By mk2fac3

NOLA #4
Issue 4 of 4
Created/Story by Chris Gorak
Script/Writer: Pierluigi Cothran
Art by Damian Couceiro
Covers: Erik Jones (A); Chris Brunner (B)
BOOM! Studios
Price: $3.99; Release Date: March 3, 2010

Raised only by her mother, Nola Thomas led a confused lifestyle prior to the devastating events of Hurricane Katrina laid waste to her home city of New Orleans, Louisiana. After being nearly murdered by her boyfriend, a powerful married man, Nola wakes up after the hurricane to discover that half of her body has been burned, and that she has been left for dead, alone, in a New Orleans hospital. Nola goes home to find out that her mother has passed away.

Nola takes this opportunity of a post-apocalyptic setting of lawlessness and rage to take out all of her transgressions on the people responsible for all the wrong that has been done to her.

Issue #4 concludes this mini-series and gives us all the answers to every question that was presented in NOLA. We find out who murdered her father, and all the details of the elaborate cover up.

I know, right? Not knowing anything about this series, and just seeing the description provided that Nola Jackson goes through all the trials and tribulations of a scorned woman in post-Katrina New Orleans, you would think that this is a character-based story of a woman trying to survive the barren wasteland that was post-Katrina New Orleans. Well, that’s not the case.

It becomes clear that NOLA is a run of the mill revenge story that could very easily be based in Des Moines, Iowa. The setting of New Orleans really gives the opportunity to give this story some real heart, but it is not developed enough and the heart in this book is completely missing. Her reasons for revenge on all of her wrong-doers seems forced and, to be honest, completely psychotic, which would have been interesting if the writer had explored the psychological implications of nearly being murdered and all the death in New Orleans after the disaster. But it doesn’t. At all.

This could easily have been a story arc in the Punisher and it’s extremely disheartening because they had the perfect chance to make an excellent comic that would allow national eyes to see all of the pain and despair that the people of New Orleans went through. But with all the things it sets up, it ultimately fails.

Overall, it’s an entertaining story that has some, but very few, high moments including the art, but it really just seems like a missed opportunity to be something special.

Issue 4: 2 out of 5
Overall: 2 out of 5