Who knew that the latter half of 2014 was going to have so many strong titles battling for attention? It’s quite the opposite of last year at this time. Where Is Jake Ellis took a bit of a break as both the writer, Nathan Edmondson, and the artist Tonci Zonjic worked on other projects. It was a shame for sure because there was a momentum building for the series.
I’ve been following the story since the first series and I while I read and reviewed the first three issues of this second volume, for the life of me I couldn’t remember what had happened in the previous issue. Here’s the joy of comic books and especially when you have a really good comic book… you can sit down and re-read the issues to get caught up. Let’s just say that the delay from issue three to four has been worth the wait and is nothing compared to the historical record breaking gaps that Marvel and DC have put readers through.
Now the issue does have a two page recap, but honestly I think you’re better off reading the issues. Rather than your typical boring paragraph recap the creators decide to splice in panels and make it fit the story better, but it ends up feeling vague.
After that we go four and a half years in the past and see Jon before the events of our story. At first the scene is normal with boring old Jon working at this desk in a field office for the CIA in Morocco that is until Jon starts hearing gun shots. The story intercuts with Morocco and the present throughout the majority of the issue, but we don’t learn everything about Morocco in this issue.
In the present Jon meets the doctor that apparently is responsible for Jon and Jake’s situation. The mad doc explains that they were an accident and now that they have both of them there they’re going to study and understand how their condition is possible. What they don’t know is that the closer Jon and Jake are… the better their connection is.
Edmondson doesn’t miss a beat with the story. He didn’t drop the ball between the first volume and the second so really there wasn’t a doubt that he was going to return to this issue and nail it. This is an important issue in the series for several reasons. First we begin to see Jon’s life before all of this mess and the type of man he was before. It’s interesting for sure because his character has gone through a lot of changes. The second biggest thing is a huge spoiler so I won’t say, but trust me you want to read this issue.
As for the art, it’s good, but it felt a bit off in the coloring department. Usually the panels are saturated in one color and while there was some of that, towards the end it looked more like Zonjic’s work on Lobster Johnson in which the hues aren’t all blown out. It’s not really noticeable unless you’re very familiar with the look and the style of the series and it really doesn’t detract from the story at all.
I have no idea if the last issue in this series is on track to finish next month and really I don’t care. The ending of this issue is so big that I might need time to wrap my head around it. Honestly I almost thought that this was the final issue which would have been bloody brilliant, but I’ll take one more for sure.
Score: 5/5
Writer: Nathan Edmondson Artist: Tonic Zonjic with Jordan Gibson Publisher: Image Comics Price: $3.50 Release Date: 8/13/14 Format: Mini-Series; Print/Digital