Chachu #4: Respect Is A Strong Word

Leila and her Chachu are closing in on the end of this case, but that only means things are going to get more dire from this point on.

The penultimate issue of Chachu, ramps up the action like you would expect and perhaps gives us some of the deepest insight into both of our main characters’ psychies. The opening of the issue sees Leila wrestle with the weight of the gun she finds in her Chachu’s coat. This scene highlights that even though she spent so much time with her uncle, Leila still knows very little about the man. What motivates him? How different is he than the image she conjured in her mind? How different are PIs in the real world from the movies she watched as a kid? It’s not an especially deep or introspective scene, but its an important one that further exposes Leila’s naivete. As for Chachu, we finally see him do some real investigative PI work and for those brief glimpses we can see he is fairly good at it with enough charm to get where he shouldn’t be able to, but there are also hints of Leila’s aptitude for this work.

Iman Vellani is probably her most vulnerable as a writer in this issue. A lot of Leila’s dialogue in this issue and the conversations she shares with her Chachu come from an honest place, and carry a good bit of emotional depth that I feel is related to by Vellani. Chachu also gets some more exploration in this issue and shows how good he actually is in his job, and his normal cool facade also breaks down in a believable way, especially in light of a major revelation near the end of the issue.

There are a couple off moments, but Marianna Ignazzi’s art is still very strong in this issue. The action is very well done, and the sun-bathed colors by Jordie Bellaire add to the “heat” so to speak of the moments. This is also another issue with some strong panel work.