Punk Mambo faces off against a sinister sorcerer!

What does Azaire want with the loa he’s collected in Punk Mambo #4?

Mambo reaches deep into her bag of tricks to level the playing field. Sex magic may or may not be involved. But voodoo dolls definitely are.

Cullen Bunn, Adam Gorham and Jose Villarrubia (writer, art and colours respectively) once again come together to deliver a comic that is far more than the sum of its parts. There’s a roughness to the art at points that suits the character and the part of the story you’ll notice it incredibly well; Gorham and Villarrubia’s visual story telling allows Bunn to focus on the internal and external voice of Punk Mambo.

Last issue saw Punk Mambo confront the series villain before being viciously beaten as her magical abilities were temporarily drained. Although she gave as good as she got, numbers got the best of her – at least until her magic returned.

This issue sees her recovering from that beating, and examining the effects it had on her both physically and mentally. It’s during this introspective sequence we learn more about the character we (well, at least I) knew before. Glimmers of her past are revealed across a page of art and a few pages of narration that book ends said visual flashbacks. What I enjoyed most about the way the flashback was told is that it doesn’t interrupt the flow of the story (it’s actually pretty integral to the following scene), though it’s marred a little by the insinuation of a far more tragic past for Mambo.

Punk Mambo #4 reveals the motivation for the series villain, which is an oddly pedestrian cliche when you really boil it down, but Bunn frames it well enough that I really didn’t care. I was, and remain, far more interested in how the title character is responding to said villain than the revelation of the villain’s endgame.

The issue pulls the threads of the series together in a way that sets up a what should be a satisfying conclusion to the story.

Story: Cullen Bunn Art: Adam Gorham
Colours: Jose Villarrubia Letters: Dave Sharpe
Story: 9.2 Art: 9.2 Overall: 9.2 Recommendation: Buy

Valiant provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review