Blow Away #4: Alone

Curiosity became an investigation and finally an obsession. Four issues in, Blow Away is as much if not more about Brynne and her own state of mind as it is about the murder she’s investigating. And paranoia is the order of the day in Blow Away #4.

Brynne lands hard after falling down the mountain, and that’s when Blow Away #4 flashes back to a key moment in Brynne’s professional past. She uncovered inappropriate and criminal behavior engaged in by a major television star. But that star worked for the same media company she did, and she was forbidden from publishing the story. When Brynne wakes up following the flashback, she finds herself in a cave, seemingly saved by a hunter. Or maybe the murderer? Was Brynne wrong about everything after all?

Nothing is certain in Blow Away #4. What started as a voyeuristic investigation of a possible murder–somewhat in the style of Rear Window–morphed into a study in obsession and isolation. Thompson now takes that obsession and isolation, solidified in Blow Away #3, and transitions it into full blown paranoia. Brynne’s paranoia opens up the possibility that everything the reader assumed was true (by virtue of it being communicated via the main character) is in fact suspect. The idea that Brynne might be an unreliable narrator was already worth considering in the previous issue. By the end of Blow Away #4, it’s a distinct possibility.

Part of this is fueled by the series’ first in-depth look at Brynne’s background. Blow Away #4 reveals that Brynne comes to this current assignment and place in life after having been a crusader in at least one instance–and with a healthy sense of moral righteousness. That, plus an investigative mind, explains why she would get hung up on the murder mystery in the first place. But it also explains how she came to be so possessive of the investigation.

Segala deploys a new color scheme for the flashback sequences in Blow Away #4. It’s darker overall and relies heavily on almost sickly looking greens and yellows. Contrasted against that, black looks almost inky instead of crisp. This color scheme then feeds into the cave that Brynne awakens in in the present. It’s a critical but dark moment in Brynne’s past that transitions into a critical but dark moment in Brynne’s present. The color choices push the sense of paranoia as well.

A brief sequence in Blow Away #4 takes place outdoors as the aurora borealis lights the sky. The bright and comparatively unnatural green and blue that gives the scene an almost otherworldly quality–totally different from any other exterior sequence in the series to this point. A great deal of Brynne’s emotional state in this issue is driven by Segala separating it so completely from the rest of the series.

The hunter who saves Brynne wears a mask that covers everything but his eyes. Izzo adds more detail to the hunter’s eyes than he typically does with characters in the series. He has considerably less to work with as far as conveying emotion goes when it comes to this character, and conveying that emotion–at least as far as Brynne sees it–is key to understanding Brynne’s frame of mind. Izzo succeeds here, and it’s exactly what’s needed to make the issue’s second half work.

Hopkins does a good job organizing captions and dialogue bubbles throughout the issue. In most cases there’s an almost waterfall effect going down the page which works particularly well in the sequences with less uniform panel layouts. There are also instances, both in the cave and later, where the choices Hopkins makes reflect the panel layout and help feed into Brynne’s state of mind.