Undiscovered Country vol. 5: Bounty
Where the previous volume started off with most of the cast split up, they’ve reunited here in what looks to be a gigantic piece of farmland. That’s literally gigantic as the crops are incredibly huge, with their farmers scaled to that height as well. This is Zone Bounty, which is the breadbasket of America and the one responsible for feeding all of the other zones. Which would make its inhabitants the most selfless bunch we’ve encountered on this crazy trip so far. Right? While I leave you to consider exactly what kind of series we’ve been reading up to this point, it’s made abundantly clear at the end of this volume that we’re reaching the end of the journey and everyone is set to finally meet Aurora. Even if they’re not going to be doing it in a place any of them had expected.
While vol. 4 was a repetitive bore in spite of its crazy little details, vol. 5 is something of a step back in the right direction. Not because its core story is all that great – really, co-writers Charles Soule and Scott Snyder should be at least a little ashamed of how predictable it all is – but because it feels like things are being put in place for the finale. We get a lot of news about how things in the outside world are going, and they actually play into the series’ themes about how good American Exceptionalism actually is. The final issue here also gets points for breaking away from the main story to get the core cast into place for the final volume in ways that elevate my interest for it.
Which, honestly, can’t come soon enough. The first volume of this series was an entertaining surprise that subsequent volumes just haven’t been able to match. While the art from Giuseppe Camuncoli and Leo Grassi has been consistently great in how they realize all of the craziness the writers have thrown at them, the storytelling from its writers has been consistently obvious. To the point where it feels like setting America up as the big bad in the end feels like a feint to show that, “Hey, we’re really not that bad at all!” We’ll see about that later this year when the final volume arrives and I can finally get off this train.