Comix Tribe 2015
Story by Tyler James & John Lees
Written by Tyler James
Illustrated by Alex Cormack
Coloured by Jules Rivera
Well the boys said this was going to be one of those issues that not only takes you someplace incredibly dark and disturbing but also incredibly illuminating and necessary to the story. For far too long characters like the Joker have been watered down so as not to offend the public’s senses. Tyler, John, Alex and Jules throw that out the window here and give us the pure unadulterated over the top absolute bat shit crazy murder and mayhem of the truly insane. Such incredibly powerful storytelling happens in this issue that demonstrates not only Oxy’s depth of personality and character but of Mary’s as well.
After the explosive death last issue of Commissioner Donahue the city is now in freefall as the FBI is taking lead on the Oxymoron matter. Mary however isn’t going to let that stop her from rallying her fellow officers to keep going after him. She’s stepping up to the plate and showing her fellow officers and us that she truly is a much stronger person than we’ve seen. Yes she has things alluded to in her past most prominently that which happened before she came back and yes we finally learn what that was but she’s still this amazing woman through it all.
As the story goes on and the truth about relationships are exposed and the public is forced to participate in ways that are completely expected the intensity of it all hits like a brick. Gaines so called abduction and interview on air with Oxymoron starts what readers will be both appreciative and shocked by. Lies and truths completely interwoven in ways you never know which is which only highlight this crazy individual's intelligence. It just goes to show that you may be completely and utterly insane but you have to appreciate his thought process and brutally honest and accurate understanding of the way people are sheep.
As he plays everyone involved like pieces on a chessboard you are just so damn frightened by him. Nothing is safe or sacred everything is fair game and if you don’t play by his rules, if you can even figure out what those are, then you’ll suffer the consequences. At the same time however he’s forcing Mary to face her own demons, overcome them and be the kind of person that she and the city need her to be. It’s this horrific and shocking dichotomy that pushes you as a reader into this place that you don’t want to be but can’t escape from, nor do you really want to.
The way this issue ends couldn’t have gone any other way. Gut Wrenching as it is it is in absolute perfect character. This is a life changing event happening to our characters and not just them either. As a reader we finally get to see this stark creative and utterly unprincipled look that we’ve only imagined we could be taken to.
Alex and Jules wow what can I say. There’s so much emotion on each page and the range from anger to desperation to unbridled fear with last possible feeling in between comes across. I will say it’s too bad Leland Barker was wearing underwear I would’ve thought in that situation he should’ve been naked and laid that much more bare and humiliated.
If next issue concludes this story with the kind of work we’ve seen in these three issues then there’s no doubt in my mind this could run away with Best Limited Series of 2015.