Voodoo #4 – Review

By: Ron Marz (writer), Sami Basri (artist), Jessica Kholinne (colorist)

The Story: It takes a special woman to pull off a security breach in purple.

The Review: I make it a practice of reading over my past reviews of a series when writing the latest one, mostly to make sure I don’t repeat anything from before.  As I read my reviews of Voodoo, it struck me that I never once used the word “hero” in describing the titular character.  It made me realize that while she may be the protagonist of this comic, and a hero for her race, she’s no hero to us, considering she’s essentially plotting our doom.

In fact, as each issue goes by, she becomes less and less admirable in her motives and behavior.  While we already know she’s willing to kill to get the job done, there seems to be little logic to when she chooses to do so and when she doesn’t.  Why, for example, does she choose to poison a rather pathetic-looking tech guy, but merely smothers two armed guards to unconsciousness?

Voodoo’s villainy makes her no less intriguing a character, however.  We don’t know her exact role in this alien invasion that’s presumably coming down the pike, but we see now that it involves gathering information on Earth’s superheroes.  This may explain all the pains she and her fellow “hybrids” have taken to remain on the down-low; a full-on attack risks extreme prejudicial retaliation by the Kryptonians, Amazons, cyborgs, and caped crusaders of the world.

We also learn a bit more about Voodoo’s identity.  Last issue indicated she’s a hybrid of human and alien DNA, so there may be a genuine connection between the Priscilla Kitaen who “disappeared” at age four after a house fire which consumed her mother and the Priscilla Kitaen stealing top-secret files now.  If so, can this mean her mother was genuine human while her absent father was of a different race entirely?  Can it also mean Piscilla had something to do with the fire which led to her mother’s death in the first place?

Interesting stuff, but too slowly paced for my taste.  After four issues, it still feels like the story’s just starting to get itself together, while some titles have already wrapped up their first arcs.  This issue pretty much repeats a bunch of the data we’ve deduced about Voodoo already, and except for the bits mentioned above, offers little new information.  And we still don’t know how her plot connects with the glowing, blue creatures antagonizing Grifter in his own title.

At least Marz breaks up the long swaths of exposition with Voodoo putting her shapeshifting to great effect as she singlehandedly breaks into a government facility, downloads a motherload of classified data, shuts down the place, and takes down a bunch of agents in the process.  She also makes it clear that she doesn’t need to rely on her special talents to do her dirty work; she can use her curvy form for more than just strip-teasing.

And at least Marz makes the whole thing easy reading with plenty of natural-sounding dialogue.  Because his style of writing reflects more of what real people sound like, so you have to glean personality from the subtext and choice of words.  I especially like Fallon smoking during her briefing, and getting reprimanded by her fellows.  It’s such a simple scene, but from it you can see that Fallon’s clearly lost a bit of focus from the unfortunate outcomes of her last mission, and her peers are beginning to take note.

Basri and Kholinne have really grown as a team since Power Girl.  Basri’s figures have lost their former doughy quality, and now have greater depth and more convincing movement—a good thing, since Voodoo does a lot of running, jumping, striking, and shapeshifting now.  Kholinne’s colors have really emboldened over time, and have never looked more vibrant and natural.  Her lighting work is especially strong, whether in a sterile briefing room or cozy nerd’s office.

Conclusion: Despite the plodding pace, Marz continues to deliver a solid read each month, giving Voodoo a fun, if quiet, pleasure.

Grade: B-

– Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: – An “I speak XML” mug?  Really?  No wonder you asked, “…what are you doing?” when Voodoo started straddling your lap.