At this point, I've pretty much figured out that every issue of Demo is going to be a big winner, so it was no surprise that Demo #4 was a great read. It's not my favorite issue of the series so far (that remains #3), but it's a good story about loyalty and knowing when to grow up, about the guy who takes a bunch of crap finally getting his and about the differences between family and friends. It's also about a guy with superstrength, but like all the Demo stories, the superpowers are secondary to the characterization and the themes. It's not that Demo #4 could work without the superpowers, because they're key to the point that Wood and Cloonan are making, but the creators go to a lot of trouble to make these characters feel real (it was no surprise to learn that Wood based some of these guys on people he knew) and to make the world they live in feel real as well, so that the superpowers are an element, not the element.
I've been lucky enough to have family and friends that have always been pretty supportive and good to me, and can count on one hand the number of times a friend has fucked me over or used me. So the central conflict in this one, showing a guy in friendships that have run out of gas and now just work on guilt and convenience, is one that I had a hard time relating to my life. Nonetheless, Wood does a great job of bringing it to the reader, and you can see where James finds his difficulties in letting go of the life and friends he knows, even though he's well aware of how they're treating him. In addition, the brief glimpse we get of his father early on leads us to believe that maybe these friends are better than an overly judgmental family.
The key sequence of this issue is sort of an action/caper piece, and it's the big reveal of the superpowers as well as a really good indication of what's left of the relationship between James and his friend. James is presented as, if not really slow, certainly not an overly deep thinker, so it's kind of cool to see him get the upper hand during this whole thing. There's definitely some justice to be seen in the way the whole thing goes down, and the confrontation that finishes up the book is terrific, the type of thing that would have an audience cheering if Demo was a movie.
Cloonan's work here is solid as always, and though I could have used a little more distinction between bald James and some of his bald friends in terms of making the story easier to follow from the get-go, the storytelling and mood that she provides with her art is dead-on. Each issue has had a slightly different feel, and this one has a darker quality, with a lot more ink and shadow, along with a style that compares in less obvious but definitely noticeable ways to the work of Steve Rolston with Brian Wood on Pounded, which is a perfect match given the shared background of that story and "Stand Strong" as well as with the general tone of the piece. And that cover, a little nod to propaganda posters, is a thing of beauty, perhaps the best cover of the series so far.
Given that I'm much more of a graphic novel guy these days, it surprises me to be able to say that Demo really does work better in single issue format. The self-contained stories are ideal for the format, and Wood and Cloonan serve up some nice extras that make each issue feel like a production, not just a temporary format while we wait on the inevitable collected edition. I love the commentary from both writer and artist on each story (wish it were a little longer, or more of a back-and-forth between them, though), the character sketches are a nice treat and the "Next Issue" blurb, complete with preview art, makes a nice "coming soon" trailer to close out each book.
