This is going to be a difficult review to write. I didn’t love this issue and I was waiting for some kind of big reveal. Well there is one or two, but nothing that blew my mind. Instead it felt like the series was just going through the motions and that was a bit of a bummer. Also there’s going to be a spoiler off the bat, but I’m only going to talk about the one throughout the course of the review. Chas was kidnapped in the last issue and it turns out it was by the guy that’s supposed to be helping him get into the UN. He has a dream like sequence as his head is dunked underwater and when it’s pulled up he hears a familiar voice talking to him. It’s Chukwu’s advisor that was sent to Chas. He tells him not to waste their time and than informs him that it was an honor negotiating with him before getting his brains blown out by a teenager. Meanwhile Alex is still pissed off with Chas and doesn’t even realize that he’s been snatched. He calls Zoe and I think the only point of the conversation is to reveal that Zoe is sleeping with the saboteur. It cuts to their side of things and it really makes you wonder what the hell is going on with Zoe. Is she on a side, does she have a side at all? If she’s security then she’s failed at keeping anything about her job out of the hands of her enemy and so really it just makes you wonder what the point of her character is anymore. She obviously doesn’t care about anything so why is she there and why should I care? I grew tired of her character especially considering she’s been useless this entire story arc.
The story is average. It doesn’t pull out any new tricks, but rather sticks with the formula the rest of this story arc has followed. I wasn’t shocked by the advisors death and the fact that I had to turn the page to really get the impact, actually lessened said impact. The reveals about the fish were pretty meh. It’s not like it came from left field and really the entire scene is awkward as well, but I don’t want to spoil everything. I needed more from this issue to keep me excited about the series, but instead it brought me down. I had a similar experience on the first arc and repeating that makes this story feel more like a chore than a treat.
The art is as good as always, but again the awkward page break and splash page for the advisor’s death was strange. There’s nudity in the issue, but it shies away from the violence that’s been in the series from the very beginning? It was just very weird and broke up the flow of the story. The art wasn’t in harmony with the narrative on this issue that’s for sure.
I almost didn’t review this issue because it was so stale, but I figured I would get my thoughts out so I could read the next issue with a clear head. Hopefully it wows me, but I’m beginning to think that it’s going to be very similar to the sixth issue just with something different standing in for the giant purple octopus. I know they can’t all be winners, but we can still hope can’t we? If you’re following the series you’ll probably want to finish the story arc and if you’re not then you might want to wait to see how this arc turns out.
Score: 3/5
Writer: Joe Harris Artist: Martin Morazzo Publisher: Image Comics Price: $2.99 Release Date: 10/23/13