Worst to First addendum
I forgot to include that I read Fall of Cthulhu #6 and Left on Mission #4 last week in my reviews. My bad. Since the folks at Boom! were nice enough to send review copies, they deserve a mention.
Though Left on Mission took a huge step up from the past two issues, there’s nothing especially new in this espionage storyline from Chip Mosher and a lot of it falls into tense-movie stereotypes. After a full issue that didn’t advance the plot much at all (but filled in some backstory), we get an issue that sees all the back-room posturing finally lead to action, with a tense bag exchange surrounded by snipers of all stripes. It was a good scene, if not exceptionally illustrated, and did a fine job of cliffhanging for the final issue.
As someone who really didn’t like the first arc of Fall of Cthulhu (there were about three times as much dialogue as needed, to the point that I got sleepy from the reading), the first issue of the new arc was a massive improvement and makes the last arc feel like an unnecessary introduction. It starts with a group of arctic explorers hot on the trail of some mysterious thing stuck on a frozen ship. While the first arc was creepy but never suspenseful, this whole book kept a perfect tone of what’s-gonna-happen?
I still don’t see in Michael Alan Scott’s writing any of Lovecraft’s irony, but he’s taken a huge step in the right direction, as this was just a strong horror read top to bottom. Greg Scott’s art is also a nice addition.