Reviews 

Pick of the Week: Comeback #5

By | March 21st, 2013
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

Buoyed by a well-thought-out central concept and all kinds of bright and eye-catching art, “Comeback” has had a pretty good run. But how do things turn out for this miniseries – and its two beleaguered protagonists – in the end?

Written by Ed Brisson
Illustrated by Michael Walsh

With half of Reconnect on the run and the other half in the morgue, agent Mark Thomas has to make a deal with the FBI in order to save his own life. However, it may be too late – a former Reconnect agent will not stop until he puts Mark in the ground. The big finale with an ending that will shock you!

“At the best of times this time travel nonsense is a mindfuck.” We get this line at a pivotal point in the narrative, when it seems like the logic of the plot is about to collapse under the weight of multiple paradoxes, and in some ways, it’s the perfect steam valve. Brisson has built a coherent time travel mythology over the course of this series – one which does seem to hold up to close scrutiny – but here, at the end of it all, it’s hard not to wonder what else is going on here besides time travel. Which is to say: if time travel has been the core structure serving to hold up and define this narrative, what has this narrative been about?

If this issue offers a definite answer to that question, it lies somewhere in the relationship between Seth and Mark. They’ve each had to guess at the motives and loyalties of the other while still, ostensibly, being work buddies, and what’s finally affirmed is that they don’t want to betray each other or their own values. It doesn’t come out as dramatically as that, of course, and it’s mostly something you infer from their actions, not from their words, but it’s a good foundation: a strong, simple moral on which the series stands.

As the issue comes to a close, with a bit of a twist along the way, and couple of loose ends tied up, the only real trouble is the one that has been present throughout: this is a short series, and not a lot of time has been spent letting us get to know these characters beyond superficial details. There’s no flaw in Brisson’s formal approach – like this other issues, this one is talky, with a bit of action interspersed throughout – but rather the balance between exposition and character development. It seems like moments which could have been used to flesh out the characters’ personalities have been spent expanding on small plot details instead, when this wasn’t always called for. The result is moments that are convenient for the story structurally, but which don’t make a lot of sense – as is the case in the middle of the issue, when Mark makes a deal with a certain party and there is no good reason for them to trust him enough to go along with this plan (at least, not in the particular way he’s proposing it).

This lack of character depth is a common problem in miniseries, but it adds up to a paradox in the case of “Comeback”: the concept is too complex to be sustained for anything much longer than a miniseries, but the actions of the characters as a direct result of this universe’s mechanics have such complicated motivations that it would take a longer book to lay them out.

Michael Walsh’s precise art still meshes well with Brisson’s understated and realistic dialogue, with quite subtle facial expressions (given how many devastating and/or mindblowing facts these characters have to deal with over the course of the issue) and camera angles that add just enough drama to the proceedings without getting too off-kilter. Meanwhile, white gutter space is used to clean and energizing effect, parsing the action out across the page, and Jordie Bellaire’s vibrant colours add variety and a bit of fun. It’s also worth mentioning that there is gore aplenty in this issue, which Walsh’s minimalist style still accommodates in appropriately horrifying fashion. And so, while the script is somewhat uneven, and carries flaws that have been present throughout the series, this issue still reads smoothly, and works very well on a page-by-page and panel-by-panel level.

Viewed on a macro scale, this story does have some emotional resonance is the end, but it’s definitely not the showstopper it could have been, given the interesting moral undercurrents that have been apparent in the series so far. But this time travel story has been incredibly ambitious, and is worth checking out for the fine details that Brisson has worked into the central concept, and for Walsh’s concise visual storytelling. If the chops on show in “Comeback” are any indication, we’ve got plenty to look forward to from this team.

Final Verdict: 7.9 – Gift the trade.


Michelle White

Michelle White is a writer, zinester, and aspiring Montrealer.

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