Written by: Jeff Lemire
Art by: Emi Lenox
Publisher: Image
Interestingly enough, I think that Plutona suffers from being so short. Generally, this is the type of story that I would love to see told in a miniseries – there’s no need for a massive universe or a sprawling narrative. Just a quick, five issue series. And while the story is conducive to being just five issues long, I’m not entirely certain that what Jeff Lemire wants to do with the characters makes quite as much sense in the space of just five issues.
Lemire has always been a writer that’s built his books on the backs of excellently written characters, and that’s definitely the case here. The plot is interesting, sure, but it’s not the central focus of the book. The concept is a way to draw readers in – the reason they stay is to see the character arcs through. The issue isn’t that the characters aren’t interesting, because they are. The issue is that there wasn’t enough time to establish who they were before the events of the first issue of Plutona. So now, here we are, in the penultimate issue, and I’m struggling to care about Mie’s friendship with Diana falling apart.
It’s not because I don’t care about the two characters, because I do. The issue is that there wasn’t enough time to really get to know them before they were plunged into the situation they’re in now. It’s a weird dynamic, because on the other hand, had there been another two or three issues, the story may have felt like it was dragging its heels for a couple issues. I don’t know what the solution is, but Plutona #4 misses on some of its emotional beats because I don’t feel I’ve spent enough time with the characters yet. In a way, they feel undeserved.
Other than that, I do really like the book. Emi Lenox and Jordie Bellaire do insanely great work with the art. They truly bring the world and the characters alive. I also really the mixture of Eastern and Western styles – it gives the book a unique feel to it. It’s also super stylized, and if you like nothing else about Plutona (which I would find hard to believe), at least it has an interesting aesthetic to it.
The art is, however, more than just an aesthetic. The use of body language seems especially important here. There’s a ton of middle school drama going on, and the over-expressive body language serves two roles in making that effective. First, it gels well with the dialogue, adding impact to it. Second, it’s a form of comic relief. If everyone looked like they were taking themselves super seriously the whole time, the book would probably end up being bogged down in what would feel like unnecessary melodrama.
This issue is probably the weakest so far, but it’s still pretty great. Everything seems to be coming to a head, and, like I mentioned earlier, it’s culminating in the climaxes of character relations. My only real complaint is it doesn’t feel like we’ve reached the point where those are warranted yet, but I do really enjoy everything else about the book. We’ll have to see where the final issue goes, but this will probably be something worth checking out down the line, considering that it may be a bit too late to read it in singles with just one left.
