What I Bought 10/4/2021 - Part 3

The comic I was hoping to find on Friday was the third issue of Locust. Unfortunately, the owner of the store I was planning to visit got banged up in a fall and couldn't open the store, according to the note on the door. I preferred when they were just closed because the parking lot was being repaved. We'll make do with what we've got.

Locust #4, by Massimo Rosi (writer), Alex Nieto (artist), Mattia Gentili (letterer) - Nice to see New Yorkers maintaining their typical level of hospitality.

In the past, Max tries to escape Ford's men with the one kid he rescued. Gets shot in the leg, falls off the roof (with the kid) into a river. But they lived, obviously, and made it as far as Max' boat.

In the present day, Max was not killed by all the giant locusts that one guy was going to release at the end of issue 2. Not at all sure why, but he escaped, with one of Ford's teenage followers, who might take him to Ford. Or might not. While they stop over in an abandoned house for the night, a different group of armed people Max recognizes and I don't roar by on trucks on motorcycles. Looks like Max may have stolen something from them, and whatever it is gives off some sort of proximity or homing signal. Question is whether he pissed them off enough they'll take time out from whatever they're doing to hunt him down and retrieve it.

I'm not sure the switching back-and-forth between past and present is working. The end result is that it doesn't feel like either thread really gets anywhere. I'm not sure Rosi can stop now, though. Not until the flashbacks catch up to where we started. Maybe that won't take the full eight issues. 

My problems could just be from the absence of the third issue. I don't know what happened there, so I don't know why it feels like the present day part of issue 4 starts up more or less where it left off in issue 2. I'm left with that feeling of a plot running in place.

Even by the standards of this series, this issue's coloring is very dark and murky. Pretty much the only break from endless grey and black backdrops are the panels when someone is either shooting or being shot. Just brief instants among relentless dark. Even when there's light it barely illuminates anything. Max and his "guide" are sitting around the campfire, but their faces are still overwhelmingly shadowed. There's nothing good or hopeful here. At least not yet.