The mystery deepens.
Creative Staff:
Story: Adam Smith
Art: Vv Glass
Colors: Hilary Jenkins
Letterer: Jim Campbell
What They Say:
Determined to find Arlo, Ludo takes things into his own hands and starts to look outside of the base, only to discover her trail picks up in the most unexpected of places. The further Ludo gets into his investigation, the more he questions how well everyone on base, in town, and even he himself really knew her.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
I liked the opening installment of this three-part series as it established a pretty solid teenage relationship with the drama dialed up appropriately and everything feeling authentic. I’m sure those that grew up as base kids can find plenty of issues but the big picture concepts presented worked well and you could get behind the cast as events unfolded. Adam Glass made their relationship feel real and he expands on that here while Vv Glass gives it a great style for someplace that feels wide open and empty for a lot of it but also claustrophobic where it needs to be. Glass’ artwork is pretty standard fare when you get outside of superhero books to a good degree and it worked really well once again here, especially in giving Ludo some strong expressiveness to ramp up the emotional side.
Ludo’s frustration with what they’re finding out since coming to where Arlo lives is certainly earned. Even his mother is agreeing with him, to a degree, but she’s also trying to tamp things down just a touch so that he’s not overreacting to events and remaining civil. So much of what’s going on feels out of place with how the cops are handling, the lack of anything being found after three weeks, and just the general kind of laid back atmosphere overall, her parents excepting. Ludos’ breaking point is when he finds out that questioning some of the people that worked with Arlo in the restaurant were questioned by the local cops as he can’t believe that they wouldn’t be following through on such an important part. That gets him to go investigate himself, which means he reveals who he is pretty easily in a comical kind of way but it also puts him on what believes is a lead.
The uncertainty and way anything can be interpreted openly is what gets to Ludo as he eavesdrops on one of Arlo’s coworkers but it’s the casual whatever aspect of the guy and his friend that sets him off, leading him to both a fight and some time in jail for fighting. But this is a critical moment because it’s when Arlo’s body is supposedly fun and we see just how little he believes anything going on at this point. You do have to give him points because it is an honest reaction in that the day after he gets in town that she would be found under his persistent questioning. Or at least a body like hers, a car like hers. But as we see from the flashbacks, there are things that Ludo and Arlo set in motion together before they went their separate ways and that it’s not matching up in his mind. The question becomes, especially with the final page, is it a delusion or reality?
In Summary:
At the End of Your Tether is moving along well for me in showing how Ludo is dealing with loss and the amount of uncertainty and lack of knowledge about it is playing out. Everything feels like it’s conspiring against him getting the truth and nothing is making sense in his mind, though at least his mother is partially on his side. But the lashing out is growing, the uncertainty is ramping up, and that final page throws out a lot of questions as we eagerly await the final issue. There’s a lot to like here and I’m really curious to see just how far out and strange the finale might go or if there’s a deeper twist in the works ahead.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Lion Forge
Release Date: July 24th, 2019
MSRP: $3.99
