The last day of school before summer vacation. Do you remember how great that was? No real work, just shooting the shit, hanging out, waiting out the clock... In elementary school, it was the best, because when it was done, it was done. In high school, there were still exams. In university, even worse exams. In grad school, there was summer? In this issue, we get that most wonderful academic day of the year at the Seminary and it's... a lot of nothing but also tedious nothing, in a way.The first half of the issue is cut-up of three scenes: a lecture from Mr. Bigg, the principal, and Miss Klanbaid to the students about being responsible over the summer; Punchy talking to Sykes about last issue (talking at Sykes?); and Duke being told that the National Park Service wants him to work for them over the summer. The lecture is pretty standard stuff in that it is obvious ahead of time what will be said and is boring as hell. Let's hand it to Joe Casey, he really does excel here at capturing the high school feel well. The "discussion" between Punchy and Sykes is odd as Punchy seems like he's trying to connect with Sykes after last issue, that his experience in Sykes's head really affected him, but there's nothing on the other end. Sykes doesn't communicate back, so is anything really shared?
The NPS agent who recruits Duke is Agent Stahl, a callback to Automatic Kafka (which I haven't discussed... what, I've got to do these in the "proper" order?) and the signal to those in the know that, hey, Duke is gonna be working for a big-time douchebag who wears braces and masturbates to Maria on Sesame Street. Oh yeah. The work by Casey and Giusepe Camuncoli is particularly good here as it follows up on last issue's confessions by Duke by having him very non-reactive to this news. He's not happy that he gets to be a government superhero--we know that he's afraid of what he may do and what it may do to him. At the same time (in the comic), Destra tries recruiting Duke to team up with her over the summer and find out what's rotten in the Seminary. However, Duke ignores her to go sulk in the bathroom over his fate.
There's also a "trendspotter" following Empty Vee around to see what's cool with the young teenage superhero kids. Of course, the trendspotter is ancient at the age of 25. The inclusion of this in the "last day before summer vacation" issue is odd, because why would a trendspotter show up then? It does spur a debate over the ethics of having someone like that at the school in the teacher's lounge, but Miss Klanbaid has the final word: "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THESE MATTERS ARE, AT BEST, IRRELEVANT. AT WORSE... ANNOYING. / PROFESSOR BENTLEY IS CORRECT. OUR STUDENTS ARE MORE THAN CAPABLE OF MANEUVERING THROUGH THESE CULTURAL MIND TRAPS..." If anything, the trendspotter's role seems to be that of Casey's... a person who finds him/herself no longer in the target demographic, no longer the setter of what is and is not cool... an attempt to come to grips with aging in a youth-oriented popular culture? (Not that I necessarily buy that concept, but...)
Ultimately, as always, nothing really happens, but it's surprisingly satisfying. Casey continues to cram in information and uses the cut-up technique more. Short scenes, constant cuts... The book is aimed at the information hungry and those without the necessary attention span to focus on one thing. I think this issue may be the best one for finding that right mix of contradictions.
It also ends with Destra setting up the final five issues of the series: "NO MATTER WHAT THEY SAY, THEY WANT US TO MAKE WITH THE WHOLE SUPERHERO THING... / ...MAYBE IT'S TIME WE GIVE IT TO 'EM."
Some infoscroll items:
* "INTIMATES WRITING TIP: THESE INFO SCROLLS COULD DRIVE A MAN TO HEAVY DRUG USE (A.K.A. 'SELF-MEDICATION')..."
* "RECENT FOCUS GROUPS HAVE CONFIRMED THAT INFO SCROLLS HAVE AN UNDERLYING PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECT ON THE READER, DEPENDING ON AGE, CULTURAL DEMOGRAPHIC AND EYESIGHT PRESCRIPTION..."
Next issue: summer break month one.
