Love
Last issue I made a lot of comparisons between Jade and Jun, the wild card duo, so it shouldn't have been a surprise to see the next issue spotlight the enigma known as Jun. Even though he's really Hisao. But you knew that by this point.
Jun brings a TON of the outside conspiracy into this series. While Jade tends to weave the trippiest and most surreal elements of the story to full focus whenever she takes the spotlight; Jun is the nexus for the more grounded weird aspects of the series; the secondary conspiracy attempting to seep within the main one and destroy it from the inside. At the forefront of this is the mysterious Abraham. This is the most we've ever seen of Abraham, but all we really get a feel for is his personality. But we do find out he runs some form of camp to raise infiltrators for the Morning Glories Academy. While this all seems well and good considering what we know about the place, Abraham's camp honestly doesn't seem a whole lot better. He's definitely kinder than nearly anyone we've seen at MGA, and more open, but he spouts the same type of 'For the Greater Good' kind of cryptic creed justification for a gray morality. In fact, it seems like it's possible that his camp is different only in the fact that it's more open about motives. Not to mention that it appears he has meetings with Daramount.
And of course when we dig deep into Jun, we see a lot of deep characterization instead of the insane surreality seen in Jade's issue. We see a friendship between Jun and Guillame, a new character this issue. Spencer never ceases to amaze, as he brings this character right into our hearts. I already feel the strong connection he has to Jun in the few pages he had to endear me to him. Certainly the captivating juxtaposition of Jun's fights with Guillame and Hisao helped create the extra depth. The point is, I feel like I know how close he and Jun are, so when the big revelation hits, the moment is as powerful as if Guillame had been around all along.
As much as I like Ike despite his misogyny, there was one bit of his snarky dialogue that always annoyed me. He kept making all these gay jokes about Hunter and Jun, and despite them being said mostly to Hunter, the focus was clearly on the sexuality of Jun. They seemed to be one thing Ike just pulled out of thin air, and then he kept going with it despite the lack of justification. But lo and behold, Jun really IS gay. The moment that lead up to their reunion kiss, as well as the childhood flashback kiss... you realize it an instant before it happens. It's not shocking because 'oh my god gay characters!, it's shocking because.... well, I never thought about it before, and it justifies Ike's jokes, which brings my attention back to him. It's heartwarming and powerful, and it makes you feel good no matter what your sexuality.
Guillame also brings the idea of the students possessing supernatural abilities. The subtle way the idea is treated helps keep the series feeling grounded the way it is. We don't have people going around blowing up buildings and time traveling willy-nilly, and we don't even have the 'awkward teenage discovering powers' kind of thing either. The development of abilities is hidden so far back in the backgrounds of the story, its simply part of the new world being built.
And like the previous issue, the final few pages just pile on the mind blowers. A scene from the second issue regurgitates the idea of the time loop that issue #16 brought up in its connection to #12, and then the lead-in to the final issue of the arc brings an insane realization of something huge in terms of Zoe's murders, but not being a murderer.
In Conclusion: 5/5
It was REALLY hard to write this review. There was a LOT that I had to be vague about, I hope it's not too confusing, and I didn't have the same personal perspective some of the past few issues had. I'm a little sad I couldn't make more of this, I moved this up in my review schedule so that I could have a comic deserving of a milestone, but.... eh. Fantastic issue as usual. Or maybe I'm just out of it due to romantic complications in my real life. Part of me wishes I could meet a real Jade to cheer her up, and part of me thinks I'm not sure what I'd be getting myself into and I'm not as comforting as I think. Sigh, the world is complicated, and so is this series. But this series is complicated in a good way.
