Care and compassion are not concepts that Abel has previously associated with his action’s repercussions but Magdalena’s carnival is nothing if not unpredictable.
Keep reading for a review of Middlewest #5.
The blurb they used for the description was spot on this week: it must be all kinds of weird for Abel to talk to people who can let him know he screwed up without A) implying he’s not worth saving or B) beating the crap out of him. He hasn’t experienced that with his Dad for damn sure.
I felt like all the characters were all a lot more likable this issue: Abel’s impatient as hell to have someone help him with the mystical symbol on his chest, but he’s willing to work at the carnival to make up for having been a (failed) pickpocket. Hell, he volunteered to help, and wasn’t even that whiny about it.
His friend Fox outwardly has no sympathy for him (saying he taught him a new life skill and it wasn’t his fault Abel got caught) but Fox also sat outside in the rain all night to guard him when he was unconscious, so we know it’s all an act.
The rest of the carnies were more likable too. They’re a little smug about giving Abel the worst jobs at the fair, but he did steal from them, so that’s understandable.
The one person who isn’t likable is Abel’s Dad, and I’m starting to have a real problem with that. He has no redeeming values, zero. His whole point as a character is to be a jerk, and now we get to wait for the moment when he catches up with Abel and goes full psychopath. Part of me is hoping for a satisfyingly awful ending for him, but the rest of me hopes we can maybe get a teensy bit of a redeeming value out of him. Right now I just hate him every time he appears, and it makes me dislike reading the book. He’s that awful.
I’m still in it for the mysteries though; about how Abel and Fox became friends, and what exactly is going on with the symbol on Abel’s (and his Dad’s) chest. I’d also like to figure out more about the world they’re in. I’d been assuming Abel grew up in the real world Midwest, and got dragged by accident into the Oz-like world they’re in now, but this issue we see his Dad fixing an air-conditioner at one point and it had a decidedly not-this-world look to it, so maybe the whole world is Oz-like?
As for the art, I can’t get over the colors in these issues, they’re just gorgeous.