Retcon finishes with a not terrible final issue. Toby Cypress’s art is good. Nixon gets in a lot of content–too much for Cypress to keep up with at times–and it’s fine content.

The story itself is weak.

While the one guy is hovering over the Pentagon preparing to attack an intergalactic monster who has taken over the building, the mean cop is deciding whether he wants to be sacrificed to save the world. He’s got the witch and her sidekick, who probably should’ve had more to do in the book because they’re less obnoxious than the lead.

It’d have been nice if Retcon could’ve finished better. Nixon’s rushed, like he’s collapsing a longer story to four issues, but there are some decent moments and there’s awesome art. All together the series doesn’t amount to much. Except awesome art.

Retcon turns it around a little this issue. There’s a lot less about government conspiracy and a lot more supernatural. Also the title makes sense now. One of the characters is trying to save the world and putting a team together and every time she fails she resets time and tries again.

If you’ve seen the movie, Edge of Tomorrow, it’s pretty much exactly like that movie. Retcon doesn’t get originality points. Except in allowing Cypress to get so crazy with the art at times.

Though the art is held back a bit. Cypress doesn’t go crazy with anything. There’s one reveal with the bad guys in particular where Cypress could easily have filled a page with it but instead just gets a little panel.

And the dialogue’s not great. In fact, Nixon’s exposition is a little worse. The supernatural stuff gives Retcon a boost, but it’s still trope-y and tired.

Still. It’s more compelling than it was last issue.

Cypress’s art almost makes Retcon worth it. Almost. I’m not entirely sure if I’m done or not, but if I come back, it’s going to be for Cypress. Without him, it’s just this jumbled narrative with the guy from the last issue in trouble with NYPD–they’re going to kill him (they think he’s a terrorist) for 9/11 payback. Except they can’t kill him at the station so they dress him up like an infectious hazard and take him somewhere else?

I think it’s supposed to be dramatic, but since Nixon does so little work on the characters, it’s hard to get invested. The dialogue’s all functional, the characters are all thin; is the protagonist really in danger or is it just Nixon spinning wheels.

It’s spinning wheels. All of it. All of this issue is setup for the next issue (and maybe issues beyond that one). It’s not a bridging issue, it’s an epilogue to the previous issue. One without anything happening.

Retcon is about these secret paranormal military guys going out and killing secret paranormal ex-military guys. There’s a lot more back story on it and a fair amount of details–nothing really on the characters, just events and magical stuff–but the main story is pretty fast.

Two agents are tracking a former agent in an AA meeting, they get orders to “disavow” the former agent (in front of the AA members), one of them balks. Then it turns out the former agent has a magic werebear thing going on and the balking current agent has a different magic thing going on.

Toby Cypress’s art is wild, but constrained and thoughtful. Matt Nixon’s script is fine. The comic drags in parts, speeds in parts (especially in the cliffhanger setup), but it’s fine. It’s engaging, even if the characters don’t get any sympathy besides being possible victims.