American Carnage #4 Review

Writer: Bryan Hill / Artist: Leandro Fernandez / DC Comics American Carnage is a story about trust. Hill asks us, the reader, to trust him as we navigate through an incredibly violent story about modern America. In turn, we are trusting him to treat the themes and topics with a certain gravity. In the story, Richard is trying to gain the trust of a white supremacist because a friend entrusted him with the responsibility. Characters are constantly confronted with this question of who they can trust and why: criminals and cops, familiar masks and unfamiliar faces. And the only things I’ve learned to trust after reading American Carnage #4 are Hill’s chilling dialog and Fernandez’s incredible artwork (aided by White’s coloring and Brosseau’s lettering). Our story picks up the morning after the events of American Carnage #3. A burning cross is taken off the lawn of a white family and a black cop questions a white woman and you can already imagine the vitriol that Hill instills with his writing. He also cleverly cuts the tension with a little bit of compassion as Richard comforts Jennifer Morgan’s daughter, Amy. Several things of note include: Fernandez and Brosseau managing to uniquely convey a conversation happening in sign language with appropriate gestures (based on my limited knowledge) and unique dialog boxes; Fernandez and White pivoting from gritty American crime story to childhood fantasy horror; and finally: Hill’s refrain for the issue “Just tell the monsters you’re not…