By now it should be obvious as to what’s happening in the latest arc of The Woods, in which writer James Tynion and artist Michael Dialynas are taking individual characters and looking at who they were before arriving on the alien moon. In doing so they change the character before our eyes and it’s such a great storytelling device.

Even after a short break the best thing about The Mercenary Sea is that it’s consistent. It returns as if it never left and really moves the story into new territory. At the end of the last arc our Captain Jack was given a gift that may have turned out to be a the key to finding Koji Ra. Koji Ra being the mythical island that he’s collected stories on. The issue actually walks us through them and we get the sense of just how dedicated Jack is to finding this island and the supposed payday it would offer.

Okay… wow. Honestly, that’s probably all I should say about this issue since to say anything about what happens within its pages would be a spoiler. That’s right, every page is important to the story and frankly the landscape of the Chew universe will be completely different after this issue. Fuck, I feel like even saying that is a spoiler.

This is by far the most satisfactory conclusion to a crossover of two characters that I have ever read. For all intents and purposes this is a company crossover pairing two beloved and well-known characters and with that comes the protection that both characters require. Sure Grendel is a villain, but he’s beloved. Matt Wagner makes sure that Grendel fills the role of “heel” very well, but just because he’s the bad guy he doesn’t play fall guy to The Shadow.

While I was at New York Comic Con this year I had the chance to talk to Donny Cates about The Ghost Fleet and other properties he’s working on. Unfortunately the interview is lost and I had to write a generic recap of our conversation. One thing was clear from talking to him though, The Ghost Fleet was going to be nothing like Buzzkill.