Comic Review: The Ludocrats #4

The Ludocrats #4

Image Comics

Writers: Kieron Gillen and Jim Rossignol

Artists: Jeff Stokely and Tamra Bonvillain

The Ludocrats continue their quirky and colorful adventure as the story rushes into its final act. This is the penultimate issue of the series, and it does exactly what it should. The end draws near, twists are thrown into the mix, and the comedy never lets up.

The four remaining Ludocrats have to escape a trap with the help of some multi-dimensional shenanigans. After that, they are faced with their lowest point and have to decide what to do next. While some serious/dramatic events do occur in this issue, I appreciate the fact that the humor persists throughout them. Moments that easily could have been dramatized instead contain the same goofiness that the series has always had. This allows the story to go in interesting directions while also staying true to how it started and not come off as jarring.

There is one specific moment in this issue that I think is absolutely genius. Our heroes are in a situation that the writers likely couldn’t find a proper way to write themselves out of, so they instead go for a really elaborate joke. With a mixture of fourth-wall-breaking, self-deprecation, and one cleverly-thought-out pun, the writers are able to transition to the next scene while avoiding the conflict entirely. The setup for this specific joke was planted all the way back in the first issue! Whatever the story’s actual resolution may be, the payoff of this one joke is so great that it just might top it.

The biggest problem that this series is starting to face is there is only one more issue left. This series is typically heavy on dialogue, but it’s apparent that there just aren’t enough pages left to let everything play out naturally. Three whole pages of this issue are lengthy narration, condensing what could have been whole scenes into a couple of sentences. Conversations are even mentioned passively in captions that would have been better suited for speech bubbles. It’s even more strange considering how lengthy expositions are used as a joke throughout the series.

The artwork of The Ludocrats is just as good as the writing. The art style really aids the story and properly fits whatever mood is needed. The dark, menacing tones used for the evil city quickly shift to that of firey destruction. There is a lot of fire, and it’s drawn really stylized and looks beautiful. The main characters are mainly composed of solid colors, but the way those colors shift given the introduction of fire or moonlight are really appealing.

Seeing that heavy narration has to be used to condense the story makes me really sad that this series is ending so soon. The main characters have all gained personalities that mesh well, and this world is a very fun one. Besides those rushed moments, the pacing of the series has been really good. I enjoy the style of it, and I’m excited to see how it all ends.

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Read The Ludocrats #4 on Comixology