Elena Abbott is one of Detroit’s toughest reporters. And after defeating the dark forces that murdered her husband, she’s focused on the most important election in the city’s history.

But when someone uses dark magic to sabotage the campaign of the prospective first Black mayor of Detroit, it becomes clear to Abbott that the supernatural conspiracy in her city is even greater than she ever imagined. Now Abbott must exhaust all her abilities as a reporter and a supernatural savior to rescue Detroit—but at what cost to her own life?

  • Abbott 1973 #5 Cover A

Abbott 1973 follows up Boom! Studios’ Hugo Award-nominated Abbott series. Check out our spoiler-free review of issue #5 below. (Need to catch up? Here’s the scoop on the previous issues.)

Abbott 1973 #5 Review

Abbott 1973 issue #5 draws Elena Abbott’s arc to a close. (Or at least, it closes out this chapter…) The final chapter does a great job of bringing together the heavy-action plot elements and Elena’s overarching emotional story. 

When Elena and her team find Amelia, she’s been possessed by one of the dark minions of the Umbra. There’s obvious conflict there, since Amelia doesn’t want to harm her girlfriend, but she knows she needs to defeat the darkness.

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again—I love how the light and dark magic comes across visually in Abbott 1973. The purple glow of the Umbra just looks so cool! And it contrasts so well with the warm light from Elena. In this issue you can really see how those visual indicators of light and darkness also represent the mood and tone for Elena at any given moment. When Amelia appears possessed, everything is purple—dark and dangerous. When Elena uses her powers to save her, things brighten up again.

A similar thing happens later in the issue when Elena goes up against the darkness one-on-one. It tries to trick her into believing her friends and family have turned against her. Visually, everything goes purple again, showing us not only the darkness of the villain’s ill-intent, but the darkness Elena’s mind slips into. Overall, I think it’s a really great use of color and the comic medium in general.

The story also comes to a pretty emotional close, with a somewhat bittersweet ending. Everyone lives, but everything isn’t how Elena expected it to be. Despite only lasting five issues (and a matter of days in-universe time), Abbott 1973 shows quite an impressive arc for Elena. She’s definitely changed by what’s happened. And though this arc does work as a self-contained story, the final pages let us know we could definitely see more from Elena in the future.

All in all, Abbott 1973 did a good job combining real-life issues, magical action, and a solid emotional arc into an enjoyable story. If you weren’t already an Elena Abbott fan, after this series you will be.

You can grab Abbott 1973 issue #5 now from Boom! Studios.