3 out of 5

The end of Goon year.  The end of the big war for Lonely Street (I guess), and as anti-climactic as Chinatown.  But again, an even split between humor and gloom, and more respectably solid work from Powell / Stewart.

#28 brings the gags, and again, the sprinkling of emotion – Charlie Mudd personifying a tree stump as his dead brother, Bill – hits harder and more effectively than when entire books are dripping with the melodrama.  It’s the one-two punch of something that’s so silly and yet underlined with sadness, backed up by a scene where a prostitute horse gets punched.

Book is a ridiculous rematch with Mr. Wicker, going with the “there can only be one” rule of one person always punching harder than the other resulting in Goon winning the battle, this time, with no problem.  Wicker was dumb in the OGN because Goon had been established as such a rough-houser who could be burned and run over that some tuff punches puttin’ him out seemed off…  The balance is redressed here, but the flipside is that that undermines Wicker as an imposing badguy (and, y’know, Chinatown again).

#30 is a rarity in the run – a serious book that doesn’t flop.  Mostly I think this is because it’s so stuffed with tendrils of subplots that Powell doesn’t have room to wax on with his over-pulpy prose – Isabella returns, Mirna is crazy, mutato-Labrazio is pushed to the limit, and Buzzard, Cat and the Zombie Priest are on a trek through the woods to meet Mother Corpse… who’s protected by a Woky, a good ol’ monster from Eric, something we haven’t gotten to see for like 15 issues.

But have no fear, sappy fans, for our conclusion brings it on strong, with a really, really forced ’emotional’ death of Norton’s new wife’s… brother Demeter, and one of the Bastards shot for no good reason (and played up like it’s a death, but hey, he’s back with a sling next issue… Wee, dramatics!).  Like Wicker, ghoul Labrazio goes down without much of a fight, and the Woky from the previous issue, set up as a pretty clever roadblock, is similarly put down… with a one-liner.  Balls.  But, props to Powell, even though bringing Mirna and Isabella together was a bit rushed – pacing could smooth out most of the cheeseball fluff in the plotting – within a couple concluding pages, he gives us a final note of sadness that, perhaps, will come back at some point, but for now was a fittingly ya-can’t-win closer.

The Goon continues to read like a funnybook by a guy who wants to be taken seriously sometimes, which is exactly what it is.  But for every grim step forward, Powell wants to remind us he still likes poop jokes, and the two sides have a hard time reconciling.  As has been the case with the last few bundles of issues, as long as the balance is half-and-half, it remains entertaining.