“I Know What They Did Last Summer”
Creative Staff:
Story: Rich Douek
Art: Carlos Olivares
Colors: Manuel Puppo
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
What They Say:
The mystery surrounding Almanzar Bay deepens as Casey and the gang learn more about the town’s history and its connection to Triton Oceanic. But the deeper they dig, the more danger-ous things become, as they learn just how far the cult will go to keep its secrets.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The opening issue of this was really interesting to me as Rich Douek is giving us a bit of a teen horror series where things aren’t all dark and grim, at least visually. Douek packed a lot into it and the second issue had a lot as well, but it was better paced. That lets this third issue breathe a bit more freely and it definitely works well as we’re in the groove now with it. Carlos Olivares is handling the artwork for this with Manuel Puppo doing the color design and it has a really good “fun” look about it with the characters and the bright colors. It’s leaning into that vibrant Cali lifestyle and all the rich blues and greens will definitely help it. It’s definitely a welcome change from the much darker-looking books that we’ve seen the last few years from lots of publishers in this genre.
This issue starts off with Casey checking in on Piper and we see she’s gone full conspiracy theory here, pulling at all the different things that goes back a hundred years that were documented in the area, including the naval base that hid stuff years ago before Triton bought out the entire place and turned it into a massive company town. Casey’s not too keen on how far gone Piper is but she does seem to be sifting through things to try and figure out what’s going on. At the same time, we get to see how Danica is doing her best to keep Rivera from revealing too much about what they saw of the swim team at the secret meeting and coming close to exposing herself to being there. Trent and the others are evasive yet cocky and that just sets her off all the more because she knows Trent is lying to her and that’s something that really eats at her.
What draws the group together is Brian calling everyone for a meeting and he reveals the truth about his brother that we saw from the opening of the series. It expands with the scope of the lies told about the death and how it was hidden and that has the group going to confront his father at Triton about it, though more in that they reveal what they’ve seen. It’s amusing because you know he’s deflecting and Rivera even lifts a container of the black goo material so the group can figure it out on their own. There’s a lot of material here in flashbacks about what’s happened and how it sets things in motion in the here and now but it’s done naturally enough that it feels like it’s useful and not just padding or poorly placed. It’s the kind of reveals that you should get at this stage that helps it all to move forward naturally, especially as this group gets more comfortable with each other.
In Summary:
I’ve been enjoying the heck out of this series from the start and each issue is adding to it well. The cast is one that I’m getting more comfortable with and getting a handle on their personalities with how they react to various things. The background we get here from Piper’s research and what Brian reveals about the summer with his brother goes a long way toward connecting the dots. The real journey continues to be the characters themselves bonding as a group and I’m really enjoying the way Danica and Rivera are with each other. I’m excited to see what’s next and what level of twisty darkness there is ahead for it.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: AfterShock Comics
Release Date: June 15th, 2022
MSRP: $3.99
