The Nice House By The Sea #3 – James Tynion IV, Writer; Alvaro Martinez Bueno, Artist; Jordie Bellaire, Colorist
Ray – 10/10
Ray: This series is pretty far and away the best book to come out of DC Comics and one of the best books in all of comics at the moment. Equal parts millennial anxiety drama and elaborate sci-fi thriller about the end of the world and the aliens who have been long-gaming us, this series pulled a fascinating twist by introducing us to a completely new cast of characters for Season Two, only to whiplash and take us right back to the original cast with more knowledge and context. But now the two are colliding, as the mysterious Oliver has entered the picture, with deep knowledge of exactly what Walter is up to and how long he’s been planning it. There’s just one thing he doesn’t know – what’s happened to Walter now. Oliver is a fascinating character, someone who had the potential for a free pass at immortality and resented the idea that he could just be given it because of his connections.
But he’s not the only mysterious figure in this book. Max, the strange showrunner of the second house and one of Walter’s old friends, is still hiding in shadows, but there’s evidence that she might be much more sinister and have less benevolent intentions than Walter in her grand experiment. Knowing what we know about exactly where Walter is – we think – it takes a lot of the scenes in this issue and gives them a whole new bent. What works so well about this story is that it’s the largest-scale tale imaginable, but it’s also a deeply intimate tale about flawed and toxic friendships and what happens when someone isn’t willing to let go of them. The cast is so large and the relationships so complex that a lesser creative team could easily get lost in it, but instead Tynion and Martinez Bueno have built one of the most fascinating books on the stands and one of the best achievements of both their careers so far.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
