Good Luck #5

Good Luck #5

BOOM! Studios 2021

Written by Matthew Erman

Illustrated by Stefano Simeone

Lettered by Mike Fiorentino

The final battle is here! But what will Luck have to do with it? The team takes on Cassiopeia, the embodiment of Bad Luck, with Joseph's new form unifying them like never before. Will Good Luck prevail... and is that even what the Unfortunates want?

This was a very cute, charming and interesting story. The takeaway, well that will most assuredly be a personal thing unique to each reader, is one thing but for those who like to say “if it weren’t for bad luck i’d have no luck at all” or anything close to or similar to that well you understand how the characters feel. It has something of a social commentary about it but it's subtle and doesn’t really hit you over the head letting the reader enjoy it if they wish. I really like this story, it’s been fun, quirky and a bit self-deprecating from the get-go and it just struck a chord with me. One of the things that I noticed while reading this was that while the kids weren’t full of good or bad luck they were average, ordinary and not special in any way and I think that sends a message in and of itself. Doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from you can achieve what you set out to do in life if you believe in yourself.

I’m a fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter and this does a marvellous job keeping their personalities fresh and inline with who they are. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story I’m enraptured by it.

I like how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen right up until the very end. How the layers open up new avenues to be explored while adding so much depth, dimension and complexity to the story is handled exceptionally well. The way that everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is impeccably handled.

The interiors here are funky man. Funky in a good mind you because there is no defining moment to them they just kind of exist and distort what we see and the readers’ mind sees this as good or bad luck manifested through art. The linework is pretty amazing and how the varying weights are utilised to create the detail work that we see throughout is nicely rendered. This is a very stylised book, art wise, and while I normally don’t go in for this there really is something about the idea of the story that works so well with it. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkable eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a superb understanding of how colour works.

​

I’m not entirely sure that this endeavour was supposed to work and certainly not the way that it has. This I think is one of those instances where the human will, spirit and determination show we can accomplish anything when we put our minds to the task and believe in ourselves. It has been a very interesting journey watching this group of kids from start to finish and I almost feel a kinship with them. The writing here has been exemplary with some strong, interesting characterisation wrapped up in these crazy cool interiors.