Neighborhood Watch #4: Slipping into Predictability

As with the previous three issues, the art by Haining shines as the comic’s best feature. Haining’s layered artistic style paired with Rebecca Nalty’s colors leads to panels that pop off the page. The style of each page balances minimalism with detail. The character designs continue to improve each issue. A scene occurs of Bianca taking a moment to process everything that’s happened to Jill. Without any words, Haining portrays how damaging the past few days have been for Bianca. 

Aurora is the visual standout of issue 4. Aurora is drawn with so much visual distress. Each expression is radically different from the previous. She looks distraught and overwhelmed, visually aligning the character with her revelations about her mother. 

Gailey’s character writing remains consistently great. Bianca and Val, despite being in a similar predicament, act completely distinct from one another. Val’s calm, controlled demeanor contrasts with Bianca’s worried, overbearing nature. It’s Val’s “matter-of-fact” nature that highlights Jill’s (or in this instance, Cassie’s) emotional breakdown. Haining draws Jill’s deterioration as Val calmly speaks about statistics. It’s one of the best moments in the series that demonstrates the talents of its headlining creators. 

Unfortunately, the storyline of the comic becomes incredibly cliché. There was a character that was extremely suspicious in issues 1 and 2; in issue 4, the character reveals their true antagonistic nature; the comic is telegraphing their guilt. The character reveal is so cliché that, astonishingly, the comic went for it. This specific character having an antagonistic role undermines much of the mystery set up by the previous few issues, leading to an eyerolling cliffhanger.