Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker #5 Review

Butcher takes his first steps down the path of vengeance. Today I will be reviewing Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker #5. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think.

Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker #5

So let’s talk about the book. This issue focuses on Butcher’s first steps toward revenge. Still speaking to his dead father before his funeral, Butcher continues to recall his past. After the death of his wife, Butcher is taken to a holding facility. There he is given the choice of forgetting what happened to Becky and letting it go or rotting forever. Butcher picks a third option. He lashes out and maims someone. This gets the attention of Mallory, who gives him Becky’s journal and a new option. An option of vengeance. After reading the journal and learning that it was the Homelander who raped Becky and got her pregnant, Butcher agrees to do whatever Mallory says to get his vengeance. His first mission is to go to a house and kill everyone in it. Without missing a beat, Butcher enters the house and begins wiping out everyone there. Even when one of the people comes at him with powers, Butcher finds a way to kill him. He then returns to Mallory for further instructions. And that’s the book.

So let’s talk opinions. I don’t know how he did it, but Garth Ennis managed to make this issue more emotional and intense than last issue. Wow. Reading Becky’s journal was one of the toughest things I’ve ever done. I know it’s all a story and not real, but it didn’t come across that way. It felt like a real person was writing this and spilling all of her pain and sorrow and fear onto the pages. I immediately felt for her and just wanted to make her feel better. That takes an incredible amount of skill to get that much human emotion across in just a few pages. If I was Butcher, I don’t know what I would do. I did love the way he made his feelings clear to the guy interviewing him. Wow was that vicious. His massacre of the supes in that cabin was pretty awesome too. Given his military background and his skills in violence, Butcher is really an incredibly dangerous man. Now temper that danger with a solid purpose, and you have a monster at your beck and call. The art this issue is really strong as well. The facial expressions on Butcher as he reads the diary really help to bring everything to perspective. You can see the shock and sadness and fury just build with every image until he finally erupts in a powder keg of rage. The cabin scene was really done nicely as well. Very visual and violent and gory, especially in the imagery of the kid with his guts blown out. With only one issue left, I can’t wait to see how Garth is going to end this emotional roller coaster of a mini series. Not to mention how the final confrontation with Butcher and the Homelander will go, when it eventually does happen. With the revelations of this and last issue, I hope that the Homelander gets what’s coming to him. And that it’s a very painful reception. That’s my opinion folks. Take it or leave it.

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