YOU’VE BEEN CANCELLED #4, from Mad Cave Studios on 9/13/23, brings the stellar mini-series to a close as Roland and his little hacker acquaintance join forces to bring down Kraft and Cancelled for good.
The Details
- Written by: Curt Pires
- Art by: Kevin Castaniero
- Colors by: Jason Wordie
- Letters by: Micah Myers
- Cover art by: Kevin Castaniero
- Comic Rating: Mature
- Cover price: $3.99
- Release date: September 13, 2023
Is YOU’VE BEEN CANCELLED #4 Good?
If you’re going to go out, go out in a blaze of glory. That’s exactly the message of Curt Pires’s final chapter in his subversively twisted take on The Running Man in YOU’VE BEEN CANCELLED #4. Roland Endo and his team of reluctant allies shed blood and sweat for a plan to destroy Cancelled. For all the comparisons to The Running Man, Pires’s finale has just as much in common with some of the great Westerns of film history as our hero gives everything he has and more to do the right thing.
When last we left Roland Endo, he learned the game he spent years working for was rigged from the start by inserting targets who never got the vote to be Cancelled and ran counter to any of Kraft’s objectives. Now, Roland teams up with the hacker who made him a target out of revenge to infiltrate Cancelled’s command center and destroy the algorithm from the inside.
Where Pires’s finale is unique among stories of this kind is in the final moments. It’s not a happy ending but a satisfying one, which is a rare development in modern comics. Roland established himself as the quintessential anti-hero, but he earned the “anti” moniker for a good reason, so everyone’s bill comes due some time.
What’s great about YOU’VE BEEN CANCELLED #4? As much as this finale turns into an ensemble story with every character getting a moment to shine, this is really Roland’s swan song, and Pires sends Roland out with grit, gusto, and glory. The pacing, character development, and final moments are phenomenal, so it’s fair to say this series ends just as well as, if not better than, it started.
What’s not so great about YOU’VE BEEN CANCELLED #4? In and of itself, nothing. As a preferential note, it would have been nice to see some results from the hacker’s infection just to see the payoff for everything the group fought for.
How’s the art? Admittedly, Castaniero’s style is an acquired taste, but he nails the satiric bite, the dark edge, and the characters’ facial expressions to accentuate every emotional beat.
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What’s YOU’VE BEEN CANCELLED #4 About?
[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]
Check out our YOU’VE BEEN CANCELLED #3 review to find out how Roland reacted to the truth about Cancelled.
We begin with Roland putting his prototype fighting suit, the MK-1, through its paces as Kraft’s hunters converge on him. The suit works (almost) well enough to keep all Hunters focused on Roland while the Hacker and their allies make their way to Cancelled’s server room. The Hacker intends to inject a virus that will destroy the voting systems and distribute evidence of Kraft’s corruption to the world.
Roland fights his way through the Hunters until none are left, but the suit outlives its usefulness. Meanwhile, Kraft sends Edge to eliminate the Hacker. When Edge arrives, the Hacker explains Edge is just as much a pawn as Roland, convincing Edge into a temporary truce with Roland to stop Kraft.
We conclude the issue with mortal wounds, a final cancellation, and 100%.
Keep scrolling for a closer look at preview images of the internal pages, or Click Here to jump right to the score.
Final Thoughts
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YOU’VE BEEN CANCELLED #4 ends the highly entertaining, satirical, cyberpunk/social media mashup in a blaze of glory. Pires constructs the perfect anti-hero in Roland, who gives everything he’s got to set things right, and Castaniero’s stylistic art hits you where it counts.
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