Female Furies #5 – Cecil Castellucci, Writer; Adriana Melo, Artist; Hi-Fi, Colorist
Ratings:
Ray – 4/10
Ray: Female Furies #5 is probably the best issue of the series, just because it traffics far less in the torture of the title characters and instead has them turn the tables for the first time. The problem is, it’s still just not very good – a confused satire of current-day misogyny and sexual abuse as filtered through a society that’s always been monstrous, but never in such a base and human way.
When we last left off, Barda had broken from the rest of the Furies and met again with Scott Free, and the Furies are chasing after her to kill him and bring her home. Much of the humor in this issue, such as it is, focuses on the Furies commenting on life on Earth and how gross all the affection humans show for each other is. Barda misunderstanding who Oberon is and thinking he’s Scott’s captor was funny as well, but when Barda and the Furies are reunited the issue descends into a bland fight scene with poor dialogue.
This descends into an extended therapy session as the Furies confess how Apokalips made them feel. The mood whiplash in this series continues to be a bizarre touch, with it veering from dark comedy to unflinching commentary on sexual assault in only a few panels.
They eventually decide to head back to Apokalips, faking Scott’s death so they can get a shot at revenge. Barda is welcomed back and the Furies are given time to rest – which they use to kidnap Willik and torture him with a portable black hole generator, slowly tearing him apart. It’s satisfying given that he’s one of the sickest villains I’ve ever seen in a DC book, but it’s a mean-spirited ending to a very mean-spirited plot. A cut-away to Darkseid deciding to appoint an unqualified nephew of an ally to Willik’s spot instead of Granny is a good example of where this story just doesn’t work – the humanization of Darkseid and co. into petty, small-scale sexists makes them less believable as cosmic villains, not more. More human is not always a good thing.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
Disclaimer: GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
