I’m not sure this issue takes more than five minutes to read—there’s a lot of dialogue to pad it out—and, at this point in A Walk Through Hell, it’s fine. The shorter the read, the better.
It’s a flashback issue to FBI agent McGregor’s high school years and something terrible. But the something terrible isn’t the point; instead, it’s the follow-up to the something terrible, so another flashback to some years later. It’s an authentic look at futility and man’s inhumanity to man, but it’s also utterly pointless.
As Shaw watches this flashback unfold—it’s unclear how she’s experiencing the flashback, though McGregor is changing shape and age in front of her—she pleads with Patton Oswalt John Doe to make it stop. He keeps telling her he’s not in control of people being shitty to one another.
The flashback’s maybe unpredictable for people who haven’t ever watched a TV show, movie, or read a story about straight people being shitty to gay people. But it’s relatively standard—going back to the eighties at this point—and writer Garth Ennis doesn’t bring anything new to it. The flashback doesn’t inform McGregor at all, though Shaw defending him is… I don’t think it rises to interesting, but it’s something. Though it’s something Ennis uses to fill out another forty-five seconds of read time.
Goran Sudžuka’s art is smoother than usual, even with the thinner lines. He’s gotten a handle on it, even as the series has meandered in circles.
Of course, there is no resolution to last issue’s cliffhanger, but I’m guessing Ennis will do another big surprise reveal cliffhanger at the end of next issue, only to reveal it’s not really what’s up in the final issue.
I don’t think A Walk Through Hell was supposed to refer to reading the comic, but it comes close. While not a complete failure, it’s a waste of time and expense, just not incompetent.
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