Wh4t’s up, dud3s? It’s like the McFreakin’ end of the world right now, amirit3? With the general concept of fair and free democracy being actively dissolved as we speak, Ryan Ferrier and Valentin Ramon return just in time to whisk us away to a place where 34RTH’s true hero stands up to lead his people to a new and prosperous future.
Read on below for our full, spoiler free review of “D4VEocracy” #1.
Written by Ryan Ferrier
Illustrated by Valentin Ramon
Ryan Ferrier and Valentin Ramon are back with D4VEOCRACY, the third arc of the acclaimed D4VE series. In the wake of a robo-political assassination, D4VE begins a presidential campaign. A hip new app startup has other plans for the robot society, however, and creates the perfect political rival.
If “D4VEocracy” #1 proves anything, it’s that Ryan Ferrier and Valentin Ramon are just as capable and talented at creating a serious dramatic story as they are in filling their comics with goofball humour. With 2017 seemingly ushering in a new apocalypse every day, it follows that our art will darken its tone as it reflects and fights against our new reality. This is exactly what has happened to D4VE’s world. What started off as a simple gag (“What if we told the story of a down on his luck dad and his shitty office job, but he was a robot?”) has evolved into a story about existentialism, a meditation on the dangers of connected technology and genuine political commentary and satire.
What made prior entries stand out in “D4VE” series stand out was how invested Ferrier and Ramon were in the details of worldbuilding and how they used that to build comedy. Here, they’ve used that worldbuilding and the history of the stories they have told to reflect our world back at us in a very different way. This isn’t a case of chuckling along to the joke that D4VE needs to pop out for groceries and comes back with a gallon of oil, but something akin to genuine as Ferrier and Ramon filter our worst attributes into this society, exposing that part of us that we genuinely want to forget. It’s a more somber issue than prior entires of the series and I feel like anyone looking forward to “D4VEocracy” because they want to read about 5COTTY’s dick jokes might be disappointed, but it’s a sacrifice that Ramon and Ferrier had to make in order to do this story justice.
What’s perhaps most surprising about “D4VEocracy” #1 is how little time the issue spends with D4VE himself. The majority of the issue focuses on the collapse of the world in his absence, the plots of the people looking to put themselves in power and how they are undermining the very fabric of society to get what they want. Sound familiar? It’s a bit of a strange read as most of the issue is spent trying to figure out just what these characters are plotting only for that thread and the thread of D4VE’s story, as his existentialist funk pushes him to step up and be a leader in the absence of one, to finally be tied together in the last pages. It’s a hook that works less of a shock or a revelation and more of an “a-ha!” moment as what the issue has been building towards clicks into place.
Now, just because this issue has a much more somber and dramatic tone doesn’t mean the series’ characteristic comedy style doesn’t exist. Ferrier and Ramon still keep a number of comedic beats throughout the issue to break up the tension and the dramatic scenes. It’s not quite the uproarious, gut-busting comedy of prior series, but thanks to Ferrier’s gift of unique dialogue and skill at lettering and Ramon’s sense of visual comedy in his artwork, there’s still enough comedy to remind us that this is still “D4VE”. It’s “D4VE” with an eye for political discourse and shows us the world that Ramon and Ferrier have created as more of a pure dystopia, sure, but it still has what made the prior series a hit.
Case in point: seeing Valentin Ramon evolve as an artist. Ramon was immediately impressive when “D4VE” first hit and to see his artwork improve and evolve by this third series has been incredibly impressive. With the world of “D4VE” so recognisably mapped out and the aesthetic of the series established, this issue allows Ramon to get a little experimental with the world and with his storytelling. Ramon’s storytelling remains very straightforward, with strict, rigid panels, but every so often he sprinkles in a circular insert panel that focuses on a certain character in the scene or even a flashback to a memory. It allows Ramon to create a focus point for the panel outside of the flow of the page, a closeup on a detail that doesn’t disrupt the narrative surrounding it.
Continued belowIt’s not just Ramon’s linework that continues to impress either, as his colours in this issue enhance the visual storytelling immensely. Colouring over his own linework allows Ramon complete control over the visual storytelling of “D4VEocracy” and this first issue is notable not just for Ramon’s really textured and grimey shading, but how he uses contrasting colour schemes. The issue opens in an incredibly vibrant fashion, with streams of bright, primary colours filling pages, only to get progressively darker throughout the issue. The headquarters of Duder, the workplace of the issue’s villains, begins with a palette of bright secondary colours, of purples and greens.
D4VE’s pages, meanwhile, begin dark as he wallows in his existential funk only to progressively brighten as he comes to realise his new purpose in life. These conflicting, contrasting colours run parallel to one another throughout the issue until the final page shows two panels, side by side, with each colour palette. It’s a masterclass in theming and emotional storytelling through colour.
This is a remarkable step for Valentine Ramon and Ryan Ferrier and they’ve both come such a long way since “D4VE”. It would be easy to say that this issue’s direction comes from a maturing, but that would be doing a disservice to their prior stories. It wasn’t that “D4VE” or “D4VE2” were immature, but that the world they were reflecting was. Our world has taken strides towards the next great historical disaster and “D4VEocracy” #1, with all its robots and funny spelling and dick jokes, is reflecting that world with a story that requires a more somber, more dramatic tone and it allows Ferrier and Ramon to exercise a different style of storytelling in this world.
Final Verdict: 9.0 – If you’re a long time D4VE fan or you’ve never read the prior series, this issue is a must read in this existential hellhole that is 2017.
