When a soul weeps, it does so with blood.

Rick Remender and Sean Murphy are ramping things up yet again in their tense dystopia. Mr. Flak is dead, but it doesn’t spell the end of the trouble that dear Debbie is in for.  Dear, sweet, mad Davey is still in the picture and now without the thin leash of authority on him…

This issue hurts.  There’s no better way for me to prepare you for what lies within, but with the pain comes a birth: the ascension of a villain who may come to rival a certain clown prince with intent and spastic energy.  This is no carbon copy of ol’ smiles, but the guy’s dripping with insanity and a devilish grace in motion.  This is only a footnote to the tragic actions that are the forefront of this issue. Remender is pulling out all the stops to drive the torturous existence of this awful future home.  This is still a very political book; there’s no mistaking the message within it, but within it are very human moments, examining what our relationship with technology is and who we can be without it.  I’ve spent a good deal of time catching Pokemon lately, so the message is certainly apt in my own life.  Debbie is a great character that we’re constantly feeling for and has her weaknesses put on display, side by side with her strengths.  That’s what I love the most about this series; that the characters are so visceral and real and each dances to the tragedy of their lives in their own way.

Every issue that Sean Murphy draws has a couple of brilliant, mind-bending panels that just crystallize points so damn well.  Davey has some post-mortem moments with a couple of important folks, and the haunting look into the devastated psyche of that guy is unnerving, because each action makes some kind of sick, twisted sense.  Flak’s is . . . well, poetic . . . but like Homer poetry, like eating your family in a pie after making it with your mom and having your eye gouged out poetic, not little Miss Muffet.  The depravity has escalated so far in a way that makes no bones about the evil of this world, but it’s entrancing all the same.

This arc is building beautifully, and it’s going to be a helluva ride going forward.  Every single issue has been better than the last, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store next.

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