Monday, 7 March 2016

Gold Digger 04



Gold Digger  4



Summary:
Gina has  to take on Gravedigger, who now has  access to  the complete armory, while Cheetah  lies  paralysed for up to an hour. 
Gina uses pretty much every resource  at  her disposal,  from her  intelligence  to  displaying  here to unforseen bravery. 
To  trying to  appeal to Gravedigger and giving her a name and an identity of her own,
but to no avail  the curse  is far too strong.    

Notes: Released on  1 October  1993

Credits :
Writer artist Fred Perry
Editor : Doug Dlin 

And you can read along with the link provided down below.
Best way to read it, is to download Comic_rack
And install Ghostscript
But Adobe Reader works fine too


Review :

Actually yes,  Gold Digger 4 is almost as  good  as the previous issues.
We get a  recap of the situation.  (  And yes, that  is a Tie Fighter in the weapons  hangar,  lets not forget what comic we are reading. )  Brittany is  most conveniently  paralysed for an hour, so Gina has to fight her own fight against Gravedigger.
And Gina is honestly wondering if  she made the right career choice and where she is going with her life,  especially because of all her mistakes of the last few days. 
But, as we saw in  the original mini series, her father is a master mage but she has no aptitude for magic and  we learn later on that her mother, is one of the greatest  sword fighters that ever lived and she has no aptitude for that either.
Her father was the one who pushed her towards science, which is where she  shown a born aptitude for that field. 

In dealing with Gravedigger, Gina shows her self to be resourceful. First  by teleporting security robots  in tot he  armoury to  distract Gravedigger.
Which are T800's and  ED 209's from Terminator and Robocop respectively. 
Keep in mind, that Robocop  was  6 years old by this point in time and Terminator 7  years old.
But Robocop 2  was only  3  years old and Terminator 2  just  2  years old, at this point in time and  still hugely popular. 
So it's no wonder Perry chose to spoof them. 

Gina then shows  off just  how  smart and how much  guts she actually has, by   confronting Gravedigger unarmed and making her think  she is nothing  but  a  hologram, while she is  actually there in the  flesh. 
Asking her point blank why  Gravedigger has  to  kill her or Brittany and she even manages to, somewhat get through to Gravedigger.
Going so far  as  to  giving her a name, Brianna a combination of Brittany and Gina, 
because that is what she is. 
But Gina also knows that Brianna can't resist the  impulses of the curse for very long and  she has got to be stopped.

Brianna's plight is  understandable, all she wants is a life and a identity of her own, If she  can  move the opposition, in the form of  Brittany and Gina aside, she can take their place and life their lives with their  memories in place. 
She is cipher, a nobody, a vessel for the curse to kill  the Diggers sisters until Gina reaches out to her and gives her an identity.
A name and with  a name comes an identity and a sense of self worth and eventually  memories and a personality of her own. 
Not just a combination of Gina  and Brittany but Brianna her self. 
Maybe I am reading too much in to this, but I am reviewing this comic, so I have to look a bit deeper then what  is  on the surface. 
And the implications of having an identity  and a sense of self worth, when you  are  literally   the two halves of  two  people  is interesting.
After al, where do they end and where do you as a person begin  ?

Gina  puts  up a good fight against Brianna, but  it all eventually  proves  for nothing. Even if  Brianna  gloats a  bit too much, but even that  is  a  personality  quirk set up from issue 3, where she becomes over confident and sloppy when she  thinks she has a weaker opponent  cornered,  apparently forgetting  that  Gina is  both smart and resourceful. 
Yes, the  eventual resolution is a deus ex machina  with  her father  coming back  in the nick of time, but  the curse is  magic in nature so he had  to  make a reappearance sooner or later. 
The curse it self is rather  easily dealt with and Gina, true to her word, welcomes her  new  sister with open arms in  the family.
Brianna will become a mainstay  of the series  and she is still around as we speak. 
Maybe Perry decided he  needed another  character,  another sister  to  play with the dynamics and instead of having  her be a third  hereto unseen sister, he decided to create her outright. 
Despite her  out of left field  origins or maybe because of them,  Brianna's plight is an easy  one to understand. 
Because who is she ? I doubt even she knows for now.   
 
Brittany gets a bit short shrift  here  in this story, because  issue 4 is Gina's show. 
The priestess from issue  2 shows up again  and is finally given a name.
She has  kidnapped a  unconscious  Brittany and plans to  do heinous deeds, most foul upon her  when  just at that  moment,  prince Strype contact her and foils her plans !! 
Curses  !!!
This  part of issue 4 is  less well done or well thought out.
 It is just there to  give  Brittany something to do and remind us Tanya still exists. It would be a better diversion if we just saw  Tanya  brooding  in her tower and thinking of new plans to mess with Brittany  and win Strype over. 

Issue 4 is  yet another excellent instalment. If issue 1 and 2  are a bit so, so.  3 and 4 redeem the series so far, the last  part with Brittany  not withstanding.
Issue 4  like it's predecessor has the right amount of action, adventure  and  actual human drama,  coming  out of the story  and the  characters themselves with out any  humor forced upon them.
Most of the humor comes  from  sight gags, The story itself, the comic book science  not withstanding, is played straight.
Although some of the humor is a bit too broad and too  silly for a story,  that so far plays it absolutely straight.
 ( the bowling ball sequence  )  But on the whole its a great story.    
And Brianna  is  more then  just  a  halfway  point  between Gina and Brittany.

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