Winning big but losing elsewhere in life.
Creative Staff:
Story/Art: Dean Motter
What They Say:
Dean Motter takes us back to Radiant City with a new Mister X story: Pokerface!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With the Mister X property sometimes mostly being about side stories and the like, giving us tales of Radiant City and elsewhere with all of its strange and intriguing ideas and concepts. With the first part of the Pokerface storyline, Dean Motter delivered pretty well in exposing us to the character of Ollie through the tale told by Tess Lacoyle about his gambling problems and the like. The exploration of how he was getting past the problems of being able to play without giving away his hand was interesting and seeing the kind of rock and a hard place he had put himself in worked pretty well too, giving him the reasons he needed to be creative in trying to get out of it all.
With this installment, Viess is looking to deal with Ollie since he’s winning a lot and cleaning him out at times, making him a high risk that they don’t want. That makes for some fun as he sends Annie and her men to send a message, which is your usual blunt approach that makes for some very fun panels as Motter lays them out. What this really does, however, is drive a bigger wedge between Ollie and his pregnant wife. While he’s winning money and trying to do some things better for her, she’s just frustrated by all of it because it’s not about the money but rather the way he’s just so reckless with his life. Having Annie and her goons show up just reinforces that for her and it’s little surprise that she simply outright leaves for his mother’s place to get some comfort and stability and to give Ollie some space to think things through, much as she’s doing.
The back half of the chapter is exciting as we get the aerocasino Caligula’s Sabbatical coming into focus for the Big Deal event, which Tess is bringing Ollie to. It’s a great piece visually and just watching as the games start to unfold and some of the quirks of it, such as the robotic dealer in the middle works well to give it a very “Mister X” world kind of feeling. The game runs a good bit of the chapter overall, broken up with pieces of Ollie’s wife Betty’s water breaking and having the baby, but it all serves to ramp up the pressures that are about to hit as Ollie’s winning is just going to add another reckless piece into the wall. Tess is a lot of fun to watch with this as she’s by his side as the winnings stack up as you’re just waiting for the other shoe to drop big time.
In Summary:
Mister X: Pokerface moves right along here and provides for some good stuff with Ollie as he’s trying to do what he thinks is best and is just making things harder and worse the more it goes on. There’s a lot to like once again in seeing Motter bring this world to life with the artwork and colors of it all as we get some nicely creative blending of materials, such as the aerocasino. The story itself is one that still feels a little weak but I’ve had that before with Mister X stories in that they tend to work better as a whole for me than in smaller parts. The draw of a new work is too much and I must read it, however, and I’m definitely enjoying this odd little story and what it’s presenting. More Tess, please!
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: July 20th, 2016
MSRP: $4.99
