Turns out there has been a comics store about 2 miles from my apartment for about a year. I was going to try it last week, and it was closed because the owner has COVID. Well, maybe this week. So I went to one of my fallbacks the next town over. Got three of the four books I wanted.
Things pick up shortly after the first issue ended, with Nettie waking up in the Mountie's cabin. Lapointe not only accepts her story of seeing a man in black with a giant spider, but explains the man is called "The Pale", though his motives are unknown. He never steals possessions, just the bodies of his victims. Including Nettie's son, Caleb. Nettie's dreams that night convince her Caleb isn't dead, so she and M.P. go to investigate the claim her son supposedly made, despite not being of legal age.
They find three other men there - or is it four? - including one Nettie's sure she's seen before. There's violence, but brief. Then Nettie encounters a giant demon moose. It doesn't hurt her, and she finds Caleb's Bible. Returning to town, she hires a lawyer who's getting out of there to go investigate who filed the claim in her son's name. The guy makes it about one step, before he's killed by something.
Spurrier's both explaining a few more things, and setting up more mysteries. There's more than just the Pale and it's giant spider out there now. And this is the second issue we've seen a man cut open his arm and pull out a piece of gold. As though it just appeared there. The first time was at the very beginning, and the Pale arrived seconds later to kill him. This time, Nettie takes it after the man runs off, and uses it to pay the lawyer. Who dies as soon as she turns her back. Lapointe mentioned those who aren't seized with gold fever seem to be allowed to leave, but that raises the question of the lawyer. Of course, it could just be Lapointe and everyone else is fumbling for an explanation, and there is no rhyme or reason to who dies. Or that logic only applies to one creature. M.P. says he seeks gold to raise his social station for a woman he loves. Curious to see if that protects him, assuming it's true (or remains true.)
Nettie's having strange dreams and visions, and Gooden gives those wavy or irregular panel borders, like puzzle pieces that fit, but oddly. Duke also shifts the color scheme for those to more of a sepia tone. They also gave the moose and whatever the thing on the last page is blank circles for eyes. Either white voids against their dark bodies, or like bizarre lights shining out. Duke otherwise keeps the colors sort of dingy and washed out. Nobody looks bright and shiny in this place. The skies are always overcast. The brightest panels come with violence, when Duke puts a lot of relatively bright yellow and red across the background. Makes for a nice contrast, the abrupt change from one panel to the next.
The Fourth Cosmos is a bunch of archetypes. Cloud, who gets to narrate this issue, describes them as living ideas, but trapped in an unending cycle. They fight, over different things, but always they fight. They change, until it resets and they start over. Zota's shuffling the deck, though, bringing the archetype of Galactus, the devourer, death, whatever, to end all this so Zota can be God-King of a new universe. Cloud evolves themselves into a new, non-binary form, and is able to convince the archetypes to fight together, sending Zota running for the Third Cosmos.
I know this is all deliberate, Masked Raider leading the Defenders by the nose to bring about what he needs to happen to Zota (namely, Zota undergoing whatever change will make him into the Raider), but it's getting fucking exhausting. It reminds me of the game Metro: Last Light, when I really wanted to kill that one guy, and the game kept stringing me along. "Nope, he got away. Maybe next time!" Let me have my vengeance already!
Yeah, it's the journey. Zota needs to go through all of this or he can't undergo whatever perspective shift he needs. And in the process, maybe the Defenders are making a difference. The Surfer giving baby Galen an impression of the lives he will take to carry with him into his next life as Galactus. Cloud, staying behind as an archetype in the Fourth Cosmos, who will hopefully carry over into subsequent cosmoses.
Should I trust Word Hippo that the plural of cosmos is "cosmoses"? Feels like "cosmosi" would be better, but my spellcheck balks at that, and not the former.
Fortunately, there's Rodriguez' artwork to look at. The various archetypes being recognizable, but still their own thing. Like the Hawkeye one having a bow, but a bullseye for a head. Goes with a very pointillist coloring style for this issue, which fits with earlier superhero comics. Although his "What-Must-Be" has strong elements of Sienkiewicz' Magus in it. Mostly in the face. Making the argument his work was so far away from the standard, the Buscema/Kirby/Kane/Curt Swan/whoever style typical to superhero comics prior, that it represents something totally new to the form and the universe.
But taken to the conclusion of what it's supposed to represent, wouldn't that mean Sienkiewicz' art was going to be the death of superhero comics, or at least an end to the endless cycle, the constant "middle of the story" serial approach? That doesn't seem right.
No comments:
Post a Comment