“This is what we’ve become. A people helplessly aware.”
Keep reading for a review of Scott Snyder and Francis Manapul’s Clear #3, the final issue in the series. (Maybe?)
Some spoilers below. I avoid the biggest plot points, but I do drop some pretty strong hints.
First up, the art is excellent. It’s hard to pick a favorite image because there were a lot of great ones to choose from: Sam slowly sinking into the ocean, the design of the Widow, Petal’s face at the halfway point, the circular design showing the overlapping realities, and several of the more heartbreaking panels near the end, they were all gorgeous.
My only issue was with a few pages featuring one character who got so unhinged he started to look…okay, “cartoonish” seems like a weird word to use in a comic book, but his face and body language felt stiffer than Manapul’s usual work. That might have been intentional though: dude was definitely off his rocker.
As for the story, I still feel like the joke that the imaginary version of Baxter tells isn’t really that clever, which is a shame because a lot of the narrative hinges on it so it’s brought up over and over. However, it gets used in the best possible way at a dramatic moment halfway through the issue, and I think the payoff there was worth it. Not so much at the very end of the issue (where it came across as a little wordy and kind of a stretch) but that halfway point was really well done.
This issue really solidifies the theme of the whole series: the difference between ignorance and denial. We like to say “ignorance is bliss” but ignorance isn’t intentional. They bring up how primitive man was ignorant and probably happier for it. I’d add that babies and young children are ignorant and that’s why we get nostalgic for that age, because things were simpler.
But if you try and choose ignorance, by refusing to learn things (or dressing up your world in a fantasy Veil like everyone does in this series) that’s just denial, it takes effort. Ignorance is innocence and you can’t really get back there.
By “going Clear,” Sam was rejecting denial, but he was still in the dark about a lot. This issue he learns about the programming behind the Wrks (the robot servants that show up on almost every page in the book), why Kendra jumped, and what the Veil she made was supposed to do.
That last bit was a little confusing. Sam already knew the Baxter Veil (an alternate reality where his son lived, but so all-encompassing you could live your whole life there) was too big for the servers, it’d never get through. The Widow confirms this, and says it’d also make the nationwide servers crash, and Kendra knew that too.
Sam: She was trying to make everyone revert to Clear? What the hell would be the point of that?
The Widow: There is none. Because that wasn’t what she was trying to do.
That’s confusing, right there. Because that’s exactly what Kendra was trying to do: shut down everyone’s chosen Veil and let them go “Clear.”
A better explanation from the Widow would be: that’s not the ONLY thing Kendra was trying to do.
I know it’s annoying to dance around the plot twist but I’d hate to spoil it, I was very impressed. To be as vague as possible: the Powers That Be (in Snyder’s world and ours) have always been perfectly happy to let everyone create their own little reality so they can ignore how much the world sucks. But any Evil Dystopian Government worth its salt has to find out exactly how much they can get away with.
I hadn’t known this would only be a three-issue series, but I think that explains why things came across a little wordy at times: they had a lot to accomplish in just three issues, and I think they did a great job of world building. The quibbles I had are all minor ones.
Even though the series has a solid ending, it’s that kind of “satisfyingly unsatisfying” ending where you’re left to wonder what would happen next. I’m good with leaving it there, but if Snyder and Manapul ever added another chapter I’d definitely read it.
