3 out of 5

Once more, we find W. Maxwell Prince perhaps designing something conceptually before the story, doing a 2-issue decompression of a 5 second scene – a car crash, leaving a family of four and one truck driver dead. On the one hand, the story is given room to breathe during a rare 2-parter, meaning that Prince’s sharp character writing (often exercised in ICM, where we can explore our everyday horrors) gets time to warm up the concept; on the other hand, often very rooted to on-the-nose beats, Prince still swoops in and out narratively to hammer home some points that make the two issues feel excessive. This was also a rare instance where artist Martin Morazzo doesn’t seem as lock-step with the script as usual, as the micro-dissection of the crash misses some syncing between what’s described and what’s depicted.

I will say, the concept is sound, and fitting for the book: use the “life flashes before our eyes” bit before death to either sift through the humble victories and failures of the various victims, or go pure ICM cynicism and admit that not every has this momentous experience. Prince commits to his bit, even circling around to talk about the two children in the car; giving everyone their due is why it took two issues, but I grouse because these are themes I feel this series has circled around multiple times, and though maybe not hooked to the decompression frame, even told in a similar way – sifting through thoughts in a tragic moment.

Without context of the series, this is a well-effected book, and I do like the way the conclusion gives us an ironic glimmer of hope – that’s a nice tough we don’t often get. Overall, though, this long-running series is hard-pressed to find new ways to explore similar things, and I guess this just wasn’t new enough for me.