Image Credit: Cutaway Comics (Fair Use)

Image Description: The cover of Paradise Found #4

Tides was provided with a free review copy of the comic

By James Ashworth

My review of issue three of this series said it had been ‘some time’ since the previous issue, back when it was published in August 2022. Now, approaching almost a year later, it’s been an additional some time for the fourth and final issue. As events come to a head, will the residents of Paradise Towers be able to ‘build high for happiness’? Or is it all about to come crumbling down?

For the comic, at least, happiness has prevailed. Seeing the host of Kangs, Rezzies and Caretakers have to confront the nostalgic dream presented to them, and reject it in quite bloody style, may not be the short term happiness they dreamed of, but it’s certainly better than being eaten alive. The themes of Paradise Found may not have been particularly subtle, but then, neither was Paradise Towers itself. In the end, it’s a triumph of colour over the forces of oppression, which seems particularly appropriate given the recent conclusion of Pride month, as well as equality over toxic masculinity. With a new series, Paradise Continuum, promised in the future, it will be interesting to see what will happen to our gang of Kangs next.

Happiness is also prevailing over in Terra Alpha Nights, which always manages to put together an excellent short story in just a couple of pages. This time, the various elements of the Happiness Patrol find out what a lack of co-ordination means in a neo-noirish tale set in one of the planet’s underground Blues clubs, delivered with suitable aplomb. Paradise Before, meanwhile, wraps everything up by taking the story back to the beginning, and coming up with a nice storytelling technique to get away with it.

While Omega probably still clinches it as Cutaway’s best range so far, Paradise Found edges out Lytton to move into second place. With a strong foundation now built, Cutaway believe they are now ready for a dramatic crossover event, Gods and Monsters, where characters from a number of their ranges are set to collide. Given the strength of their storytelling so far, it promises to be an epic clash of Doctor Who-adjacent titans.