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Monocyte #4 Review

Monocyte #4

Written by Kasra Ghanbari and Menton3

Art by Menton3

Reviewed by Steve Seigh

Everything that you’ve ever known no longer matters. There is a figure, the color of bone and darkness, making it’s way through the mists of a wretched and poisoned land. It’s sharp fingers outstretched and searching for your throat, The One Eyed finds the purchase that is your soul and takes it away, but not before pulling you up close and exposing the hell that awaits you in the reflection of his one omnipotent eye. This is the moment before your last. This is the end to Monocyte.

To take the position that Kasra Ghanbari and Menton3’s Monocyte comic is anything but epic would immediately constitute you as a fool. I understand that the grand language of ideology of the series might weigh too heavily for some, but I urge you to expand your mind, dig deep, and allow yourself to be free of this mortal coil while indulging in what’s truly a unique reading experience.

Let’s first be clear with what you’d be receiving at the purchase of this particular issue of Monocyte #4.

Issue #4 hits stores May 16 and concludes the series. It’s 36 pages, $3.99, and features three covers. Once again, this issue includes two supplemental stories done by guest creators focused on the human slaves. Here’s the list of talent for issue #4:
* Created/written by menton3 & Kasra Ghanbari
* Interior art by menton3
* Interior art pages 12-19 by Chris Newman [
* Interior art pages 20-21 by Ben Templesmith [Fell, 30 Days of Night, Wormwood]
* A cover – menton3
* B cover – David Stoupakis [fine artist, Korn CD cover artist]
* Incentive cover – Phil Hale [world-renowned fine artist, formerly cover artist for Marvel/DC]
* human slave prose story – Steve Niles [30 Days of Night, Criminal Macabre]
* final allegorical human slave story – Barron Storey [fine artist, Sandman: Endless Nights, The Marat/Sade Journals]
Now, I’m not going to lie and tell you that I’ve understood everything that’s transpired over the course of this series. But what I will express and stress to you is that reading Monocyte has most certainly been one of the most cerebral experiences I’ve had reading a comic book. Though the book has action, romance, as well as an overwhelming sense of scope and grandeur, it truly shines in the fact that it begs the reader to confront themselves as they exist inside this particular reality in which we all dwell and interact.
The fact of the matter is that we are truly just mere spinal cords with shoes. Everything is connected, and only if we are to give in to the desires that we harbor from others will we ever achieve enlightenment. The war that wages between the Antedeluvians and the Olignostics will decide the fate of how we spend the rest of our already enslaved days. Add to these heavy themes the horrifically beautiful art of Menton3 (alongside several others) and what you have is a final issue that leaves you satisfied and clamoring for an apocalypse to this life that may never come.

VERDICT:
Once more, Monocyte is a heavy and cerebral read. If you don’t like to think too hard about your comics you may want to look elsewhere. But should you be a man or woman who loves to contemplate the very existence of man, or perhaps your someone who loves to get lost talking to a friend or lover until all hours of the night about why we’re here, you just might love Monocyte. I urge anyone who is looking for a different and ultimately rewarding comic book experience to remove the kneel before Grod and cower in the growing shadow of The One Eyed.
Executive Editor of Talking Comics, Co-Host of the Talking Comics podcast, Host of the Talking Games podcast, Writer of Ink & Pixel featured on Joblo.com, Candadian by proxy, and Pancake King.

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