By: Mike Carey & Peter Gross (writer & art), Chris Chuckry (colors), Todd Klein (letters), Joe Hughes (assistant editor) & Karen Berger (editor)
The Story: How will Tom and gang get free after being captured during that auction house raid last issue?
What’s Good: This is a perfectly fine issue of Unwritten. It checks all the boxes: nice writing, flowing story, nice art, tasteful colors, good lettering, etc. All the hallmarks of a good quality issue….
The story is part 2-of-2 and picks up directly from Unwritten #25. If you’ll recall, at the end of that issue, Tom and his buddies are captured while raiding an auction house that is about to auction some of Wilson Taylor’s (Tom’s dad) personal effects. I guess the cool twist at the beginning of this issue is [SPOILERS] that they are now trying to auction off Tom himself to a nefarious group of rich folks, one of whom is that nun-ish woman who tortures people with voodoo-like puppets.
There are neat moments in this comic, such as when Richie shows the bad guys that you can’t chemically sedate a man who has turned into a vampire. And the big stuff is that we’re getting further confirmation that Tom is some kind of construct who was created by Wilson Taylor for reasons unclear. But, even that dawning realization is kinda understated in this issue.
The Gross/Chuckry art is again very solid and the storytelling is superb. I do tend to love artists who are showing off in every single panel, but I really can appreciate that a scene in a small auction-house meeting room doesn’t need to have all kinds of little detailed stuff in the background. Everything is just clean and straightforward. The colors aren’t mostly flat-ish and I like that a lot too. Nice lettering from Mr. Klein to boot.
What’s Not So Good: There’s nothing wrong with this comic at all, but it also doesn’t have anything to make you say, “WOW!” Everything is very understated. If Carey and Gross had wanted to, they probably could have “gone for it” with revelation that Tom seems to be some kind of artificial construct and had a splash page like they did with Jud Suss (~issue #14 where they showed the tortured story) or Leviathan (where they showed the whale made up of little people). Those were such powerful pages and panels that I can remember them in spite of the huge glut of comics that I consume. That the creators didn’t go for that effect here tells us that they’re aware that they can only “ring that bell” so many time in the series and they’re saving it for a later moment (which shows nice restraint).
The only other negative that occurs to me is that I’m ready for this story to move on. I feel like this middle portion of the story where Tom learns his true nature, masters his magic, etc. is about played out and I’d like to know more about the “threat” that Wilson Taylor created him to fight.
Conclusion: A pretty good, but not awesome issue of Unwritten. There’s nothing wrong with it, but it doesn’t blow your socks off either.
Grade: B-
-Dean Stell
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