Random Back Issue #8 - Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye #11

Agreed. Let's all ring in the end of everything by sitting on the couch and eating chips.

This was the penultimate issue of this series, by which point it had moved way beyond where it started. From Cave and his daughter Chloe returning to the subterranean kingdom Cave's deceased wife Mazra hails from, it had turned into a chase across dimensions and alternate realities after some bizarre creature called The Whisperer, which is your standard "destroy or incorporate everything into myself" life-threatening thing.

We find out Cave's cybernetic eye was created in a partnership by another reality's Cave and Doc Magnus, and sent out to find a younger version of Cave who could meet Mazra. All so the eye can observe her and bring its recordings back to be installed in a blank Metal Man body. Sure, makes sense. Magnus insists that they didn't intend for the two to fall in love or conceive a child, but it's 'appreciated'. Very classy, Doc.

On the next page, "our" Cave tells Magnus that if he refers to his marriage or his daughter as an anomaly again, Cave will crush his throat with his bare hands. OK then.

My favorite part of this book was the odd friendship between Chloe and Wild Dog (who is apparently an associate of Cave's and got dragged into all this). The two of them are both a little out of their depth, him more than her, and I think both of them would rather than just blow things up.

 There's a race to reach some crystal that's the key to Metal Mazra beating the Whisperer, there's robot punches, and yes, there's monster snot rockets. Delightful imagery, but Oeming and Filardi's art was what kept me on this book. Stuff could look so weird and vivid, but Oeming could sell the quiet moments when they were called for. There's a nice one in here where Mazra shields them and then smiles at Cave, and he just knows that it's her inside.

[Longbox #3, 16th comic. Cave Carson has a Cybernetic Eye #11, by Gerard Way and Jonathan Rivera (writers), Michael Avon Oeming (artist), Nick Filardi (colorist), Clem Robins (letterer)