The Good
Marko is still dealing with the death of his father, heads out to find Oswald Heist with Alana, Hazel, Klara, and Izabel. The Will, Gwendolyn, Slave Girl, and Lying Cat try to focus in and track them down.
The stand-out part of the issue was the scene with The Will. He is quite the fan favorite, even though he's a minor antagonist to the main characters. His relationship with Gwendolyn starts to grow here, and it seems like the two may become romantic in the future. Also, Slave Girl finally gets a name. This group is quickly becoming a nice little family unit, and they already have a pet. The coolest pet in the galaxy: Lying Cat.
One thing that this book has over every single other book on the shelves is that every single character in this book is strong enough to hold their own solo series. Well, maybe not Hazel because she's a baby. Writer Brian K Vaughan's strength in this series, as well as the numerous other series he's written is developing characters and making the reader want to know more. The reader just becomes enthralled with who these characters are and what they're all individually trying to accomplish. Some characters are a bit more interesting than others, but overall, these are some of the most intriguing characters in current comic books.
While there's no giant with humongous testicles or a television screen showing some adult rated material, Fiona Staples art, in this issue, is still something that should be talked about around the water cooler. Her brilliant art style has a lot of fairy-tale elements to it. Everything just pops of the page, and her art, combine with the story, gives the reader something different from the other comics on the shelves. Also, the Bone Bugs are pretty darn cool. Who doesn't love a beast made entirely of random bones?
The Bad
This book hasn't been around for a couple months, and delays can really hurt a story. While it's true most fans would rather have a delayed book with solid writing and art, rather than the artist/writer rushing or the publisher putting on a fill-in artist/writer, delays still suck for fans.
The biggest problem with this issue is that it feels like this should have been issue #12 and issue #12 should be issue #13. Everything that happens here takes place before #12. This story is all about the journey to find Heist. It feels backwards, and as a jumping back on point, the events of issue #12 would have worked much better than what happened here.
The Verdict
Here's the thing about this issue, overall. I wasn't as happy with it as I was with the other issues. Sure, it's good, but this delay really created a big disconnect for me from the characters and story. There's a pretty, what should be, emotional scene towards the end of the issue that fell a bit flat for me. The art and writing are perfectly fine. The problem is just that it's been a while since the reader has been with these character and in their world. Regardless, the art and writing are still great, and it's a very good issue. The biggest problem a lot of fans will have is frankly, we're all just a bit sad the book has been gone for so long, but we're extremely happy to have it back.
Overall, I highly recommend this issue.
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