Written by: Joshua Williamson
Art by: Davide Gianfelice
Publisher: Image
At the end of issue 14, Jackson and company were left hanging in a rather precarious situation following the revelation that Charon was not quite the shining example of friendship that his father was. At the beginning of this issue, we pick up with him monologuing (as villains are known to do) and, as it turns out, part of his plan involves giving Jackson the one thing that everyone seems to assume is exactly what he wants: death. But on what terms?
Williamson had seriously amped up the tension coming into this issue. He’s been managing to come up with outstanding cliffhangers for Jackson since the beginning of the series, actually. With this arc he set up so many different parties around Jackson, all with their own goals, that I was really excited to see a huge, explosive payoff. The payoff came in this issue, and the payoff seemed more like a “poof” than a BANG!” Jackson’s basic goal in this arc was to bring Charon in for the Feds, and, one issue after being introduced to him, we’ve seen him turn and have his nefarious plan snuffed out, with seemingly no consequence for Jackson or his team, despite the less than ideal way in which they accomplished the mission. Williamson seems to be using the main story as nothing but a diversion, cutting away to show a previous adversary making their return. As I stated last month, I do appreciate the fact that the creative team is playing a long game with the series, and building a world that has depth and breadth, but, in this issue, that comes at the expense of the current moment. The book still has my attention, and this is more a slight stumble than a complete face plant; I just hope it doesn’t turn into a trend.
Even in the face of this slight misstep in scale, Williamson is still crafting a great story here and developing some intriguing characters. In this issue, Nina, a character that most comics would probably have just written off as a disposable damsel, comes into her own. And, despite the fact that Charon ends up getting the short end of the stick, I do like that the character that seems likely to be Jackson’s long term nemesis is getting continuous setup in the background. The reaction of the Fed to the manner in which things played out is also a nice touch. It would have been really easy to turn that character into just another government agent/jerk cliche, but Williamson creates a much more interesting dynamic here.
As with the previous issues, the art team does an outstanding job keeping a lot of plates up in the air. The action in this issue is comprised of both ghosts and people fighting at the same time, and Davide Gianfelice keeps everything flowing smoothly. The differing ghost designs allow the reader to differentiate between the two sides fighting, while also playing into the narrative, and the violence gets explicit without becoming cringe-worthy.
So, despite a slight misstep in the extent of the climax in this issue, the creative team is still doing an outstanding job at presenting an original take on this supernatural grifter’s tale. They’re building an intriguing world; I’m hoping that they continue to figure out new ways to take advantage of that.
