Had an owl hanging out on my windowsill one night a couple of weeks ago. Only noticed it at first because it cast a weird shadow across the blinds. No, it was not trying to peer into my apartment. This time.
Here's a couple of first issues from the last two weeks.
Stetson, with her (zombie?) pal Jiang and tech guy Ed, helps people deal with recurring nightmares. By going inside their dreams and killing the hell out of what's tormenting them. Stetson has her own reasons, as she's seeking someone called Valkira, the Shadow Walker. Meanwhile, in the waking world (sort of), there's a series of murders being committed by people who all claim to have been sleepwalking. They wake up in a home they don't know, standing over a corpse they don't know. And there are marks on the wall, along with a demand to be brought to the "Dream Eater". During the interrogation of the most recent suspect, Detective Finch has a bad experience and the next time he wakes up, he's the latest suspect.
I wasn't sure if I'd dig this, but at least through this issue, I am. It hit the ground running. Showed how Stetson tries to help people with nightmares, gave us some quick intros to her crew. Do I want to know how she ended up working with a possible katana wielding zombie? Yes I do. Gave some hints to her past and why she's after Valkira, and at least suggests Valkira is the cause of the sleepwalker killings. Although part of me expects a bait and switch there. Introduced this Finch guy and showed how he gets dragged in, and why he may try to divert the other police away from Stetson. Because otherwise, her card showing up at all these killings really ought to get her dragged in for questioning at some point.
Cardinali's art makes everyone look a little strange. No incredible physiques, but everyone is beady-eyed or bug-eyed, or lumpy shaped. Stetson and Jiang are both thin and Stetson looks eternally exhausted. Finch and the other cop both have thick lines under or around their eyes. Really, everyone looks like they don't get enough sleep. But if being asleep is this dangerous, that makes sense. the people in dreams don't look that much different, fingers a bit longer, teeth larger and sharper. Enough to look a little weird, but maybe it's because Stetson's pretty inured to it by now.
Cardinali doesn't play with the weird effects of being in a dream, too much, beyond stuff like floating whales in the background. There is one bit where their client is running and falls, only to hit their back against the top of the panel
Liverpool 1970 and a guy named Seamus finds a hand floating in the sea. A hand that belongs to the assistant of a judge who is trying to bring down Sebastien Delporte, who is, at least, an illegal arms dealer. Arms like guns, not like human limbs. Although maybe human limbs. There's a cop named Hathaway looking into Delporte, we'll see how that goes. And a man named Brendan is released from prison, determined never to go back. That could be difficult, as he's being told to purchase weapons from Delporte to defend the Irish from the British Army.
This feels like it could play out like a Guy Ritchie movie, where you can see all the disparate threads are going to come together, and they do some in some absurd clusterfuck. Seamus has a murdered man's hand, and since his right eye allows him to see things about the owners of things he touches, he's seen the face of the man who cut that hand off. Probably not admissible in court, but the sort of thing Hathaway would like to know, and Delporte would like to keep quiet. The sort of thing Brendan might handle for a discount. I don't think it'll be funny for anyone involved, however.
On top of that the Etxeberrias introduce other characters that are in Seamus' circle. Victoria and her son Felipe. Seamus seems to like Victoria and gets along with Felipe. Then late in the issue, he meets Eleanor and her dog Digs. My first impression is they're setting up the two women as opposite ends of a spectrum. Eleanor's blonde, white, seems younger, dresses maybe less casually. Victoria's older, Chinese, brunette, and they establish she's a sex worker. They both seem interested in Seamus, so we'll see how that plays out.
Arenas handles both art and color on the comic. The art leans towards clean but effective style. Not a lot of excess lines. A few to show creases around eyes, or jowls, but that's about it. There's a nice bit when Brendan's being released from prison with three rows of panels. The first shows his and two guards' heads as they exit the cell block. The next two rows are each three panels, and the middle panels are still Brendan, moving down his body as he's switching from prison garb to civilian clothes, and in the final row, fully dressed with his coat and suitcase as he leaves the prison entirely. For good, he says. The guards' presence and any of their comments are reserved for the panels on either side of him, and they cease to show up at all once he's outside the gates.
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