Reviewer: Tim Stevens
Story Title: Pulled: Part 6
Written by: Jason Hall
Art by: John Watkiss
Colored by: Jeromy Cox
Lettered by: Ken Lopez
Editor: Will Dennis
Publisher: Vertigo
What…what just happened?
Six issues ago, when this book launched, it was full of promise. Cool, timely, Philip K. Dick-esque premise. Watkiss on art. Mathan shouting his love of the book from the rooftops. Vertigo looked like they had a critical hit on their hands, even if the sales would not reflect it. (which, sadly, they didn’t).
Each issue since has delivered on the promise of that first issue to some extent or another. They weren’t all home runs, but they all ended up on base. Last issue, when many dominos fell into place, was perhaps the best issue of the series since the first.
And then came this issue.
I don’t know what is going on here. Maybe the fact that the book hasn’t been out in awhile (it has been more than a month since #5, hasn’t it?) hurt it. Maybe the fact that I sort of, kind of forgot about it until I got my review assignments for this week didn’t exactly help it. Whatever the case, this book read and felt like no other issue in the series. Trust me when I tell you that that’s not a good thing.
Carter comes face to face with “himself” and does battle with the trigger side of personality, tumbling through memories, real, forgotten, and out and out fake. Ms. Myers tangles with another Ethicorp agent. Vi…does not do much at all. I think she has a panel or so of action.
Problem one is that there is a complete and total emotional disconnect between myself and what happens to these characters. Myers gets herself in a pretty dire situation and my only reaction was to turn the page. Yes, she can be annoying, but I should have been at least a little concerned or, at the least, interested in what was going to happen to her next. No such luck on that.
Carter’s predicament is similarly disinteresting. Perhaps it is because the arc has yet to inject enough personality into his wife to make me the slightest bit invested in her that makes Carter’s trip down memory lane so…blah. Don’t get me wrong, it is great that he still cares for her and what a chance to “fix” things, but it is a little like a friend telling you how much he likes his pet goldfish. I mean, it is great that he does, but what do you care? Carter’s wife is like that goldfish.
Carter’s “other” does not make the situation any better as he is little more than a cackling sociopath. There is no ambiguity here. There is no way the Carter we’ve gotten to know is this character so there is no sense of drama. This isn’t about two sides of a man battling for control, this isn’t about the need for order versus the desire for control, it’s a body rejecting a transplant, fighting a virus. In a story like this, there is a great opportunity for “big” ideas and none is larger than who we are, truly. That idea is brushed aside for what amounts to an 18 page chase scene. How it all ends is similarly deflating. What’s the deal with Carter’s high school sweetheart? I don’t know. However, rather than be intrigued, I was confused by what she had to do with anything. Will she be important or is she just a plot McGuffin? Eh.
Watkiss does his thing, however, and that’s good to see.
It’s only one bad issue, so my interest in the book isn’t killed. I’ll still pick it up since there are three more after this anyway. But it’s bizarre for a book to go so spectacularly wrong in a single issue. It read like an entirely different book.
