Black Betty #6by Sheena McNeilReviews may contain information that could be considered 'spoilers'. Readers should proceed at their own risk. Publisher
Credits Grade: 8 Just outside town, the spell over Betty is broken. She and the kid see some gruesome stuff, but Betty prioritizes getting paid over doing anything more than saving the kid. Good thing his grandpa has a safe full of money and gold, but there's something unusual in that safe too.I'm really enjoying this arc, but the pages certainly fly by! I like that Betty hasn't figured out yet that she needs to block her ability to hear, which means I spent many scenes wondering if she was going to succumb to the monsters again. That's good writing. The texting to communicate with the deaf boy continues to be one of the best realistic uses of technology I've seen in comics, especially for phones and texting. I like that it's presented as color-coded text boxes (like narration boxes) instead of on-screen; they even matched up Betty's internal monologue boxes (bright red) with her texting box (faded red). Betty's priority of getting paid bothers me some here. The saving grace is that she won't abandon the kid; she will save him without any payment. I get that she's sticking to her own rules, which probably keep her safe as well as compensated, but given the situation it just comes off poorly here. That being said, it does allow for an interesting plot twist with what else they find in the safe! I love the fight scenes in this issue. They are Betty versus humans rather than monsters, and she's not trying to really hurt them. It's good, realistic choreography that keeps the energy and suspense up. There is one two-panel set where she grips something with both hands to swing it as a weapon, but in the next panel her hands have switched places. This bothers me in general when I see it, but here, it's painfully obvious, which means it's lazy art and / or editing. I'll continue to praise this series' art for how it presents Betty in general. She's realistically large and curvy and muscular, and she's presented as beautiful, strong, and smart (all of which can be seen in the art, without any words). Written: December 13, 2018
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