A long time ago, I was on a plane to Mexico and Daft Punk’s album Discovery came on my iPod (yes I still have one of those, it’s awesome) and I decided to do a personal music experiment which consisted of listening to this album on repeat without shuffle to test the its true endurance. Even now I know which every song by heart, and still think it’s one of the duo’s strongest. The reason I make this point is that I am listening to this specific album as I read Joyride #4 once more with its predecessors and I’m still having a lot of fun reading it.
Joyride #4 picks up with a pissed off Uma storming off after finding out who Catrin is, her lineage and history relating to Uma. Some nasty stuff. Dewydd is after Uma to try to calm her down and 
in this attempt to talk it all out, it also makes Uma incredibly pissed at him as well. Now that they’re all divided and hating it, it’s a perfect time for Dewydd’s big bro Jorn to finally storm the place and kidnap his baby brother and princess Catrin Casanova.
When this comic started, issue four was to be the culmination of this mini-series. So this issue had the job to wrap it all up in a nice bow and let the reader know of the trio’s fate, fragmented or not. What it ended up doing was diving even deeper into the characterization of these three. Who they are once their “honeymoon stage” of stealing a spaceship is gone and they have to realize that they could actually hate each other but they have to deal with that as they venture further out into their unknown. Lanzing and Kelly put the main characters through one last test as they are separated both physically and emotionally, and how they could deal with that. It was a little much to pack in a single issue but through the use of dual narration, and beautiful visuals, they managed not only to tell the a full story that could wrap up this arc, but gave even more depth to the minor characters, like how much Jorn cares for his brother, or their alien buddy, and even the robot who controls the ship. It was a nice to have a conclusion that jumped them further into space, wrapping most loose threads from earth behind. With that said, THANK FUCKING ODIN that this turned to an ongoing series. As enjoyable as it was, closing the last page a permeating feeling was left that there is so much more these guys can get up to as they venture out deeper into space.
I cannot say enough great things about Marcus To and Irma Kniivila as a art and colors duo, from the very first splash page, the story comes back as a cool wave of great panels with divisions that almost seem invisible, attention to details that both move the story and charm the reader, action that pulls all the stops, and depiction of characters that show how much passion this team have for the story. I found myself busting out the first three issues just to read the first arc in its entirety. Daft Punk’s Discovery continued to play in my mind, and now I remember why, the story in this is as strong and charming as Interstella 5555 was by the creators or Robotech. Joyride is a joy to read and I can’t wait to get more of it.
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