by Punchy » Sat Aug 04, 2012 10:30 am
The school may be closed, but there’s still a lot more story to tell. This issue feels like a culmination of everything that Gage has been doing since #1, and it may be the best storyline yet. Our cast of characters are left depressed and directionless by the events of the previous issue, but are soon brought back together by the return of Jeremy Briggs, aka The Alchemist, the fascinating anti-villain that once to shift super-beings beyond the idea of ‘heroes and villains’, and considering the world is currently being torn apart by two groups of supposed heroes, he’s picked a great time to make his move. I find Jeremy to be a really interesting character, his motivations are unique, and he walks a fine line between being a monstrous villain and being good, which I suppose is the point behind his plan, he doesn’t fit into categorisation. Sure, his plan at the end of this issue does tip him a bit towards bad, but he also cured Hazmat and Mettle, which is good. Hmm, it’s very interesting, I can’t wait to see what happens next in this arc, Gage is really shaking things up, and it’s great to see a writer willing to smash his status quo so readily.