The Nice House by the Sea vol. 1

Vol. 1 of “The Nice House on the Lake” was great and had one of the best surprises I’ve read in recent history.  Vol. 2 mostly biffed the follow-up by engaging in a soft reset of the events of vol. 1, a dumb subplot about the consequences of playing with firearms, and a failure to offer a satisfying resolution to this stage of the story.  Now we’re back with the next cycle in writer James Tynion IV and Alvaro Martinez Bueno’s story and it feels like the creativity which powered that first volume was a fluke and the series isn’t going to get it back.

I’m still not inclined to spoil the big twist of the series’ premise, however.  I’ll be saving any discussion of that for a potential podcast if “The Nice House” wraps up after its next volume – which it looks like it might be doing after this one.  The big development in vol. 3 is the revelation that there are multiple houses now.  In addition to the one housing the cast we know from the previous volumes, the other one is filled with a selection of the best and brightest in their fields.

With no one giving any explanation as to why there are two houses in this situation, it falls on the inhabitants of both to reason out why that’s the case.  The reason:  Not because of redundancy for a plan, but survival of the fittest.  There can only be one survivor in this situation and each group wants to be sure theirs is the one.  At least, unless there’s some behind-the-scenes dealmaking going on to make sure the fix is in.

While the introduction of a rival faction should have theoretically made for more tense storytelling with a clear escalation of the stakes, it actually has the opposite effect here.  Tynion clearly wants the reader to see that Walter’s selection of the inhabitants of his reflect a humane and sympathetic approach to the matter.  Meanwhile, Max’s adherence to getting the best in each field in adherence to the letter of her task is meant to be looked down upon.  The writer also seeks to stack things in his favor by making most of the people in Max’s house of dubious morality, if not outright evil.  Just in case you weren’t sure who to root for here.

The problem with this is that when we learn why these houses were established in the first place, Max’s approach doesn’t come off as inherently wrong.  In fact, it feels downright responsible in light of what’s happened to everyone else in the world.  Walter, on the other hand, is acting entirely out of self-interest here and while his actions may have been well-intentioned, they’re not in the best interests of humanity.  While it may have made for an interesting story to see these approaches pitted against each other on equal terms, it’s stymied by how Tynion slants things in favor of trying to get you to favor the morally correct group in this scenario.  As opposed to making them interesting enough to get the reader to do that on their own.

It’s all still well-illustrated by Bueno, however.  As with the first two volumes, he’s a whiz at setting the scene, and delivering characters who convey emotion well through their body language.  This is in addition to the more surreal touches demanded by the plot as they reveal themselves.  Bueno delivers again here, giving us an equally distinct setting and cast for the new house.  It’s the bits of body horror that crop up later in this volume that will really stick with you due to their gnarliness.  Too bad that their main purpose here is to let you know who the bad guys are in this scenario.

There is no indication when the second half of “The Nice House by the Sea” is going to be published.  If I had to guess, it might happen as part of DC’s plan to formally relaunch their mature-readers Vertigo imprint either later this year or next.  This volume already sports the Vertigo branding on its side and it would be wrong to say that it didn’t deserve to be part of that storied imprint.  Of course, it bears remembering that in addition to the likes of “The Sandman,” “Preacher,” “Transmetropolitan,” “Y:  The Last Man,” “Fables” and more the imprint also put out a lot of mediocrity and outright junk as well.  Which this series clearly has more in common with at this point in its run.