If this series had end credits, “With a Little Help from My Friends” would play over them. Ennis should call the next series The Wonder Years.

And there should be a third series, because for all my cynicism, Ennis does the impossible and leaves this Wormwood with more potential than he did the first series.

To get the trick done, of course, Ennis does have to show his cards. Turns out he’s been playing them extremely close to the chest. The cliffhanger resolution and the big reveal in this issue are deftly done. They even open up recollections of the previous series because it works on the character development level (retroactively).

Even if Jimenez technically brings the series down, Ennis is still at the top of his game with Wormwood. He’s able to change the series’s tone, its pacing and still it succeeds.

Chronicles of Wormwood just warms the heart.