Alienated #4 & 5 Review
Due to some issues with a store that shall remain nameless taking their sweet time to get Si Spurrier and Chris Wildgoose’s Alienated #4 and 5 into my hands it’s a double whammy review today.
Content warning – there may be things some people find troubling as #4 deals with self-harm and suicidal thoughts/attempts.
Alienated #4
After the absolute gut-punch of finding out about Samantha’s teen pregnancy in the previous issue, 4 picks up the next of our Alienated trio – Samir – and it’s no less unflinching.
In previous issues we’ve seen Samir and his people pleasing ways, wanting to be everything to everyone. He skips from persona to persona depending on the company he is in, never dwelling on anything for too long for fear he’ll get drawn into “deep thoughts”, and those seem to be the ones that lead him to self harm. Samir actually has a lot of deep thoughts, and they all appear to stem from one point – his father walking out some years before – for which he blames himself.
As Samantha did before, Samir uses Chip to find the person missing in his life and get some kind of closure however while Samantha managed to resist the temptation to do something terrible, Samir doesn’t. Samantha intervenes, thankfully getting to Samir in time to save his life but sadly it’s too late to stop what has been set in motion. Samir’s rage and pain have already infected Chip with devastating consequences.
The primary focus of #4 is Samir’s story but there is a discussion between the trio right at the start of the issue that is very important to the ongoing story. As are the brief moments we see Samuel in this issue as they have major bearing on #5.
Alienated #5
The final member of the trio – Samuel – gets his moment in the spotlight in Alienated #5, but it’s definitely not all it’s cracked up to be. Through the previous 4 issues we’ve seen the contempt boiling out of Samuel through his vlogs, and it reaches a head in this issue. At the end of #4 he found out his submission to be part of Waxy’s show was not successful and that did NOT go over well. He takes Chip to pay a visit to his idol and see if he can finagle his way on to the show. After a disappointing encounter with Waxy, Samuel uses Chip and takes matters into his own hands. Sadly he is so clouded by his contempt and anger, his and Chip’s emotions are so muddled at this point, that he makes some terrible mistakes.
The final page of this issue left me absolutely stunned. I re-read it two or three times to be sure of what I was seeing. I knew we were building up to the finale of the series (#6) but I was NOT expecting what happens in the final few panels. On the strength of what has come before, #6 is going to be one hell of a comic.
Greater than the sum of its parts
This creative team is absolutely incredible. Every single issue of this series so far has been flawless. Each individual component combines to create something that is far greater than the sum of its parts. Strip away any one element, be it the writing, art or lettering, and this series is instantly lesser because of it. I know I’ve mentioned in previous reviews for this series how integral the lettering is to this story. I honestly don’t know if I’ve seen anyone else who does it quite like Jim.
One thing I must comment on with this series is the way Spurrier handles the dialogue of his teenage protagonists. It genuinely flows and sounds the way teenagers speak and behave. Not the way an older (forgive me sir) writer thinks they should.
#6 of Alienated is due out on September 9th, with a collected trade of all 6 issues to follow in November. You can order from your local comic book shop or Forbidden Planet.
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