A look at the other side.
Creative Staff:
Story: James Tynion IV
Art: Michael Avon Oeming
Letterer: Aditya Bidikar
What They Say:
Madness and paranoia continue to take a toll on the sanity of Betty and Barney Hill as they search for help in determining whether their nightmares may have been missing memories of their alien encounter.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Growing up in the 80s with a couple of decades of UFO abduction stories and sightings in the media made for a lot of fun. That was used in a lot of books, shows, and films as a way to launch a story. It wasn’t something I gravitated toward in a huge way, preferring big space opera material more, but as I get older I enjoy the quaintness of such things and the way creatives are looking at new ways of using these tales that feel simpler but no less engaging. James Tynion IV set up a solid tale with the opening issues in giving us time, place, and characters that you can connect with easily while Michael Avon Oeming, a real favorite of mine from the last few years, puts it together beautifully with the color scheme chosen and the kind of designs overall. It’s distinct right out of the gate and draws you in.
The first three installments have done a good job of presenting something that’s familiar with abduction stories and digging into how both Betty and Barney try to process the experience and manage what they’re going through. This one is focused almost exclusively on Betty and that works out very well in order to understand more of what really happened. Her time with the hypnotist/therapist is eye-opening since she went in without telling him too much and we see exactly what the experience was like for her. It’s definitely well done as we see how she’s in the car and the alien just speaks to her as they take her husband. He’s far more comatose and limp for all of this whereas she’s aware and engaging with the alien, once she gets over that initial fear and panic.
What we get certainly makes for some familiar material as it talks about doing various exams on them, though it generally seems to avoid that whole probing thing. Where the story gets interesting in its own way is when Betty wants proof of some kind in case she remembers and the alien talks about why that wouldn’t be good, but does offer her a book to take. We also see some of their bigger view of things, such it showing her their trade and exploration routes, but she has no idea how to process that in context. But it takes a more interesting turn on their ignorance when they find out Barney has dentures and question her, leading to them trying to understand the concept of aging, eating, food, vegetables, and the color yellow. There’s talk of coming back for her again at some point, but the differences in their understanding of culture and life are just so different that it’s fascinating to watch them try and have discussions. Some of it is smooth but other areas are just off the rails.
In Summary:
Blue Book is doing something that’s not easy in that it’s trying to do something new along the way with something that’s familiar. A lot of what makes this work are Betty and Barney and how they’re approaching all of this and the fantastic artwork that we get from it. With this issue, we get to peek behind the curtain as to what happened on the ship in a big way, if it actually happened and is a real event in-book, and it’s fascinating to watch because you have to make so many leaps for it to have happened that way. There are a lot of things to like in this issue and I’m excited to see how Betty processes re-learning what she went through and how it impacts events going forward for not just her but Barney and everyone else.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: May 24th, 2023
MSRP: $4.99
