It’s a fairly decent fill-in issue on Letter 44. Drew Moss guest illustrates a flashback to before the mission issue. Soule recaps the relationship between Overholt and Willets; I don’t remember them on the mission. Soule expects a lot from his monthly readers. Letter 44 isn’t written for the trade in terms of plotting, but definitely in the details.

Moss’s art is nearly okay. It could be stronger in a lot of places, but it moves reasonably well. Willets, the enlisted mechanic savant, asks too many questions about Project Monolith and gets in trouble. Overholt is around to help him out. Neither have much character depth and Soule overdoes the military dialogue. He has to overdo it, actually. Otherwise the issue wouldn’t work.

Between Soule’s thoughtfulness and deliberate storytelling–and Moss’s amiable, if lacking, art–the issue’s fine. The plot and revealations aren’t compelling, but don’t need to be.