The Nice House on the Lake #8 – James Tynion IV, Writer; Alvaro Martinez Bueno, Artist; Jordie Bellaire, Colorist
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: Over the course of this fascinating horror series, one character has loomed large while barely appearing—Walter, the possibly-alien mastermind who gathered his friends from around the world to take a vacation in his lake house on the weekend the world would end. Initially, he was an all-seeing overlord and saw his carefully-crafted plans fall apart when the despairing residents didn’t comply with his plans for a fishbowl. So he rebooted the whole thing, erased their memories, and created a whole new dynamic. This time, the trapped chosen ones have no real idea of what’s happened outside and are still trying to get home. And even more significantly, Walter is now there with them—having created a simple human avatar for himself and trying to fit in. This issue is distinctly less terrifying than the first arc, more deeply unsettling, and provides us some incredibly important context into Walter’s character.
One of the most impressive things about Tynion’s writing is the way he’s able to make a character seem both terrifyingly inhuman and painfully human. We mostly see Walter through the eyes of two characters—Sarah, whose flashback segment shows she has his number more than anyone else; and Norah, who got too close to the truth and is now being segregated from the rest of the crew and is the only one still aware of the truth. She’s also the only one who seems to be truly able to get under Walter’s skin, particularly in one dramatic segment. But as the issue moves on, Walter’s ruse starts coming undone. His captives seem more and more determined to find their way out, despite his attempts to derail them. And as the issue closes, we get a shocking visual that reveals how close someone is to the truth. This slow-burn horror series never fails to surprise, and its “paradise” is no less eerie than the previous incarnation.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
