REVIEW: W0RLDTR33 #5 by James Tynion IV, Fernando Blanco, and Jordie Bellaire

 

W0RLDTR33 #5

Writer: James Tynion IV

Artist: Fernando Blanco, Jordie Bellaire

Letters: Aditya Bidikar

Publisher: Image Comics

Release Date: August 30, 2023

Cover Price: $3.99

END OF STORY ARC

With PH34R ascendent, Gabriel is forced to pull a trigger that will change the shape of the entire world. No sacrifice is too great to stop the spread of the Undernet...

The first arc of the acclaimed new horror hit from multiple Eisner Award-winning writer JAMES TYNION IV (THE DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH) and FERNANDO BLANCO (Detective Comics) ends in a way NO ONE will see coming!

Score:

★★★★1/2 (4.5/5)

James Tynion IV, Fernando Blanco, and Jordie Bellaire have really pulled it off. These award-winning and award-nominated creatives showed why they're at the top of their talents as the stunning conclusion of the first arc of 'W0rldtr33' in issue five demonstrates. 

The promise of issue one comes to fruition in a remarkable game-changing cliffhanger that unleashes the worst nightmares that were only hinted at during this arc. The revelation of PH34R from the last issue casts an uneasy tension among Ellison, Gabriel, and his friends. The murderous naked woman has been an agent of chaos throughout and despite preparing for any scenario, Gabriel may try to overcorrect in an attempt to stop the madness. Tynion's deliberate pacing calmly escalates into a full crescendo by the end when all hell breaks loose. Already a master storyteller, here he entraps the reader in a room with a vicious killer only to see her influence win out. The reader is appalled, helpless, and a witness to great horror. It is horror at its finest, the kind that taps into our common fears and bludgeons our psyche with it, willingly. 

Fernando Blanco and Jordie Bellaire seem to rejoice in the darkness, both in a literal sense and in an unnerving vision of our demise. The darkened landscape of a fraught future, the grainy images of a feral public on a screen, and the wild faces that will haunt readers are all expertly depicted with a sense of evil precision by Blanco and Bellaire. Few other artists could capture the demise of humanity with such gloriously impressive skills. It's the vision of fear we deserve. 

'W0rltdtr33' concludes arc one in a fantastically demented way that only Tynion and Blanco could bring. A masterclass in horror, the series has been able to invoke genuine fear and suspense and somehow found a way to get even better.