3 out of 5

Jai Nitz’s first ‘Dream Thief’ series was a miraculously fun romp that managed to hit the sweet spot between momentum and mystery, with its lead, John Lincoln, coming into possession of a mask which helped to put him in connection with his ‘dream thief’ powers: go to sleep, get possessed by a pissed off ghost, commit some vengeance, wake up.  Nitz, with ample assistance from artist Greg Smallwood, quickly set up a world with a bumbling hero nipping at the noir pool for the crime sub-stories while simultaneously adding details to the background and logic of the powers and the mask.  Nitz has an abbreviated story-telling style, but it was in perfect balance for ‘Thief.’

This second mini – in what is hopefully a sequence of several more – pretty much just suffers from sequel-itis.  We’re obliged to followup on the cliffhanger from the first series, where Lincoln finds out that his father’s ghost has taken up residence in the body of another – suggesting the dream powers are genetic – but in ‘bigger and better (but sleeker)’ sequel town, Nitz is also obliged (or felt obliged) to give us some background, so ‘Escape’ uncomfortably keeps shifting between Lincoln’s father’s past and the present.  Of course the former and latter connect, leading to a jailbreak and a fight in the concluding issue, but the connections – both the direct ones and the general narrative split – are tenuous.  The past storyline could’ve efficiently served as both background and followup, and focusing on it exclusively would’ve given Nitz more space to turn senior Lincoln into a real character instead of footnotes.  The world ‘Dream Thief’ inhabits still feels real, and the ongoing revenge conceit keeps an undercurrent of menace hanging around, but ‘Escape’ isn’t near as strongly voiced as the first outing, feeling more like a bridge between stories than a proper mini.  The tepid flavor is supported, for better or worse, by a split in artists: Greg Smallwood flavors issues #1 and 2 with heavy, churning shadows in the present and Miami Vice slime in the past, but Tadd Galusha and Tamra Bonvillain (on colors) come in for issues #3 and 4 and the book begins to look rather generic (and blandly colored) as opposed to distinctive.

Hopefully Nitz and Smallwood will return all-in for the next series and give us something that’s focused on moving ahead instead of almost cautiously filling in gaps.