Abe’s Rosario arc draws to a close, but did we get the answers we were hoping for?
Written by Mike Mignola and Scott Allie
Illustrated by Sebastián Fiumara
Colors by Dave Stewart
Lettering by Clem RobinsPeople think Abe Sapien’s transformation means he’s connected to the monsters taking over the world. Now, returning to the town where he was shot, and where his transformation began, Abe seeks sanctuary with a strange group of survivors.
Spoilers all through this one, I’m afraid.
Given that this particular arc wraps up what will be the third trade paperback of material since the Abe Sapien ongoing series began, and that Abe was returning to Rosario, the place where he’d been shot by Fenix over a year ago, my expectations for this arc were rather high. While I wasn’t exactly expecting answers, I was expecting some hints at them or a trail that might lead to them. However, all this arc establishes is that whatever changed Abe, it has nothing to do with Rosario, so really much the same outcome as his visit to the Salton Sea in issue 5.
This arc didn’t even come close to reaching my expectations… and yet, I enjoyed it nonetheless.
A big part of that has to do with Gene, a character I had put in a box that tied him with the Abe Cult and all the crap that comes with it. He was just a complication to be overcome. This issue does so much more with him than that.
Don’t get me wrong, Gene is a selfish, deluded arsehole, but here he demonstrated the capacity to change and the will make it happen. I still don’t like the guy, he has a long way to go before he gets into my good graces, but I’m interested in seeing him drag himself out of this hole he’s dug and hopefully emerge a better person. Maybe I’m being too optimistic, but that’s beside the point. The point is this issue got me to care about him.
The other thing I hadn’t expected was the sudden expansion of Abe’s supporting cast. Five issues ago Abe was travelling alone. Now he’s got Grace, Gene, and Dayana and her followers. Dayana in particular should prove to be a very interesting travelling companion. We got to see a little of just how powerful she is in this issue, and it was impressive to say the least.
This was a very talky issue, which is normally the sort of thing I’d be quick to criticise, but in this case they were conversations that needed to happen. In the last issue there were a few awkward beats in the conversations, in particular the abrupt mention of Burnham which derailed the thrust of the conversation for a page, and a mention of Hellboy’s death which had no impact at all. I wish those beats had been held onto for this issue where they would have fit much more naturally.
Abe’s conversation with Stazz at the Community Pool was handled well. It was honest, and by that point the characters had been through enough together to have earned that. If the Hellboy question had been held off for here though, it could have kicked that scene up to a whole other level and shown Abe’s vulnerability that much more. That said, he’s still pretty vulnerable. He’s more honest about what he fears in this sequence than he has been in any previous issue. Abe has finally been totally honest with himself, which hopefully means he’ll be more proactive going forward and leave behind all that denial that’s been holding him back.
Abe also seems to be closing the door on the B.P.R.D. chapter of his life. I guess I’d always assumed at the end of this Abe Sapien ongoing he’d return to the Bureau, and maybe he will, but for the first time since this series kicked off I’m starting to doubt it. Maybe, like Hellboy, there’s no going back.
Meanwhile Grace didn’t have much to do this issue, which was perfectly fine given so many new characters were introduced, but the conversations with her are worrying. Her inability to cope with her personal trauma has left her afraid, and those fears are holding her back from developing. Now those fears are being used to hold back Abe from developing too. It’s understandable, but readers have seen Abe stalling for a long time now, and it’d hate to see Grace become the new stalling point now that he’s finally got his denial out of the way. We’ll see. I’m hoping early into the next arc Grace is pushed into challenging her fears.
Continued belowAnd then there’s Vaughan, who’s looking more and more like the corpse he is. He’s becoming just like Willis, which begs the question, who will become the new Vaughan?
The sequences with Vaughan and Gustav Strobl have always been very exposition heavy. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but now that Vaughan has lost the ability to talk, Strobl is coming off more and more as a character talking only for the reader’s benefit, and it’s a little cardboard-like. The information we’re gaining is new (and interesting), but the staging is overly familiar. I’d like to see these scenes handled in a more inventive fashion.
I mentioned in my last review how Sebastian Fiumara’s artwork had brought Rosario to life and given it a very distinct identity. Since then, I actually got to see one of his pages before Dave Stewart’s colours, and it’s become apparent to me just how much extra work this arc has been. All the graffiti was done by Sebastian, colours and all. This arc is worth another read just to look through all that graffiti.
The big moment in this one though was the fight with the mutants outside of Dayana’s house. Normally I’m not the kind of guy to say, “Oh, the best scene was the action sequence,” but in this case this action sequence was about more than just action. This scene was all about selling the change in Gene. If this sequence didn’t work, his change would not have resonated. This conflict externalises an internal conflict and lays it bare for Abe and the others to see. The sequence hit all the right notes.
So, this was not the kind of issue I was expecting, but it was a good issue nonetheless. Gene’s addition to the cast was totally unexpected, and yet it totally made sense. I find there are times the series tends to talk about choices and actions rather than showing them, which is why I enjoyed Gene’s change so much. His change manifested itself as a choice that became very real action, giving Sebastian the chance to draw an action sequence that was as much about being overwhelmed by mutants as it was about being overwhelmed by anger. When the series finds visual ways to explore its characters like this, it’s really at its best.
Final Verdict: 7.5.
