It's too bad this book didn't come out the same week as Midnight Western Theatre #2, so I could have had two comics that involve fighting a bunch of religious loonies in hooded robes.
So, past and present. In the past, Max tries to get himself and his elderly mother out of NYC, but isn't very good at driving with giant bugs on the roof of the car. Fortunately, they get rescued by some helpful, heavily armed folks who turned a police station into an armed compound. Don't worry, though, they describe themselves as 'Good Christians.' Yeah, those two words used in combination have never meant anything positive. Led by the mysterious "Ford" Max is seeking in the present.
Speaking of the present, Max makes his way to a cabin in the woods, where he finds a lovely little congregation in the basement. All of whom are preparing to kill some kid because if they kill the unclean God will stop the plague or some such shit. It really sounds more like they're a bunch of white supremacist dipshits, but they've also captured some of the locust people to use as weapons? Or perhaps they've somehow converted them to their cause. Otherwise I'm not sure how they were able to mark the little crosses on their foreheads. Anyway, someone set them loose, so now Max has that to deal with.
Nieto gives every location a different sort of color motif. The scenes during the escape from New York are mostly greys and blacks, so that the fires and taillights can stand out more in contrast. So everything is very muddy, but then there's this one streak of something brighter to catch the eye. Even if it's just to highlight how overwhelmingly dark everything is. He kind of does the same with the scenes in the basement, but cuts it down to really just black and red. Makes everything ominous and menacing.
The couple of pages of Max' approach to the cabin are dominated by blues and whites, with the snow and the looming mountains. Initially, there's no sign anything is wrong with the world. He could just be an average hunter or nature enthusiast out and about. It gives it a peaceful air that's shattered when he comes across a couple of mutilated bodies that have been strung up in a tree.
Plotwise, both threads seem to follow the notion of false haven. Max reaches a place that seems promising - either in terms of being safe, or in terms of having the child he seeks - only to find danger lurking instead. The presence of the locusts, but more the people. Ford's the danger in the past, and however they've captured or turned the locusts in the present, it's the people planning to use them for a specific purpose. Big surprise, people are awful.
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