As Owen continues his lessons with the mysteriously piratical Mister Gull, he finds himself chafing under the responsibility and the obligation. Meanwhile, a giant test at school looms…
Written and Illustrated by Paul Grist
When his mud powers go out of control, Owen Craig has no choice but to turn to the mysterious Mister Gull for help.
But just because it’s the only choice doesn’t make it a good one.
Entitled “This is a Test”, this issue is framed by means of a tough-love sort of lecture from one of Owen’s teachers at school. Stressing the fundamentally “rightness” and “wrongness” of our choices in life, these give a nice context to Owen’s actions in the issue – which, as it happens, take on an altogether new character as he comes to a kind of personal epiphany. It’s a moment we’ve come to expect in most superhero comics – the “I never asked for this” jaunt against authority (or, at least, one kind of authority) – but having been built up over the course of five issues, this one is believable and satisfying in terms of story as well as Owen’s character development. After all, a superhero is more than just his superpowers, and before we see Owen really harness them he’s going to have to come to a definite conclusion as to what he wants to use them for.
This is also one of the funniest issues so far, not least because of an opening sequence in which Owen has a bit of a, well, naive moment. Humour also signals Owen’s growing distrust of Mister Gull, and while the result is some great guffaw-worthy moments, Owen’s frustration with his situation is tangible.
Meanwhile, there’s the beginning of an intriguing subplot involving Jack (and honestly, it was about time the guy got a bit of story to himself!), so that’s definitely something to be looking forward to. The guy has had some great lines so far, and it’ll be interesting to see if and how he serves as a sidekick.
Fittingly enough, one of the best pages in the book is one that serves to relegate a text conversation that Owen has with Jack while sitting in the library. I don’t think there could be any more unpromising material for a page, particularly in a visual medium, but Grist manages the moment so elegantly that it’s actually really lovely. It’s the casual but pure-hearted emphasis on friendship that has buoyed the story so far that makes scenes like that work – that, and Grist’s simple but unusually effective layouts, which make the process of scanning a page feel effortless.
It’s actually hard to consider Grist’s writing and his art separately – especially when both are so assured and solid in terms of their apparent purposes and execution – and as usual, it’s those layouts that distinguish themselves more than anything. Grist has an excellent feel for patterning action across a page in a way that creates an appealing “macro” effect, while still having each panel serve its specific “micro” purpose, and while he does skimp on panel-by-panel detail, the pages flow all the better for it. Meanwhile, Bill Crabtree’s colours continue on being both subtle and effective, sort of gently gesturing at the mood in a particular scene instead of bowling you over with it. There’s even an interesting use of coloured speech bubbles at one point, and it gets across an added emotional dimension as well as adds to the graphic appeal of the spread as a whole.
Overall, this comic is continuing on being delightfully odd at the same time as grounded (mudded?) in some solid themes. It’ll be exciting to see where this slightly more determined Owen takes the story, particularly now that it’s getting even more complex, and if a certain (foreshadowing?) moment involving lyrics from The Cure is to be believed, we’re not the only ones with something to look forward to. Keep buying “Mudman”!
Final Verdict: 9.0 – Best issue so far.
