Nomen Omen #4: Something Wicked This Way Comes

World-building is a tricky business. Too much exposition, and the reader becomes bogged down and bored; too little, and the audience remains confused and in the dark. Nomen Omen #4 tries carefully to toe this line; while it leaned occasionally into the “too much” territory, it never toppled off the tightrope straight into it. This feat is somewhat miraculous considering how much information is packed into this issue; however, I am not surprised by the skill of the Nomen Omen team. This is not an issue with a good deal of action, but it is also one that tells so much backstory, it cannot be skipped.

With more and more color oozing into the world of Nomen Omen, the pages become even more dynamic and filled with life. The colors flourish off of the page in the context of the largely black and white book, and while the color is becoming more common, rarely does it fully take up the page. Only a few pages in this book are full color, and while they are gorgeous, I do hope that the mixing of color with the gorgeous black linework remains a consistent theme throughout the issues. Camagni’s linework is too stellar to completely abandon for domination by color. 

The scenes with Maeve are most arresting. The information she provides is cryptic to a degree, but largely understandable to an observant reader. The visuals involved are incredible, from her initial appearance to her actual form. She leaves the reader curious and wanting to know more. Despite her nudity on several pages, she remains powerful and unsexualized by the artist.

The story ends with world colliding as Finn McCool makes himself known to one of Becky’s family. As readers, we are left on a hold of not knowing how this will play out. Hardly a cliffhanger, and if so, a gentle one, but one that will lead curious readers by the hand to the next issue of the series. I will certainly be amongst them.