Undiscovered Country vol. 4: Disunity

At the end of vol. 3, the cast had been split up into three parts.  Vol. 4 starts off with Daniel and Alex “Destiny Man” Graves off to the side, getting to know the latter’s backstory.  It mainly consists of “My parents didn’t love me enough so betrayed them and got into genetic engineering in an effort to please the A.I. overlord who is my only remaining parental figure.”  Meanwhile, Charlotte and Valentina have found themselves right in the middle of Paul Revere’s ride announcing the arrival of the British and the start of the Revolutionary War.  While they’re doing that Ace, Janet, and Chang are in the middle of one of the biggest celebrations they’ve ever seen.  It should be big, because it’s all about America’s victory over all of the forces allied against it – Pax Americana.  Just what the hell is going on here?

One character remarks near the end of the volume that its main point, “seems like a rather convoluted way to convey something patently obvious.”  That sums up how I feel about this volume as a whole as co-writers Charles Soule and Scott Snyder appear to have assumed that the many crazy scenarios they’ve dreamed up for their characters to experience will be enough to entertain the reader regarding their point about what happens to whoever decides to invade America.  To their credit, they’ve given co-artists Giuseppe Camuncoli and Leonardo Marcello Grassi a lot of cool stuff to draw, from big stuff like celebrations about America’s victory (and defeat) across multiple timelines to little stuff like a robotic Abe Lincoln bugging out at the Gettysburg Address.

None of this spectacle makes up for the fact that much of this arc is spent on making the same point over and over again.  The co-writers also appear to have overestimated our investment in the core cast as they assume we’ll be bent out of shape after seeing lots of bad things happen to them.  Distinct as they may be, the cast has generally functioned as mouthpieces for the writers’ exposition and ideas rather than as characters in their own right.  Which is just one reason why I can’t be bothered to care about the budding relationship between Ace and Valentina even if events here make it clear that I’m supposed to.  This leaves me feeling rather ambivalent about the series as it looks to be moving into its final act.  Which will hopefully consist of just one volume rather than two.