Review: SPARROWHAWK #4

SPARROWHAWK #4
Written by Delilah S. Dawson
Art by Matias Basla, Rebecca Nalty, and Jim Campbell
Published by BOOM! Studios
Release Date: January 30, 2019

Warren leaves Artemisia behind, feeling she’s becoming something he cannot be near in good conscience! Will Artemisia find a balance of what she must do to go home and what she’s becoming? Or will she allow this new world to swallow all her morals? Find out in this latest issue of Sparrowhawk!

I find Artemisia’s character journey to be heartbreaking. She wants to be a hero, wants to do good, even if killing in a stranger’s land goes against everything in her. But the more she submits to the world order of this new place, the more she becomes part of it, a killer amongst killers, unable to quite know where the line should be drawn. She doesn’t understand why Warren would leave her, why her killings scared him off. She hides behind virtue and a code, thinking she can stay above the gray moralities of murdering, but she seems to grasp less and less of how much the murders have effected her each time she kills. It’s a tragedy, truly.

The art is beautiful. All the character designs, from the harmless creatures whose bites apparently “fester” to the evolution of Artemisia herself, everything is so unique. One of my favorite designs is this five-eyed lake-sky monstrosity with a tongue like an orange road and a body as big as a sky scraper – a guardian spirit. It’s a horror creature you think someone’d only dream up, it’s sublime.

I love the lettering Campbell does in this. I love the difference between Artemisia’s font compared to Warren, Crispin, and the rest of the fairy creatures. I love the fade of the text as Warren leaves Artemisia’s side, the slight change in font when Artemisia’s voice changes. There’s just a lot of detail placed into every choice in the fonts and I appreciate that.

I’m not quite sure who does page layout, but I love the page layout throughout the comic. For the most part, It’s not just the standard six or four panels on a page, all pages are crafted with precision, with purpose, with strange shaped panels and well done spacing.

I find Nalty’s coloring choices to be superb. I love how colorful the world is. It feels like a trippy Alice in Wonderland world where most things are blinding rave colors. It’s otherworldly in an acid trip kind of way.

Definitely check out Sparrowhawk when you get the chance. I’d start from the first issue, but it’s well worth the read.

The Verdict: 9.0/10

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