A most frightening of sacrifices.
Creative Staff:
Story: Ryan K. Lindsay
Art: Owen Gieni
What They Say:
Guy enters the belly of the evil corporate beast, dead set on preventing Kindred Corp. from waging full-scale emotional warfare. Now, beset on all sides by enemies, Guy must employ his newfound depressive powers to curb the grim menace once and for all!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Negative Space has been an unnerving series from the start with its combination of art and writing as there’s something oppressive about it. We got the reasons why as it went on, but that initial issue really struck a chord for me and had me step back a bit to look at the world in a slightly different light. As it progressed, albeit with some frustrating gaps in release time, it’s produced an engaging and frightening story all while sticking to that depression based aspect while wrapping it all around our lead in Guy. With the finale, things come to a head and there’s definitely a lot of impact to be had. But unlike a lot of big end issues, the impact is far more personal than world changing in the big and expressive way. And it works very well because of that.
The larger events are very much present though as we see the Evorah out in the world causing all sorts of chaos with the number of people they’re killing in their feeding frenzy. This plays to Guy and the Kindred folks in the lower levels as the intent on stopping Kindred is being met with obvious resistance. The clarity that we get, true to a large degree, about how Kindred really does save the world by what they do is a familiar stance sa the man in charge of it all at this point makes it clear that he views it as a truly patriotic duty to mankind to keep everything alive and going. A small dip into the past about some fights they undertook and methods to solve the Evorah problem make it clear that attempts were made and that the result, where they are now, is what has saved mankind for so long. It’s a disturbing notion to be sure, but one that has that terrible ring of truth about it.
When the story moves away from the end arc exposition and onto Guy himself, it’s even more haunting as it’s made clear that the only way to stop the Evorah and their carnage is for Guy to do the one thing that he has a hard time believing; staying alive will be a good thing for the world. With the belief that his death will make the world a better place, this is a bitter pill to swallow, especially considering the consequences of what he will have to do to stay alive even for the incredible amount of good it will do. While Lindsay’s script conveys this oh so well, it’s Gieni’s artwork with Guy that just drives it home in such a powerful way, especially when combined with seeing the chaos in the streets with the Evorah. Taking in all of that, the one year later aspect with the happiness of the world without knowing the cost of it all, and seeing the starkness of those final pages with Guy, is just heartrending in so many ways. A powerful combination of art and script to be sure.
In Summary:
Negative Space is that kind of hard read that is so worth it because of what it can do to alter your view of your life and the world around you and to allow you to bring change into it. This final installment delivers everything it needs to and then some, making for a fantastic capping point. Lindsay and Gieni really did some great work here that may have taken a bit to get there with some of the gaps between issues but in the end it’s the produced work that will remain. This is a series to snap up in trade form in a big way, devour, and then get into serious discussions with friends about as there’s a lot to peel away and dig into with it. Very recommended.
Grade: A
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: April 13th, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
