In this review of Dead Teenagers #4, Brandy finds herself wrestling with a couple of concepts she’d never anticipated, as JT puts together a few pieces of just what’s been happening.
Dead Teenagers #4
Writer: Jude Ellison S. Doyle
Artist: Caitlin Yarsky
Main Cover: Naomi Franquiz
Variant Covers: Keyla Valerio, Caitlin Yarsky, Naomi Franquiz
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: June 17, 2025
This review contains spoilers
As Dead Teenagers #4 begind,a flashback to 4 different scenarios from Brandy’s POV, before we see her waking up in the Adulthood timeline. She’s experienced her own death many a time, but this is the first time she’s actually experienced seeing it happen to other people, and she’s not taking it well.
JT and Claire try to support her, but soon decide it’s best to head to another hiding place. The killer knows where they are, and so JT invites them to hide out at her place. As Brandy goes off on her own, JT finds an old photo of her and Alicia.
In the present, JT checks on Brandy, who’s deep into the realization that 30 real years have passed and she has no memory of it at all. That how she felt she had to be a party girl to be likeable, and how not even that was enough, and the hooded figure knew this.
From there, JT and Claire talk, with JT bringing up the game she made for the science fair, and how Mr. Alban had helped. But Mr. Alban, as it turned out, was a massive creeper and when she refused his advances, he refused her recommendation to MIT.
JT also realizes that she and Alicia had seen who was under the hood and that may have broken the loop. She’d experienced the time that everyone else had missed out on. But Claire offers her some level of reassurance.
That’s when things click into place for JT, and she rushes to get Brandy…
Only for Brandy to have run off to a carnival, where she’s speaking to the hooded figure: Mr. Alban.
So, immediately, I saw a parallel between the beginning of Dead Teenagers #4 and the beginning of the story in general. In each, Brandy is introduced by joking about Mr. Alban being a creep. Well, as it turns out this time around, it’s not just a joke. Nope, this guy makes someone think that he’d have to be a really good science teacher, because that feels like the only conceivable reason he’d still have that job in the first place. Seriously, this is not a man that should be around kids.
The artwork done for this title overall works well for the story, but in Alban’s case, they’ve pushed the creep factor pretty effectively in his expressions. I could feel my own skin crawling just from that grin on his face.
The reveal of who he is certainly explains a LOT about JT as a character, why she didn’t go through with the MIT application. She mentions it meaning a lot to her to have Alban mentor her, only for him to utterly betray her trust in the worst way.
Seeing Brandy reach a breaking point was a little painful. Of course, it turned out that all that time, she’d been putting on a smile rather than really feeling it for herself, and that revelation is, honestly, rather heartbreaking.
And then she goes running into the arms of this familiar teacher that should be on a registry. Makes me anxious for what’s going to come next.
Figuring out what’s going on does actually prove that JT’s smart…but her confidence had to be SHATTERED for so long.
Claire pointing out that nobody really had things entirely together back in the day was a nicely emotional scene. Everyone has problems, and JT’s not alone. She’s just the only one that got to experience adulthood.
Final Thoughts
We get a lot of answers here in Dead Teenagers #4, and some of them are a bit icky, but it’s all done really well. The emotional core is strong and we’re getting some answers and I’m excited to see how it all wraps up.
