Bleeding Hearts #5 Review

 

Bleeding Hearts #5 Review

Writer: Deniz Camp

Artist: Stipan Morian

Colorist: Matt Hollingsworth

Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

Editors: Chris Conroy & Mathew Levine

Cover Artist: Stipan Morian

Variant Cover Artist: Chloe Brailsford

Publisher: DC Comics

Price: $3.99 US/Variant $4.99 US (cardstock)

Release Date: June 10, 2026

 

It can happen without warning. Often, we don't know why. Yet one day, we want something different from what we ever did before. Poke may have been an oddball. Still, he was a valued member of the zombie community and Mush's best friend. Then, without warning, explanation, or desire, Poke started behaving oddly. Or at least, more oddly than he had before.

 

So, Mush gives his friend space. He figures sooner or later, Poke will explain things, and life will revert to normal. Then, Mush discovers the worst thing imaginable. Poke has betrayed his community. What happens when Mush realizes that Poke has been feeding and protecting Live Ones? Can things ever be the same between Mush and his friend again? Let’s leap into Bleeding Hearts #5 and see!

 

Story

Poke, or Mouse-Pokes-Golf-Ball-Out-Of-Hole, tries to immerse himself in Out-Break. The event celebrates his community’s rich culture and commemorates its founder. Out-Break used to be Poke's favorite holiday. But now, something is missing, and he doesn't know what.

 

In Bleeding Hearts #5, Poke shambles through the motions. Yet his heart isn't into the celebration. Partly this is due to his heart, which has started beating in his dead chest. But Poke also misses the Live Ones he saved from the Horde. He knew it was a sin. Poke knew his community could ostracize him for his transgression. Yet when his heart starts beating, Poke changes. And he put the Live Ones above his hunger and the needs of the Horde.

 

As Deniz Camp’s story follows Poke’s struggle to fit in on the most important day on the zombie calendar, Rabbit also faces the consequences of her actions. Like Poke, she ignored the rules of her dwindling society. Instead, she defied Mama and urged her to accept "Flower Boy" into their little family. Now, her mother is dead. And Rabbit looks forward to dying in the ritual hunt so she can reunite with her dead parents in Bleeding Hearts #5.

 

Art

After a close-up of Rabbit in her floppy-eared hoodie, the camera pulls back to show the zombie horde gathered outside the barred shop in the mall. As the community celebrates its holiday, a double-page spread of the gathering evokes an arena. Poke regards an homage to his civilization’s founder with a bemused expression. And as people play music and games, Poke gazes down at Flip, the stuffed animal that Rabbit treasured.

 

As Stipan Morian portrays Poke as an outsider on Out-Break, Matt Hollingsworth adorns the statue of Patient Zero with the same blue-green as Poke’s pants. The zombie guarding the Live Ones wears a violet hat, linking him with the flower growing on Poke’s head. Yet the guard’s indigo jacket evokes Flip, or Flip Flop The Friendly Bunny, which Poke found and returned to Rabbit. Now imprisoned and awaiting death, the girl's orange hoodie links her with Poke's friend Mush and the apocalyptic air that evokes Mama's fears of Judgment Day.

 

Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou places Poke's thoughts in white boxes and uppercase black dialogue in white and beige balloons. The letters grow bold for intonation, and shift to lowercase for lowered voices. As raised voices swell letters and make balloons spiky, heightened spirits turn the words red. Yellow-green shapes bearing squiggles reinforce Mush's argument that he has more in common with the mushrooms nestling at his neck than he does with Live Ones. Yet amid the celebrations, raised voices, and sirens, Poke's beating heart speaks the loudest in Bleeding Hearts #5. Thanks to DC Comics for sharing this story with us.

 

Final Thoughts

As the era of the Live Ones nears its end, the zombies rule the world. Due to his mysteriously beating heart, Poke has a foot in both worlds. For all the richness of his culture, he also senses it is stagnating. He would like to bridge the gap between the two cultures and reinvigorate both. Poke no longer knows what he believes. Still, he knows that he risks everything if he challenges his own kind to embrace new ideas in Bleeding Hearts #5.

 

Rating 9.8/10

 

To look inside see my preview of Bleeding Hearts #5.

 

For what happened last time, see my preview of Bleeding Hearts #4.

For how this series began, see my preview of Bleeding Hearts #1. 

Precious Metal #1 Review

 

Writer: Darcy Van Poelgeest

Artist: Ian Bertram

Colorist: Matt Hollingsworth

Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

Cover Artists: Ian Bertram & Tradd Moore

Publisher: Image

Price: $5.99

Release Date: June 6, 2024

 

Max hunts Mods who flee from their indentured servitude and sells them to the highest bidder. Yet he has a terrible secret and nothing to live for. What happens when Max meets a boy who could change all that? Let’s leap into Precious Metal #1 and find out!

 

Story

As a tracker, Max mixes with dangerous people. Chief among them is Elle The Blade. As Precious Metal #1 opens, a bartender slams his fist into Max’s skull to awaken him from his stupor. The bartender knows Max has a job and doesn’t want to arouse Elle’s ire by letting Max snooze through an assignment.

 

Max can’t afford to get involved with the fugitives’ lives. But he should have asked questions before taking this job. Max finds priests surrounding his quarry. The High Priest releases a boy from his constraints, and the boy recites scripture with him. Then the High Priest explodes. The violent act provokes a long-forgotten memory. The boy steps into his mind and promises Max liberation. The memory fades as the priests lock the boy away.

 

Max should capture the boy and bring him in. Instead, Max flees. Then Elle and her goons catch him. Max must fulfill his contract. But Max needs to understand what happened to him. He and Elle’s people demand that the priests bring the boy out of their spaceship. When the priests whip out guns, Max ducks gunfire, charges inside the ship, and flies away.

 

Long ago, people cared about Max. Now he's lost. He smokes, pops pills, and drinks to find peace. Nothing fills the void. This boy could destroy him. The boy could also help Max reclaim his memories and reconnect with his past. In Precious Metal #1, Max begs a favor from an embittered friend. Even though he hunts Mods, Max must convince a genetic modification designer to help him. Max braves the wrath of a powerful gangster, a church that wants to use the boy as a weapon, and a rival faction who vows to prevent the church from wielding the Human Weapon Of Mass Destruction. But Max doesn't want to be alone anymore. He’s willing to risk his profession and existence in return for a life.

 

Art

Max makes an impression, whether slumped over the bar or staggering away. He may clutch a beer bottle with tentacles, yet he's the most Human of the customers. Like plastic surgery addicts, the others display so many genetic modifications that they've left their Human appearance behind. Only the man standing on a dais clutching a knife and the clergy surrounding him look more Human than Max. Like Silas in Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code, the bleeding man’s body displays his desire to emulate Christ’s suffering.

 

Max clutches a gun in his Human hand and shelters behind a rock as he observes hooded priests surround a pedestal and an orb. The priests stand beneath a giant spaceship in Precious Metal #1 while stairs wind toward the densely packed buildings displaying myriad architectural styles. The High Priest removes his hood. Only a cross-shaped portion of the High Priest's face retains his Human features. The High Priest touches the orb, and it comes apart, revealing not an object on a pedestal but a boy in a robe. Then the boy regards the hovering cross of bloody meat, his expressionless features evoking the brutal Shrike in Dan Simmons' Hugo and Locus Award-winning novel Hyperion.

 

Matt Hollingsworth lavishes a loaded palette on Ian Bertram’s mesmerizing art in Precious Metal #1. Green dominates the bar ruled by the Jade Plant bartender. Blue rules the street as Max walks past the dripping disciple who dances to Cuts Like A Knife. Soft pastels color the world of tomorrow and form a backdrop for the priests and the boy. Yet his magenta tentacles make you wonder how Max could trail a target unobserved.

 

Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou modifies white dialogue balloons with large uppercase black letters that grow bold for inflection. Small, italicized lowercase letters portray lowered voices. Otsmane-Elhaou designs hand-drawn black narrative boxes with large uppercase white letters to reveal Max's thoughts and outlook. White letters evoking a kidnapper's note appear in red oval balloons. Expressive sound effects help us hear gunfights, explosions, and a priest's reaction to his superior's transcendence.

 

Thanks to Image Comics for providing a copy for review.

 

Final Thoughts

Max may be a fly caught in a web of intrigue, but the bounty hunter battles powerful factions amid genetically modified Humans in Precious Metal #1 as he seeks to discover the truth of his existence.

 

Rating 9.6/10

 

For another cover option see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.

Captain America #1 Spotlight

 

Writer: J. Michael Straczynski

Artist: Jesús Saiz

Colorist: Matt Hollingsworth

Letterer: Joe Caramagna

Publisher: Marvel

Price: $5.99

Release Date: September 20, 2023

 

Captain America may have saved the world from a Robot Apocalypse, but that doesn’t mean he can keep his apartment. So when the owners decide to evict tenants, raze the aging building, and sell the land, Steve Rogers assumes a new title: landlord! Now, between missions with his fellow supes, he's doing building maintenance and looking out for the less fortunate. 

 

 

 

 

Along with this heartwarming tale about caring for your neighbors, Captain America #1 looks back to Steve’s past. The story reflects on the young man in the 1930s after his mother died and the landlord evicted him from his home. We see the determined, hardworking young man before he gains his superpowers.

 

 

 

Captain America #1 boasts cinematic action scenes and art that often evokes beautiful paintings. Word size doesn't strain the eyes, and Straczynski never loses you switching between present and past. Still, this felt more like the introduction to a miniseries than an ongoing one. Nor did I feel like his origins needed further exploration. While beautifully told, Captain America #1 leaves me wishing the creator of Babylon 5 had focused more on the present than dwelling on the past.

 

 

Still, I enjoyed the issue, and plan to check out Straczynski's Captain America #2. Keep your eyes peeled for Shadows, Steve!

 

For a sneak peek at interior art and a more seasoned reviewer's thoughts, see Dispatch DCU's review at Comic Book Dispatch.