Dream Thief is the best new series on the stands, mostly because the pacing is so damn good. When a comic balances story, exposition and character so well, it comes off as dynamic; magic. This book is magic, but is it good?
Dream Thief: Escape #2 (Dark Horse Comics)
You wear a mask that allows a revenge-seeking ghost to take over your body while you sleep. Oh, and your dad is inside another person’s body because he had similar powers going on before you did. Oh, and this stranger that your dad is inside is also in prison and wants you to get him out. And you thought your life was complicated!
Aw, what a buzzkill.
Jai Nitz has himself a pretty complicated plot going on in this series and while he’s done a stellar job keeping things clear and crunchy, this new storyline is a bit confusing for me. By issue’s end I wasn’t exactly sure what was happening, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t love the ride. There are chips on the characters’ shoulders that I assume Nitz has too and it’s infectious. There’s a flashback to open this book that isn’t exactly clear on how it all fits. That screams to me that this storyline is going to be a good collectable read, but single issues could be a bit frustrating. The dialogue continues to be stellar though, and you shouldn’t shy away if you like your hard boiled type stories.
Yikes!
The art by Greg Smallwood continues to be strong. There are some exceptional facial expressions on these characters. There isn’t as much creative stuff going on when it comes to the layouts as it has in issues past, but it’s very good at the ebb and flow of conversation between characters. It knows exactly when to get closer in on a character talking, for instance.
Very cool panels.
Is It Good?
I’m not feeling this series as much as I did in its original run, but it’s still very good at a lot of things. I’m hopeful it pulls itself around as issues come in, but so far it’s not quite up to the heights this series could achieve.
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