By: Mike Carey (story/writer), Peter Gross (story/pencils), Rufus Dayglo (finishes), Chris Chuckry (colors), Todd Klein (letters), Yuko Shimizu (cover), Joe Hughes (assistant editor) & Shelly Bond (editor)
The Story: Tinker and Pauly Bruckner get ringside seats for the end of the world.
Review: This is a tricky issue. We’ve previously met Brooklyn tough-guy Pauly Bruckner who is trapped in a Velveteen Rabbit-esque body in the ‘land of stories’ in issues #12 and #24. Both of those issues were Grade A material as we met Pauly and learned that real world people can be ported into “storyland” (in #12) and then watched Pauly trying to escape from storyland via a winding staircase (#24). Even though these issues aren’t the main focus of The Unwritten, they’ve come to add deeper meaning to that concept that stories are alive and an alternate universe that has limited interplay with our world. The connection seems to be a man like Wilson Taylor who either (a) has some special gift as a storyteller or (b) just understands the relationship of the two worlds.
There was natural desire for this to be another Grade A work, but it just isn’t. It’s not “bad” in any way, but it suffers by being compared to the first two issues. The first problem encountered is that for the first time with these storyland issues, one wonders WHEN this issue takes place. The first two issues have been timeless, but this one, not so much. Toward the end of the issue, we see a serious threat to the fabric of storyland. Is this due to the events of the War of the Words story arc? The implication seems to be “yes”, but it’s hard to see what that really means. If storyland dies, does that mean that the real world can’t have stories anymore? Do the people of the Earth forget classics like Cinderella or The Bible? And if that’s true, how exactly does that happen? Or if stories must be created by humans first, are humans somehow (HOW?) losing the ability to create new stories to populate storyland?
The other problem with this story was that no character would tell the Tinker and Pauly what was really going on. They’re unique as real-world humans who have been banished to storyland, but why can’t one of the thousands of story characters give them the scoop on The Wave? It just seems that for a calamity to cause such a universal exodus, the characters would have to understand it a little better. All Tinker and Pauly get is a vague, “You better run!”
While frustration with elements of the story did hamper enjoyment, there are cool elements. Why is Wilson Taylor’s corpse laying in storyland like a fallen giant? Is Wilson from storyland himself or something? Why is he a giant? And why does he have a winged car sticking out of his head? Has there been a winged car before in The Unwritten?
Also, the whole encounter between Pauly and his offspring was interesting (who were very Monty Python, French Knights, btw). It’s implied that Pauly is a sort of “god” for these guys. They mention that there are statues erected in Pauly’s honor and the castle they inhabit is covered in rabbit imagery. And then there is the connection with “The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth” which is a very early work of fantasy literature. Hmm… And why does Tinker have all those swords? All of them are famous swords from early-ish 20th century fantasy novels or poems. Weird…
But, all of these cool elements didn’t tie together, and that took the starch out of this issue; especially when it’ll likely be April 2013 when we next see Pauly Bruckner. And by then, he won’t continue from this point, but doing something else.
The art is great again. Unwritten is one of those titles that has very understated art. 95% of the time, it’s just highly competent storytelling until you get to one panel and think, “Wow!” and then you skim back through all the other panels you just kinda inhaled and realize they are equally good.
Conclusion: Lots of good elements, that don’t quite come together to match the excellence of previous Pauly Bruckner stories. Doubtless there are readers who connected the dots better and enjoyed it more. This issue was like a joke where you didn’t understand the punchline and therefore feel left out.
Grade: B
-Dean Stell
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