Pretty Deadly #5 – Review

By: Kelly Sue DeConnick (story), Emma Rios (art), Jordie Bellaire (colors)

The Story: Just because Death gets a tired of all the yard work, suddenly the world’s about to end.

The Review: I was a bit concerned last issue at how this series seemed to be barreling towards a close mere issues after it had only just started. Not that I love Pretty Deadly so much that I hate to see it go, but it’s different from everything else on the market, and that’s a highly attractive quality that should be fostered, not cut off. So it is with some regret that I discover this is indeed the final issue of the series—for now. DeConnick promises on the last page that Deathface Ginny will return in a second volume.

But do I care, now that DeConnick has deconstructed so much of what’s made Pretty Deadly interesting? And as I asked before, will the stakes ever be higher than the fate of the very world and the life-death cycle? I tend to doubt it. The really sad part is despite the supposedly epic scope of this story, its highly metaphorical nature transforms the battle between Death and the Reaper of Vengeance into a shootout, albeit a fairly intense one, amidst fire and ruin, with plenty of major casualties.

It’s the casualties you truly begrudge DeConnick. You may not be incredibly attached to any of the characters here, but surely they deserve better resolutions than they get in this issue. I’m not talking about just the sudden deaths—though those are pretty annoying, too. It’s the fact that DeConnick gets rid of nearly every principal player without letting them get much action in what may potentially be their last appearance. Both Molly and Sarah seem especially shafted in this regard. Neither manages to get even a shot off before they’re “broken” and sent away, respectively, which makes you wonder why they even needed to come this far at all.

And then there’s Johnny. Brief as his appearances have been, his cocky yet conscience-stricken attitude and his mysterious past made him one of the more interesting characters. So it’s a real shame that he gets mowed down before we ever learn much more about him. Alice manages to reveal, before she also dies in a similarly hurried, unresolved manner, that at one time Johnny “defied” Death, but we never learn what that exactly means.

You probably would have preferred to get more information on that point than all this mythology DeConnick tries to pawn off on you at the last minute. Don’t get me wrong. This stuff about divided Shield Maids, the soul of the world, the garden that contains it, and Death as the gardener…it’s all fascinating, but also shoddily constructed. Dead Bunny talks a lot about how Death’s negligence endangering “the very cycle of the world,” but when have we ever seen anything like that?

Indeed, DeConnick struggles to explain what’s so bad about Death’s plan to get rid of death, eventually falling back on vague and arbitrary generalities to get you to leave the question alone. “Ain’t the way things are supposed to be. It’s the dying that makes the living matter,” Fox says. “Life ain’t ours to keep, girl. We get to hold some for a little bit, but then we got to pass it on.” That may be a comforting thought for a world where dying is inevitable, but it’s no argument that a world of life perpetual is a bad thing. Obviously, creating such a world is wrong when the price is the unjustified murder of Sissy, but Sissy herself asks the question. DeConnick brought the obligation of providing an adequate answer upon herself, and she basically falls short.

At least Pretty Deadly, for all its other shortcomings, has given us new appreciation for Rios’ work. Though at times the clouds of butterflies, petals, feathers, and birds result in a tangle of lines that get a little dizzying to look at, the shape of the lines are lithe and beautiful, and often quite poignant. Rios also has a great hand with the action, her delicate linework suddenly becoming tense and cutting, so you can appreciate the pain of every wound the characters suffer—and there are many.

Conclusion: Too much in some respects and too little in others, the result of an ending that comes a dozen or so issues before its time.

Grade: C+

– Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: – I’m hoping, since Fox is already dead (having “drowned,” apparently) and he refuses to join Beauty in the Black, this means he’ll remain by Sissy’s side. That’ll be one bright spot in all this.