Hunted by the End, Jess takes a chance on using Death’s scythe. She escapes, but why does she end up in the world of the living? Find out more in Grim #4 from BOOM! Studios.
GRIM #4
Writer: Stephanie Phillips
Artist: Flaviano
Colorist: Rico Renzi
Letterer: Tom Napolitano
Editor: Eric Harburn
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: August 24, 2022
Previously in Grim: There is Death, and there is the End, and they are not the same entity. The End approaches Adira as she laments that they have not had a good war in a while. He wants Jess; her presence is causing an imbalance. Adira thinks that with Death missing, there is the potential for more imbalance, and she wants the End to take even more Reapers. Jess, Eddie, and Marcel are imprisoned until the End crashes through the Afterlife. Vincenzo, Adira’s assistant, occupies him long enough for the others to escape, and it turns out that Vincenzo actually works for Death. In Death’s abode, no one is there, but they find his scythe and it comes to life in Jessica’s hands!
THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE…LAS VEGAS?
Grim #4 opens with Jess, Eddie, and Marcel still fleeing the End. They are stranded high up in a tower in the Afterlife and Eddie mentions his fear of heights. The End thunders in after them, and Jess notes that they are out of options. They jump.
But before they hit the ground, Death’s scythe activates and creates a portal which they fall through before it snaps shut. They find themselves in a shallow pool of water, the fountain pool in front of the Bellagio in Las Vegas. None of them were expecting this any more than I was.
A furious Adira surveys the wreckage, wreckage devoid of Jess. She calls for Vincenzo, but he is not there. The End walks up to her. Adira asks about Jess, and he tells her that she escaped. Adira does not understand how; she had no scythe. Then the End tells her she has Death’s scythe. Adira immediately realizes that Jess might be able to activate it. Clearly Adira knows something more about what is going on. She reasons that the Scythe will take her to where Death is, and the End leaves to search for her.
Unseen by the mortals around them, Jess and her friends walk down the Vegas strip wondering if Death is there. At least Jess wonders; Eddie reminisces about performing there. They pass a pre-wedding party of a bride and her friends. The bride, Amanda, stops drunkenly in the middle of the street and would have been hit by a bus had not Jess grabbed her and momentarily flashed her to being immaterial. Jess warns her to be careful. Then time stops and Amanda talks to her in a different voice. It is the voice of Death. He gives Jess a hotel room number, asks if she wants pie, and is gone. The pie is weird, but I like it.
The go to Death’s hotel – the Inferno, naturally – and take the elevator to the 13th floor, which only exists in the elevator for the moment they reach it. There is only on room on that floor. Jess has to know who is there and she steps through the door where she finds a room full of books, cigar butts, half eaten burgers, and the TV on.
WHERE LIFE AND DEATH INTERTWINE
The enormity of the Afterlife is the first thing we see in Grim #4, the impossibly tall buildings and cliffs surrounded by rivers of souls. To see Jess falling almost to where those grasping arms could reach her and pull her in is so dramatic and I love the way it is countered by their almost anticlimactic arrival in Vegas. The coloring is cool as well. Vegas is depicted in a vivid, rainbow wash of color that carefully avoids the scarlet and black of the Afterlife. I like the way it makes the living world appear so lively.
The arrival at the Inferno is a delightful mix of drama and humor. To begin with, there is something inherently amusing about the incongruity of the Reapers in the living world. The first panel is a view from above the sign looking almost straight down to the sidewalk below with dizzying perspective to match. The elevator stopping at floor 13 is visually clever, but I do appreciate Eddie also mentioning it, so we do not miss it. Everything points to this meeting being big and important. It sets up the messy hotel room perfectly.
BOTTOM LINE: UNRAVELING A TANGLED THREAD
After some wandering, Grim #4 brings the story into tighter focus. Between the suspense of Adira’s intrigue and the raw power of the End as a villain, the stakes are high, and we cannot help but hope our trio of Reapers makes it through to the end.
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Grim #4
Jess has lost her scythe, but while Death is missing, his scythe responds to her touch.
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By day, she’s a mild-mannered bureaucrat and Ms. Know-It-All. By night, she’s a dance teacher and RPG player (although admittedly not on the same nights). On the weekends, she may be found judging Magic, playing Guild Wars 2 (badly), or following other creative pursuits. Holy Lack of Copious Free Time, Batman! While she’s always wished she had teleportation as her superpower, she suspects that super-speed would be much more practical because then she’d have time to finish up those steampunk costumes she’s also working on.