Letter 44 vol. 3: Dark Matter

Charles Soule and Alberto Albuquerque’s sci-fi crazy train rambles on a bit more unsteadily than it did in the previous two volumes.  That’s because of the two stories being told here, one of them is handled in a more entertainingly dumb fashion than the other.  This would be the story that takes place on Earth, in the middle of WORLD WAR III!  The conflict set up between President Blades and the U.S. along with Ex-president Carroll and his A.F.E. coalition has come to pass and the two sides are busy duking it out for the fate of the world, unaware that there’s a bigger threat on its way to them.  What keeps this entertaining is how Soule manages the constant shifting of the momentum between Blades and Carroll.  Both men are capable of consistently surprising the other, with some new twist showing up to tip the balance back in the other man’s favor just when you think that they’ve won.  The surprises do get ridiculous after a while, and the war is depicted in just enough strokes to make it appear credible and nothing more.  Toss in bits like the First Lady’s “Lady MacBeth” moments and the reveal of Carroll’s master plan and I hope it’s clear why I think the story being told here is kind of dumb.  It is, however, great fun to see unfold.

Then you have the exploits of the crew of the Clarke spacecraft and I want to start throwing “dumb” around again — this time in a pejorative sense.  Having been taken in by aliens whose tech is demonstrably superior, you’d think that the crew would do anything to antagonize their hosts lest they be vaporized in the blink of an eye.  Kidnapping and dissecting one of the smaller beings in the hope of using its tech to send a message to Earth is not a good idea regardless of the situation.  Even if you do get the message out, I doubt that the aliens are going to look too kindly on the human race as a whole after your actions.  Then you’ve got the ridiculous soap opera dramatics between some of the characters here that just makes me think, “And THESE were the best people for this job?” all over again.  I would’ve preferred to see more of the aliens, or the sci-fi shenanigans involving Gomez’s transformation and Hayden’s kid than most of the interpersonal drama we got here.

Albuquerque’s art continues to fit the story well.  He’s great with the scenes of global conflict on Earth and the sci-fi look of the alien tech.  The man also manages a moment with Gomez that gets my vote for “Best Death Scene That Cable Hasn’t Had Yet,” and feel free to make of that what you will.  Some might have issue with his characters and how he gives them an exaggerated look — especially when they get almost bug-eyed with surprise — that can take you right out of the story.  I give him a pass on that aspect because, like most of this series, it’s the right kind of crazy in my book.  At this point, “Letter 44” still isn’t what you would objectively call “good,” but it is entertaining.