I love stories that don’t have a happy ending as long as there is some kind of payoff or rewarding end to the story. Sure it’s nice to have a “we’re all good” style of ending, but Mind MGMT has been anything but carefree and happy. The first story arc or book one of the series comes to a conclusion and it’s one that you’re not likely to forget. The immortals are upon Meru and Henry just as he’s confessed his dark secret to Meru. He’s responsible for her entire life as her family was in Zanzibar during Henry’s melt down and she was the sole survivor of it. Meru shoots one of the Immortals in the eye as they climb aboard their small boat, but being immortal they continue on. Henry invades their minds and sends them falling into the river to lie at the bottom. Meru is furious as she discovers the truth about her life and doesn’t know if she should kill Henry or finish hearing the story about her life being totally jacked. She decides to continue, but Henry can see that she’s changing and becoming something different.
This issue wraps up all of the mysteries that have been surrounding the series from the beginning, but does it really? That’s the beauty of this issue is that it reveals that we’ve all been fooled. This book was never about finding Henry Lyme, or following Meru on her journey to unwrap the mystery of the amnesia flight. It was all just Lyme’s confession as found his 0000… and it was spectacular. When Meru’s aura is red and fire like, I felt her pain and betrayal because in a way I was betrayed as well. As much as I loved this issue and series it still stabbed me in the heart as it flipped the script, but it was magical. Kindt finds a way to perfectly wrap up the story arc and in a way start the entire story over from the same beginning. It was a total mind fuck.
The art as always is fantastic and I love Kindt’s style. It fits his storytelling so well that reading other stories without his art is almost inhumane. The scene with Meru is definitely the most powerful scene in the entire issue and says more on the page than the captions ever could hope to. There is another page to discuss; the scene with the close up on Henry. It’s a great scene as it caps off his confession, but there is something intentionally misleading about the art. In the top panel Henry’s right eye is blue and left eye is green; then the eye color switches in the next panel and then back again in the final panel. It’s strange, but it’s almost there to see if you’re paying attention.
This was a great ending and I hope that there is more to come and soon. If there’s not then at least some one-shots expanding the world more in the meantime would be great. Matt Kindt’s career in comics is just getting started really, but Mind MGMT will forever be a series tied to his name no matter what he works on. Nerds and comic readers will bring him up and someone will say, “Did you read Mind MGMT? It’s amazing” and you know what… they’ll be absolutely correct in that statement.
Score: 5/5
Writer/Artist/Creator: Matt Kindt Publisher: Dark Horse Comics Price: $3.99 Release Date: 10/17/12