Millar opens the issue with an homage to Time’s Arrow… telling the story of a woman drowning in the swamp in reverse. He rewinds her final day (starting with the autopsy) until she meets up with Alec.
An indeterminate period of time has passed since the previous issue. Alec’s back in the swamp, sort of in a caretaker role, all by himself and enjoying the world. The town of Houma is almost deserted, everyone fleeing because of his rampage a few issues before. Alec’s half of the issue is spent talking to the mystery woman about her collection of short stories, which has apparently caught her in them.
It’s a somewhat literary issue, given the Time’s Arrow reference and it’s hard not to think slips in time (from Slaughterhouse-Five), for the woman’s problems.
The other half is a Houma cop experiencing his strange new world.
It’s an outstanding comic.
CREDITS
River Run, Prologue: Flotsam and Jetsam; writer, Mark Millar; penciller, Phil Hester; inker, Kim DeMulder; colorist, Tatjana Wood; letterer, Richard Starkings; editor, Stuart Moore; publisher, Vertigo.
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