cover, adding Adam Metcalfe’s deep purples and blues, grabs the reader right away. It grabs the new reader and gets the regulars hyped for what is inside. If anyone says that a cover shouldn’t sell issues, they are dead wrong. In the world of comics, sometimes you have one impression, and damn, UFOlogy makes a good impression on me this week. This issue is on point this week. We start where we left off. Becky is seeing some crazy ass shit. Aliens dressed in sweater vests. Scary. And they all keep asking her the same question; something about a briefcase. I love how we dive right into the problem. With having last issue end this way, I was hoping we wouldn’t have some other story take lead and distract us from what every reader is truly thinking about. What the hell are these things? And we spend a good bulk of our time here.
But what really made this issue shine was the relationship between Becky and Malcolm. It has been slow to say the least, but now that they have decided to work together, and also that Malcolm seems to be the only one who actually acknowledges Becky’s weird markings and it freaks him out a bit, the comic had a much smoother flow in the plotline. These two have a way of being totally serious with each other but totally hilarious for the reader. I give it up to James Tynion IV and Noah J. Yuenkel. The conversations these two main characters have come across as quick and concise. That has got to be hard to do when writing a comic, but the constant panel changes from one character to the next and then blending of bubbles, all adds to the banter happening between the two. And when Malcolm suggests that meditation is going to have to work because an electrocution with a car battery is not allowed by Becky, it makes for some playful undertones in the text.
We don’t learn too much about the alien that was hitchhiking, but we do discover some more about Malcolm’s dad, Russell. This was another obvious highlight from this issue. Malcolm’s dad seems a bit crazy, actually probably more than that to most people in the town. We all knew there was something more to his story. But it seems to involve Malcolm too. From what is unfolding, I can’t believe that Russell is holding it together as good as he is. I also don’t know what Malcolm knows about the whole story. Either way, Russell is going to have to dive in head first pretty soon with his son’s adventure. He can’t sit behind his radio anymore.
UFOlogy is hitting its stride with issue #4. I wanted more, and I think most readers will see the plot and characters coming together. This all ages title brings in a lot of cool elements to make for an interesting read and a visually fun comic. With all the mysteries surrounding these aliens, they want something more than just to take over the world. But what do they want? And what are two teenagers going to do about it?
Score: 4/5
UFOlogy #4 Writers: James Tynion IV & Noah J. Yuenkel Artist: Matthew Fox Colorist: Adam Metcalfe Publisher: BOOM! Studios Price: $3.99 Release Date: 8/5/15 Format: Mini-Series, Digital/Print