Review – Snow Blind #4 (Of 4) (BOOM! Studios)

Posted on March 8, 2016 in BOOM! Reviews

Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Writer: Ollie Masters
Artist: Tyler Jenkins, Colin Bell (Letterer)
Release Date: 9th March 2016

With Trent escaping police custody and making his way to the family cabin to exact some revenge on the man who killed his family, Teddy has some truly monumental decisions to make in the final installment of Ollie Masters and Tyler Jenkins’ Snow Blind. I’m not going to delve into any sort of spoilers for this final issue, but suffice to say that Masters and Jenkins manage to overcome my previous qualms about the pacing of the series to deliver a tense, shocking and immensely satisfying conclusion to their story.

Masters does a great job of not overloading this final issue with dialogue or needless exposition, keeping things brief and concise and letting the physicality of the events which unfold carry the bulk of the narrative. There are no overwrought, elaborate speeches to be had here, and the final chilling denouement is carried out almost wordlessly, giving an extra sense of resonance to the proceedings.

Once again, Jenkins’ distinctive use of watercolours works perfectly to hammer home the desolation of the Alaskan backdrop, and this time he gets to play around a little with both fire and blood, producing some truly captivating panels in the process. The scratchy, unconventional approach to his linework also pays dividends here during the more frantic sequences, and he continues to perfectly utilise the local Alaskan wildlife to help underscore certain emotional and storyline beats along the way. Without wanting to demean Ollie Masters’ story in any way, it’s the sheer uniqueness of the artwork that really elevates Snow Blind to a higher level in my opinion, and I’ll definitely be keeping my eyes peeled for any projects that Jenkins plans on putting his brush to in the future.

Overall though, while it asks some fairly big questions about the nature of trust and the fragile nature of family, Snow Blind ends up being an incredibly intimate story about young Teddy’s quest for truth. How far do the bonds of family stretch, even when their entire existence has been built on a foundation of lies? This final issue provides the chilling answer to that particular question, and does so with both flair and stark realism. A fascinating, gripping and through-provoking crime thriller from start to finish, Snow Blind has staked its early claim to being one of the best titles of 2016.

Rating: 5/5.

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