The art is good here, it doesn’t even matter when it doesn’t make sense. Hughes comes up with these lovely pages for the investigation scenes–Gabe and Jennifer are touring New York state to question people–and the pages are simply wondrous. There’s this amazing condo in the middle of nowhere; Hughes’s page composition makes the mundane extraordinary.
As for the mystery, things get lost but it’s still decent. A prototype car disappears. Murder plays a factor eventually, since there’d be no danger otherwise. Barr and the artists handle all that aspect just fine. But Maze’s other plot–the romance–gets downgraded.
Gabe is something of a puppy dog here, following Jennifer around. Barr goes out of his way to make Gabe likable, but Jennifer’s just better than her colleagues. She’s not soluble enough.
Barr also reveals the issues take place a month apart, which is a nice device.
CREDITS
The Case of the Vanishing Vehicle; writer, Mike W. Barr; penciller, Adam Hughes; inker, Rick Magyar; colorist, Julia Lacquement; letterer, Deborah Marks; editor, Michael Eury; publisher, Comico.
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