In this review of Death of Copra #4, Michel Fiffe promised audiences exactly one thing with the announcement of Death of Copra: an ending.
Death of Copra #4
Written and Drawn by Michel Fiffe
Main Cover: Michel Fiffe
Variant Covers: Michel Fiffe, Ben Sears
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: April 30, 2025
This review contains spoilers
Death of Copra #4 starts off as the previous issue ended, the remains of the Copra team face their former comrades Rax, Bianca (DyDy), Guthrie and Fornax in a threeway battle in Section z deep in the bowels of Copra Base. Director Flo and Sonia watch from monitors as the unthinkable happens: spirits of the dissected parent Ochizon “corpses” emerge, causing a surge of energies which erupts into chaos.
All parties involved are hit with extreme casualties, including Wir who is fried from inside his armor, Rax whose face melts off, Fornax who is half decapitated, Guthie who is charred to a crisp, not to mention the various injuries sustained by the rest of the Copra crew. After the specters dissipate, Guthrie’s mysterious brother emerges, taking her remains and vanishing, as the rest of the cast is left beaten, bloodied and bygone.
I’ve praised Fiffe’s craftsmanship in the past, but Death of Copra #4 exceeds my praise. While the previous issues featured terrific layouts and action when the books demanded it, Death of Copra #4 leaves no holds barred. Fiffe expands the scope of how to depict “big action” on the page without resorting to splash pages. The utilization of the three-long horizontal panels brings to mind Frank Miller’s Ronin and Darwyn Cooke’s new Frontier; all positives in my book. Fiffe keeps the pacing frantic, as colors and dialogue melt between the gutters. This is some of the best looking lettering seen in the series.
The technical kill on display services the emotional gut punch Death of Copra #4 delivers. There are some absolute wipeouts in this book. If anyone had any holdouts on the previous issue’s lack of ultraviolence, fear not, as this issue delivers on the title. Climactic only begins to describe the level of carnage wrought on nearly every surviving member of the Copra cast. It’s genuinely heartbreaking to see some of these characters go out so fast over such a grave misunderstanding.
Part of me does wish that some of the intensity of this fight could’ve been spread out evenly over the course of the other three issues. Fiffe defends himself in the captions, describing in plain detail that the theme of the book is about violence between adults, the sharp, loud percussion that might follow a tense crescendo. It rings true in theory, and certainly plays off the themes of Copra as a whole, but rings less true when you consider that there still remains a last, ‘fiftieth issue” of Copra solicited as the denouement and epilogue to the series.
I’m not going to complain about getting more Copra, but I can also see an argument that there has been at least distorted advertising.
While not the perfect ending to a four-part limited series some fans expected, Death of Copra #4 instead succeeds at being the perfect version of itself. Bloody and brutal, Fiffe tops himself in his abilities to depict the rawness of superhero violence only his hand can craft. It’s a beautiful, spontaneous, extravaganza of lines and color. This and the rest of Copra will remain not just a poignant tribute to Fiffe’s influences, but one of the great, independent-auteur pieces of visual art of the twenty-first century.
