Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye #10, by Jon Rivera (writer/story), Gerard Way (story), Michael Avon Oeming (artist), Nick Filardi (colorist), Clem Robins (letterer) - Was not expecting a Poison Ivy guest appearance. Or maybe it's Evil Swamp Thing! You'll have to read it to find out.Cave's cybernetic eye has gone back into the socket, which means he's seeing his dead wife again. Still, he got his depth perception back, you think that'd count for something. The group is attacked by what's left of one of the crew of the other Mighty Mole, now some giant fungus/tree thing. They're saved by the son of a different universe's Cave Carson, with Cave being very excited at meeting a male child of his. Right in front of his actual daughter. Cave Carson: Continuing the long comic book tradition of scientists being shitty dads! Cave Jr. brings them to his world, where that universe's Will Magnus has his Metal Men restrain them while that universe's Cave Carson downloads everything from the cybernetic eye into a robot version of Cave's wife.
I'm sure there will be some reason for this chicanery, that Mazra is the key to defeating the Whisperer. We'll see if it works out that way. Cave insisted last issue that seeking out an alternate version of Mazra was a waste of time. She wouldn't necessarily know them, so she wouldn't feel anything for him. That was shown to be a lie in this issue, just from how excited he was to meet the son of some other version of him. So now he's confronted with one that I assume is going to be some sort of recreation of the Mazra he knew. Is this all going to turn out to be some big thing about getting Cave over his depression over the death of his wife? His eagerness to remain fixated on that is a symptom of what the Whisperer feeds off of?
Wild Dog is proving to be a much better team player than I expected of a gun-toting solo vigilante. Always seems willing to help, usually by hurting someone, but still. Chloe seems to use him as sounding board for her concerns about her father. He's out of his depth, but he hasn't backed down at any point. Although I notice his mask doesn't have that notch where he got a machete lodged in it last issue. Or did he pack a spare?
My favorite panel is the expression Chloe makes while mocking the exchange between Cave and his "son". There's a definite element of hurt behind it, plus Cave taking this proud parent approach with someone who isn't his son just begs to be mocked. On the other hand, Alternate Cave Carson's head looks out of proportion to his body on that last page. Possibly intentional - things are getting distorted over the course of this trip - but I'm not certain of that. I did also like the panel of Cave's memories of the Mighty Mole, where Oeming reduced the number of lines, simplified things a bit, the nostalgia effect. The way he drew Cave made me think of Tintin, a little bit.
As the group first comes under attack, Oeming and Filardi adds these pale green leaves encroaching from outside the panel border. They aren't part of what's going on, more like an addition to the border, but then they reappear as the group meets Cave Jr. Foreshadowing that he's a threat? The leaves reappear one more time, as Cave ends Alexa, but now they're white against an orange background. The animating force behind them is gone, they're empty now.
I feel as though the book's lost some momentum in the last few issues, but I was admittedly looking forward to more adventures under the Earth, so maybe I'm just disappointed with the universe-hopping stuff.
No comments:
Post a Comment