Comic Book Review: Unfollow #12

By: Jerry Montgomery
October 12, 2016

Unfollow #12
“Final Act”

Written by: Rob Williams
Artist: Mike Dowling

Imagine following your favorite celebrity on social media. Now imagine if said celebrity contacted you personally.  Contacted you to inform you that you are now officially one of their heirs and that you stand to inherit $1 million dollars upon their death. What’s the catch you say? Only that there are 139 other diverse heirs whom will also share in the inheritance. Each,  $1 million dollars, unless some of the 140 die…then, it will be more. That’s the premise of DC’s series, Unfollow.

Issue 12, “Final Act” continues the story with 129 heirs still alive, 11 of them already having been murdered, increasing the surviving inheritors share upwards. At this point a year into the story, another celebrity has been countering dying media mogul,  Larry Ferrell’s, “chirps”. Akira, cult author and ex-revolutionary uses his own social media to claim heightened spiritual awareness and to receive messages from Heaven in which he is ready to share, courtesy of his downloadable free app. Akira has gathered his own number of heirs at his compound as a sanctuary for the troubled in the name of peace but a young woman by the name of Courtney has found out the truth. Courtney  confronts Akira and it is then that he reveals his plan to save humanity. Finally, knowing the awful truth, Courtney’s only recourse is to flee the compound before it’s too late. There’s also a storyline happening simultaneously on an unidentified island in the Caspian Sea, complete with Russian troops and helicopters, an enormous sea-plane, a Russian gangster boss and a…talking leopard?! All I will say is that, by the end of the issue, only 86 heirs remain alive!

The Verdict: Jumping into the story at this point will be confusing to new readers. It would be best to read the back issues to fully appreciate the shock ending. Rob Williams has woven an engrossing tale that examines many current day questions and concerns about social media outlets and the cult of celebrity that sometimes encompasses it. Unfollow is published under DC’s Vertigo line, a more mature offering and a little different than your typical comic book.