Guilt and Violence
(Spoiler free-ish)
(Spoiler free-ish)
Synopsis
WEB OF DECEIT! The search for PROWL leads the WRECKERS deep into enemy territory—and that’s where they’re at their best! Unfortunately, with the lives they’ve lived—the pasts they battle to escape—even their best isn’t enough to save everybody.
How the tables (heh) have turned
Story
After the break in the mini-series, we return to the happy escapades of a bunch of loveable misfits, who just happen to wander through the woods and get caught in the web of a spider. Imagine if Nick Roche approached Sins of the Wreckers in that fashion, and then move several steps opposite - darkness falls. Again.
Sorry Guzzle
We move through Tarantulas' web as guilt weaves its tale through the minds and past of Roadbuster, Hubcap, Prowl, Arcee and Springer, with the biggest and the smallest of the lot revealing the beginning of the shared sinful paths, and how they have encountered and become who they are now.
It's... not pretty
On the other side, the team of Wreckers and the Chimeracons, are still working their way through to Tarantulas and his prey, finding a way through the Noisemaze, finding their way through the mess that Prowl has landed everyone into. And they're fairly straightforward about it. Wrecker style.
Prowl, always the charmer
There is also - as is to be expected by now - some seriously dark humour in the book, almost a breather in between the even darker actions and dialogue taking place. But be ready for another big, dense, heavy read (in a good way, ultimately, but heavy nonetheless), as issue #4 is where Roche falls into the rabbit hole. More thoughts on this below.
Art
As expected, the darkness in the story crawls and creeps not only into the linework, where the organic and the mechanical blend in a really intriguing fashion - if not grotesquely so - but also into the panel composition, with a lot of blank and black spaces, filled yes with dialogue, but also with ominous pauses...
All together now!
Josh Burcham and Joana Lafuente's colours are wonderfully attuned to the linework provided, and we get some seriously murky, shadowy, closed and/or trippy, depending on the scene, backgrounds to accompany the story being told - or the plans being set in motion. From the past to the present, via the Noisemaze, we see the colourists' skills at full power.
Whheeeeeee...
As for the lettering, this issue allows for some of the most varied and appreciated work from Tom B. Long, given free rein over a number of techniques, from fading, to fonts, to sizing - the result is an integral part of both story and visuals, without which it might not work the same. On he cover front, the main Roadbuster narrative is taken on by Roche and Burcham, with the latter also playing with Prowl playing with lives (Kup in particular), and Jack Lawrence brings us the new, complete team of Wreckers in the thumbnailed variant.
Thoughts
Spoilerish ahead
Other readers have pointed out how, much like Roberts in recent MTMTE issues, there are some parallels here in SOTW with the previous Wrecker-centric volume. While that is undoubtedly true, it is also the case that Roche has taken the issues of guilt and violence very much to their limit, here. The issue may not be an easy read for some, as it is as graphic as it is dense, physically and mentally for the characters, and the latter for the readers too.
The way in which Roche, Burcham, Lafuente, and Long collaborate on the same story shows a level of passion and understanding of the different dynamics, between characters, between creators, between book and readers, that can only end up bringing about a book like this. The one concern, perhaps, is about the pacing - the build-up is so strong, the development so good, that it feels like this could've been the end of the story. How will next month rack up?
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- out of
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