Granny's plan to bring unity to the Furies fails in Female Furies #3, by writer Cecil Castellucci, artist Adriana Melo, colors by HI-To, and letterer Sal Cipriano. Seeds are planted for the future in this issue and Castellucci takes a bit of a more subtle approach to the book's allegory.

Granny forces Beautiful Dreamer of the Forever People to give the Furies dreams to bind then together again, but it goes awry when Beautiful Dreamer goes into Aurelie's mind. She's able to convince Aurelie to help her escape and Aurelie takes her to Himon. Darkseid calls in Granny and the Furies once Beautiful Dreamer is spotted and they attack Him on, getting Aurelie back. Granny gives Aurelie to Willik as punishment, setting in motion a series of events that will cost the Furies dearly.

Throughout this series, Castellucci has used Apokolips as a way to talk about sexual abuse. It's been very overt, but this issue, she takes a bit of a more subtle approach. Sometimes, it takes someone from outside to really help someone who is abused and Beautiful Dreamer is that person. She empathizes with Aurelie and tells her there's a better life out there, spurring her on both for help and hope. It's not as on the surface as most of Castellucci's messaging in the book has been and that makes it more powerful, especially once the reader realizes it. Later in the book, after Aurelie's capture, Granny explains to Aurelie how she dealt with her own abuse and it's sort of a perfect definition of the differences between the way prior generations of women dealt with abuse.

Scott Free returns to the story in this issue and seeds are planted here for a future relationship that readers are definitely aware of. This issue is the mid point of the series and with the ending of this one, it's easy to see what comes next. It'll be interesting to see where Castellucci takes the story from here; this issue changes things in a big way. She closes down certain plots while raising new ones and there's still a lot of work to do with some of these characters if the book will stay true to the story Castellucci has been telling.

Adriana Melo's art is, as usual, top notch. Her heavy line work is wonderful. It gives the pages a “Kirby-esque” quality. Her character acting is great as well. There's a scene later in the book, where a character is getting tortured and Melo perfectly illustrates the anguish the character is going through.

Female Furies #3 is another triumph for this series. Castellucci goes a bit more subtle and it pays dividends. She uses this halfway point in the series perfectly. There's the feeling of a bookend to this one, the ending of somethings and the beginning of others. Melo's art keeps wowing, fitting Castellucci's scripts to a tee. Readers familiar with the Fourth World will see where the story is going from here but Castellucci's proven how good she can be, so it will great to see what she adds to what readers’ already know.

Grade: A