Review: THE ANSWER! #4

THE ANSWER! #4
DARK HORSE COMICS – @DarkHorseComics

STORY: Dennis Hopeless and Mike Norton
SCRIPT: Dennis Hopeless
ART/COVER: Mike Norton
COLORS: Mark Englert
LETTERS: Crank!
32pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (April 2013)

Part 4 of 4

The final issue of The Answer! does provide some answers. It also made me ask a lot more questions.

The Answer!, a four-issue comic book miniseries created by writer Dennis Hopeless (Avengers Arena) and artist Mike Norton (Battlepug), comes to end. The series focuses on Devin McKenzie, a research librarian, and The Answer!, an odd, masked crime fighter with a giant exclamation point on his face mask. Both characters are embroiled in a conspiracy surrounding a mysterious motivational speaker and a secret organization.

As The Answer! #4 opens, the director of the Brain Trust shows his crazy side. That is, however, not the biggest crazy. Chip Carney, the motivational speaker, reveals how he is tied to the Brain Trust. He even reveals his connection to Devin’s past. Now, Carney confronts Devin with the Anaximander Codex. Will The Answer! save the day? Can the mystery man save himself? Or will Devin have to save herself before Chemical X turns her brain to mush?

This comic book review of The Answer! #4 first has to say that the series offers an enjoyable ending and an explosive conclusion. In fact, there are actual explosions. Also, the strangeness, that the first issue of the series offered, returns, both in the execution of the story by the artists and in the story itself.

I noticed, particularly in this final issue, that Mike Norton’s art has a quality similar to John Byrne and Jerry Ordway’s Fantastic Four art back in the 1980s. That is fitting, as there is a vibe to The Answer! that suggests past comics. In the end, the best thing that I can say about The Answer! is that I certainly want another miniseries.

Readers wondering if they can find a superhero comic book that is both offbeat and fun to read have The Answer!

A-

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux