To steal: perchance to dream.
Creative Staff:
Story: Jai Nitz
Art: Greg Smallwood
Color: Tamra Bonvillain
What They Say:
Ever since he crawled from the Florida swamp, John Lincoln has had one target: the rogue Dream Thief Patricio Brown-Eagle. John’s mission to avenge his girlfriend and free the restless spirit of his murdered father leads to a climactic showdown that will either resolve his past . . . or end his future!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
John Lincoln is finally reunited with his father; nevermind the fact that his father’s spirit is inhabiting the body of the Dream Thief Ray Ray, and nevermind that his father is on the trail of the man who killed him—the psychotic Dream Thief Patricio Brown-Eagle. John’s learned to roll with the weirdness that’s become his life and is just happy to reconnect with his father and learn something about what it means to be a Dream Thief. Unfortunately, whether they win or lose, John will end up losing his dad again. Either Brown-Eagle kills them, or they succeed in killing Brown-Eagle and the vengeful spirit will move on.
Dream Thief has been one of those series that has been consistently, supernaturally good. It mixes crime, superhero, and occult into a feverish, dreamlike story of ghosts, revenge, and self-discovery. So far each limited series peels back more layers, revealing a rich and engaging history into which John becomes more and more immersed.
In an odd way, becoming a Dream Thief may have been the best thing to happen to John. Before the aboriginal mask entered his life, he was a waste of space—an oxygen thief as my friends would call him. He drifted through life with no goals or ambitions and used others around him to get by. It took multiple possessions by vengeful ghosts to force him to get his life onto some sort of track and it’s been a joy watching him develop from a shiftless layabout to a confident, mature man. The interesting aspect to all of it, though, is that he’s not necessarily a good man. He certainly doesn’t seek out to actively mete justice on wrongdoers, and almost every ”good” act he’s undertaken deals with a person or a situation related to him. This is not to say that he’s evil or even amoral—just that he’s a complicated, fully realized character finally learning just who he is.
A perfect example of this in this issue is the discussion he has with his father over their role as Dream Thief. His father sees it as a matter of honor, living by a macho/chivalric code. John, on the other hand, sees it as being a dispenser for justice, and goes about delivering it as efficiently as possible, displaying a very “ends justify the means” mentality. For the moment it seems to work well for him, but he may very well cross a line at some point, and the fact that he holds that potential illustrates his somewhat morally gray character.
Moving on to the art, Greg Smallwood and Tamra Bonvillain continue to do a fantastic job on this series. Smallwood’s style leans more towards the realistic than the cartoony and it fits with the grounded, crime-genre inspired tone of the story, and Bonvillain does an excellent job of using shadows and colors to establish the mood. The fight between John’s father and Brown-Eagle in particular is excellent in terms of color usage. The two men are almost completely in shadow as they stand on the top of Stone Mountain. The sun has already set beyond the horizon, leaving only deep purples, oranges, and reds to fill the sky, while in the distance the lights from the city can be seen. It’s a beautiful scene that helps establish that this is the end for John’s father.
Smallwood also excels at body language, facial expressions, and framing. The reaction scene where Jenny (not realizing that Ray Ray is possessed by the spirit of her father) describes her memories of her father is priceless. Ray Ray looms almost center in the foreground, his eyes wide, his mouth slightly open; John stands on the right edge of the panel in profile, his eyes wide and his eyebrow arched; and his friend Tyson stands in the very back, looking like he got punched in the gut. It’s a single panel, but it completely sells the shock and awkwardness of the situation and it’s little moments like that—along with the larger ones like action scenes—that make the story so engaging. This is just an all-around impressive work by people who know what they are doing.
In Summary:
Dream Thief: Escape 4 ends this second chapter in the life of John Lincoln, and while I’m sad to see him go, I know that he will be back. Dream Thief is one of the few consistently good series out there with excellent writing and art and a strong, compelling, mysterious premise that catches the imagination. If you’re like me, you’ll be back when the next limited series launches. Highly recommended.
Grade: A+
Age Rating: N/A
Released By: Dark Horse
Release Date: October 1, 2014
MSRP: $3.99
